Biden meets Netanyahu, says Israel-Hamas cease-fire close despite apparent new Israeli demands

Washington — The Biden administration ratcheted up pressure on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to accept an elusive cease-fire deal with Hamas during meetings in Washington Thursday. But despite that pressure, Israel appears to have issued new demands in the negotiations for an agreement to secure the release of dozens of hostages still held in Gaza in exchange for a halt in the war, which officials in the Hamas-run territory say has killed almost 40,000 people.

“We feel that we’ve got to get this hostage deal in place so we can get a cease-fire also in place,” White House national security communications adviser John Kirby said during a press briefing as President Biden met with Netanyahu. Kirby said Mr. Biden would reaffirm to Netanyahu “that he believes we need to get there, and we need to get there soon.”

He acknowledged that there were issues that still need to be resolved that would require compromise from both Israel and Hamas, but added: “We are close, we just have to finish it.”  

In a statement issued after the meeting, the White House said Mr. Biden had expressed to Netanyahu “the need to close the remaining gaps, finalize the deal as soon as possible, bring the hostages home, and reach a durable end to the war in Gaza.”

But any chance of ending the Gaza war quickly may have been dealt a blow just hours before the Israeli leader sat down with Mr. Biden. 

Israel’s changing demands for a cease-fire

Despite months of pressure from Washington on both Israel and Hamas to reach a deal, a diplomat familiar with the ongoing talks told CBS News just hours before Netanyahu met with Mr. Biden that the Israeli leader had put forward new demands that could make an accord harder to reach.

Following the last round of meetings earlier this month in Doha, Qatar, that involved the head of Israel’s top intelligence agency, CIA Director William Burns and Qatar’s prime minister, the diplomat said Israel had issued new terms, including a refusal to withdraw forces from the Philadelphi Corridor along Gaza’s southern border with Egypt. 

Netanyahu made it clear months ago that he believed Israel’s military would have to gain control of that border, which Egypt has managed for many years under an agreement with Tel Aviv. Israeli troops seized control of the corridor in May, but Egyptian officials told the Reuters news agency on Thursday that Israel maintaining that unilateral control going forward was outside the terms of the cease-fire proposal that has been under consideration.

Israeli officials have argued that smuggling across the border and through the Philadelphi Corridor has provided Gaza’s Hamas rulers with weapons and other supplies, which Egypt vehemently denies.

Israel has also said it will not allow unrestricted access for Palestinian civilians seeking to return to the northern part of Gaza — a key demand by Hamas — insisting that Israeli forces be permitted to setup checkpoints along the routes to screen the tens of thousands of displaced Palestinians desperate to get back home, the source said. 

The Israelis are also now looking to negotiate the exact positioning of their forces around Gaza prior to agreeing to cease-fire and hostage release deal, rather than after the initial exchange of hostages as provisioned in the current draft, the diplomat told CBS News on Wednesday.

The first phase of the draft deal includes a six-week cease-fire and the release of the most vulnerable hostages, according to Kirby. Vice President Kamala Harris said later that it also includes the Israeli military withdrawing from population centers in Gaza. During the second phase, she said, the Israeli military would completely withdraw from Gaza.

Israel has not responded directly to officials telling CBS News that Netanyahu issued the new demands, which have also been reported by the Reuters news agency, but Reuters cited Palestinian and Egyptian officials as saying Hamas had rejected the added terms.

Speaking to CBS News a day before Netanyahu’s meetings in Washington, an Israeli government official said the purpose of the prime minister’s visit was to promote the outline of the agreement for the release of the abductees, adding that the Israeli delegation would return to the talks in the coming days and that the negotiation team was “constantly continuing the talks with the mediators.”

Harris meets Netanyahu, says she “will not be silent”

Netanyahu’s meetings came a day after he urged Congress in an address to both the House and Senate to continue to stand with Israel in the war against Hamas.

Thursday’s sit down with Netanyahu was Mr. Biden’s first with a foreign leader since he exited the race for the presidency on Sunday and threw his support be Harris for the Democratic nomination. 

Harris met separately with Netanyahu later Thursday. She described the meeting as “frank and constructive” and said she had told the Israeli prime minister, “it is time to get this deal done.”   

Harris said she also expressed to Netanyahu her “serious concern about the scale of human suffering in Gaza.”

“What has happened in Gaza over the past nine months is devastating,” she said. “The images of dead children and desperate, hungry people fleeing for safety, sometimes displaced for the second, third or fourth time. We cannot look away in the face of these tragedies. We cannot allow ourselves to become numb to the suffering, and I will not be silent.” 

The vice president did not attend Netanyahu’s speech, citing previously scheduled travel. She was in Texas Thursday morning, addressing the American Federation of Teachers. A number of Democrats in Congress declined to attend Netanyahu’s congressional address, a gesture of disapproval toward Netanyahu’s handling of the Israel-Hamas war. 

As Netanyahu spoke, pro-Palestinian protesters swarmed Union Station near the Capitol. Protesters removed the American flags that fly over Union Station, replacing them with Palestinian flags. 

In his address to Congress, Netanyahu attacked pro-Palestinian protesters in the U.S., calling them “Iran’s useful idiots.” 

“Some of these protesters hold up signs proclaiming, ‘Gays for Gaza,'” Netanyahu said. “They might as well hold up signs saying, ‘Chickens for KFC.’ These protesters chant, ‘From the river to the sea,’ but many don’t have a clue what river and what sea they’re talking about.” 

Responding to the “useful idiots” remark, Kirby said it’s “not a phrase we would use.”

Netanyahu also said the U.S. had told Israel that “Iran is funding and promoting anti-Israel protests in America.” Earlier this month, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence said Iranian government officials posed as activists online to encourage protests and provide financial support to protesters. The agency added that American protesters were expressing their views on the war “in good faith” and the “intelligence does not indicate otherwise.” 

“To paint everybody with that brush is unfortunate and not an accurate reflection,” Kirby said. “Most of the protest activity here in the United States is peaceful. The vast majority of it is organic. It comes from people who have real concerns.”

Fact-checking Netanyahu’s remarks

Netanyahu also included several misleading characterizations of the Israeli military’s conduct during the war in Gaza. He criticized accusations brought forth by the International Criminal Court, claiming, “If there are Palestinians in Gaza who aren’t getting enough food, it’s not because Israel is blocking it, it’s because Hamas is stealing it.”

There are few documented accounts of Hamas commandeering aid deliveries for its own use — one temporary diversion on May 1 was acknowledged by the State Department. But numerous Western governments, non-governmental organizations and aid groups have cited Israel for preventing sufficient humanitarian aid from getting into Gaza. 

A report commissioned by the White House that scrutinized whether Israel, among other countries, was abiding by international humanitarian law, found that “during the period since October 7, and particularly in the initial months, Israel did not fully cooperate with [U.S. government] efforts and [U.S. government]-supported international efforts to maximize humanitarian assistance flow to and distribution within Gaza.”

The report later added that the overall level of aid reaching Palestinian civilians remained “insufficient, but noted that Israel was not “prohibiting or otherwise restricting” the delivery of aid. 

Netanyahu is facing growing backlash at home over his handling of the war with Hamas. The families of hostages held in Gaza have been calling on Netanyahu to make a deal to bring back their loved ones. There have been daily protests in Jerusalem, and a group of top former Israeli security and political officials also sent a blistering letter to U.S. congressional leaders this week, accusing Netanyahu of prioritizing his own political survival over that of the hostages, Israel’s security, as well as the region.

Mr. Biden and Netanyahu were also expected to discuss the conflict between Lebanon and Israel, the need for stability in the West Bank and countering Iran and its proxy groups, Kirby said. 

The two leaders met with the families of Americans held hostage by Hamas in Gaza. Administration officials regularly meet with this particular group of families, a senior administration official told reporters. 

It was the first time Mr. Biden and Netanyahu saw each other in person since the president visited Israel in October in the wake of Hamas’ attack on Israel.