U.S. President Joe Biden said Tuesday the question of whether there will be a new six-week cease-fire in Gaza is “in the hands of Hamas right now," but at the same time said Israel had “no excuses” but to allow more humanitarian aid into the war-torn territory to assist famished Palestinians.
“We need the cease-fire,” Biden told reporters as he left the Camp David presidential retreat outside Washington.
He warned of increasing peril if Israel and Hamas fail to reach a Gaza cease-fire by next week’s start of the fasting Muslim holy month of Ramadan.
"If we get into circumstances where this continues to Ramadan, Israel and Jerusalem could be very, very dangerous," Biden said.
Biden’s comments came as Secretary of State Antony Blinken urged Israel to maximize "every possible means" to get more humanitarian assistance into Gaza, saying the current situation for tens of thousands of displaced Palestinians was unacceptable and unsustainable.
"Israel has to maximize every possible means, every possible method of getting assistance to people who need it," Blinken said before meeting with Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani at the State Department.
Blinken reiterated the Biden administration's call for Israel to open new border crossings to allow more humanitarian aid to go into Gaza, something Israel has been resisting.
"It requires more crossings. That requires more aid getting in. And once that aid is in, it requires making sure it can get to the people who need it. So, we will continue to press that every single day because the situation as it stands, is simply unacceptable," Blinken said.
Famine looming
Famine is now looming over the besieged Gaza Strip along the Mediterranean Sea coastline as aid supplies, already sharply curtailed since the start of the war last October, have dwindled even more over the past month.
Cease-fire talks are continuing in Cairo but with no clear breakthrough.
"We have an opportunity for an immediate cease-fire that can bring hostages home, that can dramatically increase the amount of humanitarian assistance getting into Palestinians who so desperately need it. ... It is on Hamas to make decisions about whether it is prepared to engage in that cease-fire," Blinken said.
Sheikh Mohammed, standing next to Blinken, said, "Qatar, the United States and our partners will be always persistent to make sure that this deal happens.”
Israel has stayed away from the Cairo negotiations, faulting Hamas for not providing a list of the names of hostages that militants are still holding in Gaza.
A senior Hamas official told reporters Tuesday that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is to blame for a lack of a deal, and that it is in the hands of Israel’s ally, the United States, to push for action.
For Biden to say publicly that the decision is in Hamas’ hands is “a form of pressure” common to high-level negotiations, said Merissa Khurma, program director of the Middle East Program at the Wilson Center.
“We've seen Hamas respond to some of these statements, as well,” she told VOA via Zoom. “That is part of the process. It's using the public platform to pressure the private negotiations that are taking place.”
But she stressed the dire humanitarian situation in Gaza presents the ultimate pressure on negotiators to reach a deal that will halt fighting.
“It's a reminder of how important these negotiations are to get us to this first step of a cease-fire, a much-needed humanitarian pause, to get aid in and to return the hostages so that we can start to think about what the future of the conflict and post conflict looks like,” she said.
U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris on Monday urged Hamas to accept the terms of the proposed agreement, in which the release of some the remaining 100 or so hostages would result in an immediate six-week cease-fire and allow a surge of humanitarian assistance throughout Gaza.
Harris hosts Israel's Gantz
Harris hosted talks at the White House with Israeli war Cabinet member Benny Gantz where she also condemned the October 7 Hamas terror attack and the taking of hostages, including American citizens.
“Israel has a right to defend itself. Far too many Palestinian civilians — innocent civilians have been killed. We need to get more aid in. We need to get the hostages out,” Harris said before the talks, summarizing the Biden administration’s position on the conflict.
Harris and Gantz also discussed Israel’s looming military operation in Gaza’s southern city of Rafah, where over a million people are sheltering. She said a viable humanitarian plan must be implemented there before Israel decides to launch any major offensive against Hamas and expressed fears what such an operation would pose on civilians.
Israel has vowed to end the threat of another Hamas assault like the October attack that killed 1,200 people, according to Israeli tallies. Israel’s counteroffensive since then has killed more than 30,600 people in Gaza, about 70% of them women and children, according to the Gaza Health Ministry. Another 72,000 Palestinians have been wounded.
Fighting rages on
Israel’s military reported raids Tuesday in the Khan Younis area of southern Gaza, while Palestinian officials said Israeli airstrikes in the same location killed at least 17 people.
The Palestinian officials said the strikes occurred near the European Hospital in the Hamad neighborhood.
The Israeli military said it targeted terrorist infrastructure in Hamad, and that it arrested dozens of Hamas and Islamic Jihad fighters who were hiding among civilians.
VOA’s Jeff Seldin, Margaret Besheer and Anita Powell contributed to this report. Some information was provided by The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters.
