Biden endorses Israeli proposal for a cease-fire in Gaza

REHOBOTH BEACH, Del. – Declaring that Hamas was no longer capable of carrying out a major terrorist attack on Israel, President Joe Biden said Friday it was time for a permanent cease-fire in the Gaza Strip and endorsed a new plan he said Israel had offered to win the release of hostages and end the fighting.

“It’s time for this war to end, for the day after to begin,” Biden said, speaking from the State Dining Room at the White House. He also gave a stark description of Hamas’ diminished capabilities after seven months of Israeli attacks: “At this point, Hamas is no longer capable of carrying out another Oct. 7.”

Biden described the plan as a “comprehensive new proposal” that amounted to a road map to an “enduring cease-fire.” But the Israeli government has not talked about the plan in public.

“This is truly a decisive moment,” Biden said. “Hamas says it wants a cease-fire. This deal is an opportunity to prove whether they really mean it.”

Biden appeared to be making public elements of the proposal to pressure Hamas and Israel to break out of a monthslong deadlock that has resulted in the killing of thousands of Palestinians.

U.S. officials have described Hamas’ leader, Yahya Sinwar, as interested only in his own survival and that of his family and inner circle. But they have also said that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel has little incentive to move to a real cease-fire, because of the widespread belief in Israel that as soon as the surviving hostages are returned, and a last cease-fire takes hold, he will likely lose his fragile hold on power.

At several moments in the past few months, Netanyahu has directly contradicted Biden. And so far Hamas has never accepted a proposal, declaring that fighting must end first, before major hostage releases or any agreement with Israel.

After Biden spoke, the Israeli prime minister’s office released a statement saying the new proposal was in keeping with Netanyahu’s insistence that Israel would not end the war before its goals were achieved, including the destruction of Hamas’ military and governing capacities in Gaza. The statement said the outline that Israel has offered enables Israel to maintain that principle.

Biden has faced growing pressure over how long he was willing to support Israel’s military campaign in Gaza and particularly its most recent attacks in Rafah. The bloodshed in Gaza, with more than 36,000 dead according to local authorities, has led to eruptions on college campuses and on the streets of American cities, and alienated many of Biden’s own supporters.

Israel’s national security adviser said earlier this week that he expected the war to continue through at least the end of the year.

Global pressure to scale down the military operation only increased after the International Court of Justice, an arm of the United Nations, last week ruled that Israel must halt its military offensive in the southern Gaza city of Rafah. The court, however, had no means of enforcing the order.

Friday’s remarks were Biden’s first public comments about the war since an Israeli strike and subsequent fire Sunday killed 45 people, including children, and wounded 249 in a encampment for the displaced, according to Gaza health officials. A visual analysis by the New York Times found that Israel used U.S.-made bombs in the strike, forcing the White House to face difficult questions over American responsibility for the rising death toll.

In describing the Israeli proposal, Biden said it would be broken into three phases, starting with a six-week cease-fire, the withdrawal of Israeli forces from populated areas of Gaza and an exchange of elderly and female hostages held by Hamas for the release of hundreds of Palestinian detainees. But Biden also said there were still details that needed to be negotiated to move on to the next phase.

Israeli forces would then withdraw from Gaza in exchange for the release of all remaining living hostages, including male soldiers.

“As long as Hamas lives up to its commitments, a temporary cease-fire will become, in the words of the Israeli proposal, a cessation of hostilities permanently,” Biden said.

“I know there are those in Israel who will not agree with this plan and will call for the war to continue indefinitely,” Biden said, adding that there are those in Netanyahu’s government who have made clear they want to “occupy Gaza.”

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.