Netanyahu speaks very differently about the Biden administration's hopes for a Gaza deal

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Biden administration and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu sharply disagreed Thursday over the prospects of reaching an agreement on a ceasefire in Gaza and the release of hostages, with Netanyahu saying the assumption that a breakthrough was imminent was “completely inaccurate.”

“There is no deal in sight,” Netanyahu said in an interview with “Fox and Friends.” His public skepticism comes after U.S. officials said they were working on a revised proposal to resolve remaining disputes between Israeli and Hamas leaders after the discovery of six dead hostages over the weekend added urgency to the talks.

National security spokesman John Kirby reiterated on Thursday that only differences of opinion over the “implementation details” of a ceasefire proposal needed to be resolved.

“I've heard what the prime minister said. I'm not going to get involved in a back-and-forth with him in a public conversation,” Kirby told reporters. “We still believe we can do it, even though it's incredibly difficult … if there's compromise, if there's leadership.”

President Joe Biden's team, still a lame-duck administration two months before the election, has exuded optimism this summer as it works with co-mediators Egypt and Qatar to persuade Israel and Hamas to agree to a ceasefire in the 11-month war in Gaza. The deal would provide for the release of more hostages taken by Hamas during its Oct. 7 attack on Israel, including Americans, in exchange for Palestinian prisoners – one of the major sticking points.

US authorities had said in the days before Israeli forces recovered the bodies of six recently killed hostages – including Israeli-American hostage Hersh Goldberg-Polin – that the leaders of Israel and Hamas could sign an agreement as early as the end of this week.

“I'm optimistic. It's far from over. Just a few more issues. I think we have a chance,” Biden told reporters last Friday.

Netanyahu had previously been stubborn, setting conditions that would make it difficult to reach an agreement before the US elections. In July – months after talks began – his far-right government publicly for the first time made a priority of demanding an Israeli military presence in a buffer zone along the Gaza-Egypt border. Netanyahu says this is necessary to prevent Hamas from smuggling weapons into Palestinian territory.

“Demanding concessions from Israel after this murder is a message to Hamas: Kill more hostages and you will get more concessions,” Netanyahu said on Thursday. “That is the wrong thing to do, and I believe the Israeli public overwhelmingly agrees against it.”

Families of hostages accuse Netanyahu of blocking a deal and possibly sacrificing their loved ones to hold the border strip, known as the Philadelphia Corridor. Hundreds of thousands of Israelis have taken to the streets, demanding a deal and saying time is running out to bring the hostages home alive.

Netanyahu rejected criticism that his war management and ceasefire negotiations were politically motivated. He said he believed only strong pressure on Hamas would force it to make concessions.

The Biden administration has stressed that its ally Israel supports the negotiations and that Hamas is blocking a deal. But this week, Biden said “no” when asked whether Netanyahu was doing enough in the talks.

“We see time and time again that Israel agrees to certain conditions,” says Shira Efron, a policy adviser at the Israel Policy Forum in the United States, which analyzes Israeli-Palestinian relations. “It doesn't say no, it agrees to certain conditions – but then says: 'Yes, but on these conditions.'”

“These public statements that are made after an apparent agreement essentially derail the agreement,” Efron said.

Randa Slim, a senior fellow at the U.S.-based Middle East Institute, said she viewed the talks as a process between the U.S. and Netanyahu, and “I believe Netanyahu has the upper hand in these bilateral negotiations.”

The United States, Egypt and other Arab states have objected to a permanent Israeli presence in the Philadelphia Corridor. According to Hamas, the Israeli position violates the requirement contained in the bridge-building proposal that Israel must leave densely populated areas in the Gaza Strip.

US authorities say Israeli politicians, including Netanyahu, have appeared more willing to negotiate in private discussions than in public statements.

A senior U.S. administration official told reporters Wednesday that Israel and Hamas had agreed on 14 of the 18 paragraphs of the bridge proposal, with technical differences over one paragraph and deeper differences over three paragraphs. The official spoke on condition of anonymity about the negotiations.

The three paragraphs in question concern the exchange of hostages held by Hamas and the number of Palestinian prisoners who are to be released during the supposedly at least six-week ceasefire.

The list of Palestinian prisoners to be released in the first phase of the deal includes some serving life sentences in Israeli jails. The official said the dispute over the ratio of prisoners to hostages to be exchanged had been further complicated by the recent deaths of the six hostages.

For every hostage, there is a certain number of Palestinian prisoners who should be released. Now, “under the deal in phase one, you simply have fewer hostages,” the official said.

Netanyahu said they were still discussing the number of prisoners to be released for each hostage, the list of prisoners to be released and whether they would be allowed to return home or would have to leave.

The United States and others hope a ceasefire would calm tensions that could spark a wider regional conflict, including fighting between Israel and Hezbollah militants in neighboring Lebanon.

Attacks by Hezbollah and other Iran-backed groups have increased since the October 7 attack, which killed around 1,200 people. The militants also took around 250 people hostage. About 100 of them are still in Gaza, and a third of them are believed to be dead.

According to the Gaza Health Ministry, more than 40,000 Palestinians were killed in the Israeli offensive in response; its count does not distinguish between civilians and combatants.

As for a deal, “we are taking a pragmatic approach and believe we have made tremendous progress in the last few months in putting the structure of the deal in place,” Kirby said.

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AP writers Zeke Miller and Matthew Lee contributed from Washington.

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