The Biden administration is working “intensely” on a hostage deal, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Tuesday night as the Israeli delegation to talks in Cairo returned home without any clear results.
“We are working to bring home the remaining hostages in Gaza. We are working intensely with Egypt [and] with Qatar on a proposal to bring about their release,” Blinken told reporters in Washington.
As part of an intense push for what US President Joe Biden said Monday he hoped would include a six-week pause to the war, CIA Director William Burns held talks in Cairo that followed those he had convened in Paris late last month with Qatari, Egyptian, and Israeli officials.
Egypt and Qatar have been mediating the deal. Egyptian State Information Services (SIS) reported that President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi also held talks with Burns and Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed Al-Thani that also dealt with increasing humanitarian assistance to Gaza and better protection for civilians, the SIS said.
In a statement on its website, it cited a “keenness to continue consultation and coordination” on the key issues, indicating that no breakthrough was made.
Egypt cites 'keenness to continue consultation and coordination'
The Egyptian statement made no mention of Israel. The Israeli delegation had left Cairo for home, a Reuters reporter said. The Prime Minister’s Office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
But Egyptian media reported that the talks had been positive.
Top officials involved in advancing a deal – Mossad Director David Barnea, Shin Bet Director Ronen Bar and Maj.-Gen. Nitzan Alon – had drawn up a new proposal to present at the talks that was rejected by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, according to KAN.
IDF Spokesperson Daniel Hagari confirmed that Alon, who is considered to be central to the process, had not gone to the talks, but stressed continued involvement. Netanyahu’s foreign policy adviser, Ophir Falk joined the delegation, according to Hebrew media reports.
A Palestinian official said earlier the sides were seeking a formula acceptable to Hamas, which “says it is only possible to sign a deal once it is based on an Israeli commitment to ending its war and pulling out its forces from Gaza.”
Israel has rejected all calls to end the war without defeating Hamas and has instead that the IDF must retain security control of Gaza.
A Hamas official said Hamas had told the participants it does not trust Israel not to renew the war if the hostages are released.
The talks to free the remaining 134 hostages were amid a sharp international outcry against a potential operation in Rafah and a renewed push for a ceasefire and the start of a two-state process.
The threat of a looming Rafah operation has become one of the pressure levers mediators are using to push Hamas to soften some of its red lines.
Jordan’s King Abdullah was in Washington, where he met with US President Joe Biden at the White House on Monday and with Vice President Kamala Harris as well as with members of Congress on Tuesday.
Abdullah has stressed the need for an immediate Gaza ceasefire.
In Berlin, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock, who will visit Israel on Wednesday, said, “I am especially concerned about the announcement by the Israeli government of a large ground military operation in Rafah.” She spoke at a joint news conference with PA Foreign Minister Riyad Maliki in Berlin.
“Of course, it is completely clear that also in Rafah, there is an unbelievably large net of [the] Hamas terrorist organization,” she said, adding Israel has a right to defend itself from terrorism.
In London at the House of Lords, British Foreign Secretary David Cameron called the October 7 attack against Israel that sparked the Gaza war, the “biggest pogrom since the Holocaust in terms of the loss of life of Jewish people.” Still, he stressed, Israel “must obey international humanitarian law,” which means they have to make sure that humanitarian aid, food water, and shelter are available to people in Gaza.
He explained that European, Arab, and US officials plan to meet at the Munich Security Conference on Friday to discuss the situation, as well as attempts to advance a two-state resolution to the conflict.
President Isaac Herzog is expected to attend the conference as is Abdullah. At a joint press conference in Washington with Abdullah on Monday, Biden said, that the hostage deal that is being advanced “would bring an immediate and sustained period of calm to Gaza for at least six weeks [during] which we could take the time to build something more enduring,” Biden said on Monday.
“The key elements of the deal are on the table, there are gaps that remain, but I have encouraged Israeli leaders to keep working to achieve the deal,” Biden said.
“The US will do everything possible to make it happen,” he said.
It’s expected that Israel would agree to free Palestinian security prisoners including terrorists with blood on their hands in exchange for the phased release of the remaining 134 hostages in Gaza.
Hamas, however, has insisted that a deal must include a permanent ceasefire and a full IDF withdrawal from Gaza. Israel has insisted that it must be allowed to complete its military mission to destroy Hamas.
The next phase of that campaign is expected to be an operation in Rafah near the Egyptian border.
Biden said that “the major military operation in Rafah should not proceed without a credible plan for ensuring the safety and support of more than one million people sheltering there,” he said.
These people, “need to be protected,” Biden said, adding that he opposed any forced displacement of people in Gaza.
The US has worked to make sure that humanitarian assistance enters Gaza, Biden said, as he highlighted King Abdullah’s role in helping ease the suffering of Palestinians in Gaza.
Biden spoke of the tragedy of both the Hamas-led October 7 attack against Israel that sparked the Gaza war as well as the deaths of the Palestinian civilians in the enclave as a result of that war.
The attack against Israel was an act of “sheer evil,” he said, as he described it as the “deadliest day for the Jewish people since the Holocaust.”
About the Palestinian civilians in Gaza, he said, explaining that those living there “suffered unimaginable pain and loss.
“Too many of the over 27,000 Palestinians killed in this conflict have been innocent civilians and children, including thousands of children,” he said.
“It’s heartbreaking. Every innocent life lost in Gaza is a tragedy, just as every innocent life lost in Israel is a tragedy as well,” he said.
He was careful to acknowledge Abdullah’s “special role” as a custodian of the holy Muslim and Christian sites in Jerusalem.
Biden pledged his support to a two-state resolution to the conflict, explaining that this was “the only path that guaranteed Israeli’s security for the long term.”
But for Palestinians to seize this moment, Biden said. The Palestinian Authority must undergo a reform process and “be prepared to build a state that accepts peace and does not harbor terrorist groups,” Biden said.
Reuters contributed to this report.