Biden Says Israel Would Halt War During Ramadan if Hostages Released

President Biden said Israel has agreed to halt the war in Gaza during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan if Hamas releases hostages, adding pressure to negotiators who are racing to broker a cease-fire this week.

Israeli officials said the remarks, coupled with Biden’s prediction that a cease-fire could be reached by Monday, took them by surprise. The president’s remarks were also met with skepticism from some people involved in the negotiations, which are mediated by Qatar and Egypt.

The comments came ahead of the Democratic primary in Michigan, where pro-Palestinian activists and young people have urged voters to select “uncommitted” rather than the president. Biden faces little competition for his party’s presidential nomination, but critics want to register disapproval with his pro-Israel stance and demonstrate the strength of the antiwar movement that is riling Democrats.

The U.S., Israel and Arab negotiators view the coming Muslim holy month of Ramadan, which begins on March 10, as a critical deadline to reach a deal to pause the fighting for several weeks and delay a planned Israeli incursion into Rafah, the southernmost city in Gaza where more than one million Palestinans have taken shelter from the war. Ramadan has been a flashpoint for violence in Israel and the Palestinian territories in recent years and many fear that heavy fighting in Gaza could trigger clashes elsewhere.

The framework under discussion would allow for the release of some 40 hostages held by Hamas, more humanitarian aid to flow to starving Palestinians and the freeing of hundreds of Palestinian prisoners held in Israel.

Israel and Hamas remain divided on important details around several parts of the deal, with negotiators working to bridge the gap. The differences could prolong the talks beyond the timeline laid out by Biden, who may be trying to jolt the talks after a rocky few days of negotiations.

“The hostages being held must be released,” Biden said during an appearance Monday evening on NBC’s “Late Night With Seth Meyers.” He said Israelis agreed “that they would not engage in activities during Ramadan, as well, in order to give us time to get all the hostages out.”

Daniel Levy, a former Israeli government official and negotiator, said Biden’s comments likely reflected an effort by the White House to push forward the talks without applying further pressure on the government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

“I am failing to see what the cause is for such optimism,” Levy said. “Netanyahu keeps turning around and saying, ‘We will do Rafah,’ and the administration is not clamping down on that.”

Qatari Foreign Ministry spokesman Majed Al Ansari said Tuesday that he was “optimistic” about the continuing talks but didn’t have anything specific to announce.

In response to Biden’s comments on Monday, Israeli officials said they were surprised by the president’s mention of a Monday deadline. They also said Israel wants to release the hostages as soon as possible, and if Israel’s conditions were met, there could be a deal on Tuesday.

Senior Hamas official Osama Hamdan told Al Araby television that the group’s priorities were to end the war and get more humanitarian aid into Gaza.

Biden, nodding to the interests of Arab voters, said Monday that a pause in fighting would provide “time to begin to move in directions that a lot of Arab countries are prepared to move in,” adding that Saudi Arabia and several other countries were ready to recognize Israel. The Saudis have conditioned normalization with Israel on “a clear and irreversible path” to a two-state solution, which Netanyahu has said he opposes.

Biden also said Monday that fighting in Gaza could stop as early as this weekend, offering the most detailed timeline to date from the White House.

Talks over a halt in fighting and hostage releases have been ongoing since a previous weeklong pause ended on Nov. 30.

Hamas took more than 200 hostages on Oct. 7 during a large-scale assault on Israel that included attacks on nearby farms and a dance festival, and the killings of hundreds of Israeli soldiers on military bases. In total, Israeli authorities said 1,200 were killed, most of them civilians.

In response, Israel launched a bombing campaign on Hamas’s stronghold in Gaza and then a ground invasion, with the nearly five-month-old war claiming the lives of more than 29,000 Palestinians, according to Palestinian health officials. The figure doesn’t distinguish between militants and civilians.

Talks brokered by the U.S., Qatar and Egypt this year have been halting, with some mediators skeptical that the gaps between Israel and Hamas, a U.S.-designated terrorist organization, could be closed in time for Ramadan. Israeli officials have said their military would attack the last Hamas stronghold in the border city of Rafah if a deal isn’t reached by the beginning of Ramadan.

Biden told Meyers that “there is a path forward, with difficulty.”

Earlier on Monday in New York City, the president responded to a question from a reporter about the negotiations and when a pause might begin. “I hope by the end of the weekend,” Biden said.

The president added that his national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, told him, “We’re close.”

“It depends on Hamas,” Netanyahu said in an interview with Fox News on Monday before Biden’s comments. “It’s really their decision. The ground has been laid. But they have to enter the ballpark. They aren’t in town yet.”

Biden later on the Meyers program reiterated his support for Israel, saying he is a Zionist but the “only way Israel ultimately survives” is to “take advantage of an opportunity to have peace and security for Israelis and Palestinians who are being used as pawns by Hamas.”

If fighting halts, he said, “we’re going to be able to move in a direction where we can change the dynamic” in the region.

Biden said the Israelis “made a commitment to me” that they have “the ability to evacuate significant portions of Rafah before they go and take out the remainder of Hamas.”

He also issued a warning to the current Israeli government, calling out National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, a media-savvy lawmaker who has become a champion for Israel’s far right. If Israel maintains an “incredibly conservative government,” including Ben-Gvir, the country is “going to lose support from around the world,” Biden said.

Negotiations between Israel and Hamas had foundered until a meeting in Paris last week revived hopes. Now, mediators’ main challenge is to produce an agreement convincing Hamas that a permanent cease-fire would eventually be possible at the end of a humanitarian pause, while allowing Israel to avoid any such commitment, negotiators have said.

Any eventual deal may need Biden to step in himself, as he did last November to seal a weeklong cease-fire that freed more than 100 hostages with calls to Netanyahu and Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani.

The latest meeting came after Israeli officials said there was a chance of progress in the talks. Hamas also had indicated to Egyptian officials it could be flexible in its demands for the release of more Palestinian prisoners in return for hostages.

Mediators this week continued intensive talks with Hamas and Israel aimed at closing the gaps around a new deal involving a truce of at least 40 days and the exchange of roughly 40 hostages, including five female soldiers, for Palestinian prisoners held by Israel, and 500 trucks of aid daily.

One of the main sticking points is a disagreement between Israel and Hamas over the number of Palestinian prisoners who would be released. Israel is ready to exchange 21 Palestinians for seven Israeli civilian women, 15 Palestinians convicted of serious terrorism charges for five female Israeli soldiers, and 280 Palestinians for around 28 sick and elderly Israeli men. Hamas has asked for significantly higher numbers of Palestinians to be released, including many whom Israel regards as terrorists.

Another stumbling block is the limited and gradual return of Palestinians to their homes in the north of Gaza during a truce. Israelis have said they would be willing to allow women and children to return, but male Palestinians from 14 years old would be held back.

Mediators are also trying to negotiate with Israel on humanitarian measures. Steps under discussion include a mechanism to allow 500 trucks to enter Gaza daily, providing more shelter for displaced Gazans, a reopening of bakeries and other commercial sources of food, and the start of work to rebuild hospitals and shattered infrastructure.

Israel’s leadership has rejected previous Hamas demands to release thousands of Palestinian prisoners—including hundreds specified by Hamas, as well as a permanent cease-fire and granting Hamas control over policy at the Al Aqsa Mosque compound in Jerusalem, which is sacred to both Muslims and Jews, according to a person familiar with the Israeli position.

Israel’s national security adviser, Tzachi Hanegbi, in an interview Saturday on Israel’s Channel 12, said that Israel is now negotiating for a weekslong pause that could begin before Ramadan. He said Israel was seeking to get all women and child hostages released during the pause. He said the key to the negotiations is that any pause “can’t in any way be interpreted as an end to the war.”

Hanegbi added that the Biden administration told Israel it wouldn’t oppose an operation in Rafah as long as there is a clear plan to evacuate the town and prevent a worsening of the humanitarian situation in Gaza.

Jared Malsin, Annie Linskey and Dov Lieber contributed to this article.

Write to Michael Amon at [email protected] and Summer Said at [email protected]