President Joe Biden calls on Hamas to agree to latest cease-fire deal

President Joe Biden and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida take part in an Official Arrival Ceremony on the White House South Lawn

WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden pushed Hamas on Wednesday to agree to his administration’s latest cease-fire and hostage release proposal.

“[It] is now up to Hamas. They need to move on the proposal that’s been made,” Biden said.

CIA Director Bill Burns shared the proposal with negotiators on over the weekend in Cairo. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Tuesday that the ball is in Hamas’ court to respond.

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The U.S. is working with Egypt and Qatar to broker a deal between Israel and Hamas that would reportedly involve a six-week cease-fire in exchange for the release of 40 militant-held hostages and hundreds of Palestinian prisoners.

Biden confirmed the length of the proposed cease-fire on Wednesday but did not provide any further details. He made the remarks at a Rose Garden news conference ahead of a state dinner with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida.

As he delivered his first public comments on the proposal, Biden said he had been “very blunt and straightforward” with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and members of the leader’s war cabinet about changes the U.S. wants to see in the ally’s approach to the war.

Biden said a call he had last week with Netanyahu was lengthy, and the Israeli leader agreed to take actions to get more aid, food and medicine into the Gaza Strip and to reduce significantly civilian casualties.

More than 33,000 Palestinians have been killed, according to the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry.

The U.S. said this week that on Monday, more than 400 aid trucks were cleared to enter Gaza, the most of any day since Oct. 7. However, Biden underscored at his news conference that it is not enough and said the U.S. is seeking to open another entry point in the north.

“We’ll see what he does in terms of meeting the commitments he made to me,” Biden said of Netanyahu.

Earlier this week, and after his call with Biden, Netanyahu said that he has set a date for the long-anticipated Rafah invasion. The U.S. has warned the operation would endanger the more than 1 million Palestinian civilians sheltering in the area.

The president’s national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, said Tuesday he still had not “seen a credible and executable plan” to relocate, house, feed and provide medicine for civilians.

Senior U.S. officials said Tuesday that they had not been told by their Israeli counterparts when the operation would take place.

Biden in an interview with Univision that was taped last week and aired on Tuesday evening said the Israeli prime minister is making a “mistake” in his approach to the war.

“I think there’s no excuse to not provide for the medical and the food needs of those people. It should be done now,” Biden said in the interview.

The U.S. president also decried the “outrageous” killing of seven World Central Kitchen aid workers by Israeli troops.

In the interview, Biden remarked on a possible cease-fire, but he did not mention the hostages. He emphasized Wednesday that any deal would include a hostage release.

“And it’s tied to the hostages,” Biden said.

Hostage families met Tuesday at the White House with Vice President Kamala Harris and with Sullivan on Monday. Biden said the U.S. would not stop until they are brought home.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: President Joe Biden calls on Hamas to agree to latest cease-fire deal