Biden tells Netanyahu hostage deal urgent ahead of Cairo talks

US President Joe Biden underscored the importance of finalizing a hostage deal in a phone call with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu Wednesday night ahead of anticipated high-level talks in Cairo later this week.

“The President stressed the urgency of bringing the ceasefire and hostage release deal to closure and discussed upcoming talks in Cairo to remove any remaining obstacle,” the White House said after the call, which included Vice President Kamala Harris.

The White House in its readout of the call appeared to revive hopes that high-level Cairo talks would take place.

Those talks had initially been scheduled for Wednesday but were delayed with no specific date set amid speculation that those talks could take place later this week.

Israel’s security cabinet is set to meet on Thursday night. Both Egypt and Qatar, together with the US, have hoped to finalize a deal that has been on the table since May 31.

Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed Al-Thani, who has been a key figure in the high-level talks, is in New Zealand.

US special envoy Brett McGurk, who was at the talks in Doha last week, is expected to head to Cairo, according to media reports.

The stakes are high as the region remains braced for a possible Iranian attack against Israel and a widening of the war between Israel and Hezbollah. 

The US has hoped that a Gaza ceasefire and hostage deal would restore calm to northern Israel and prevent an Iranian attack.

Biden and Netanyahu, the White House said, “discussed active and ongoing U.S. efforts to support Israel’s defense against all threats from Iran, including its proxy terrorist groups Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Houthis, to include ongoing defensive U.S. military deployments.”

The US has beefed up its forces in the Middle East ahead of a potential Iranian attack on Israel.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken visited Israel, Egypt, and Qatar on  Monday and Tuesday, meeting for three hours with Netanyahu. He headed back to the US, however, without securing an agreement.

Blinken and mediators from Egypt and Qatar have pinned their hopes on a US “bridging proposal” aimed at narrowing the gaps between the two sides in the 10-month-old Gaza war, which Netanyahu signed onto during Blinken’s trip.

Upon his return to the United States, Blinken spoke with his Turkish and Jordanian counterparts about the deal.

In his conversation with Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi Blinken, he “underscored that the ‘bridging proposal’ presented by the negotiators addressed the remaining gaps in a manner that allows for swift implementation of the deal.” 

The “bridging proposal,” however, did not close all of the gaps. Netanyahu stressed throughout Blinken’s visit and even on Wednesday that despite Hamas’s calls for a full IDF withdrawal from Gaza during the course of the deal, he planned to keep the IDF in two critical security corridors, Philadelphi and Netzarim.

The Prime Minister’s Office dismissed a report in KAN on Wednesday night that an IDF withdrawal from Philadelphi would occur in the second phase of the three-part deal.

The IDF is expected during the first phase to withdraw from populated areas of Gaza.

PM's Office statement

“Israel will insist on achieving all the goals of the war, as defined by the cabinet - including ensuring that Gaza will no longer pose a security threat to Israel. And this necessitates the closing of the southern border the [Philadelphi Corridor],” the Prime Minister’s Office said.

Hamas had for years smuggled weapons into Gaza from Egypt through tunnels dug underneath that corridor.

Netanyahu said on Tuesday that an IDF presence was necessary to prevent smuggling and ensure that Hamas did not rearm itself. 

He stressed that he would not agree to a hostage deal that would include an IDF withdrawal from that corridor.

A US official said in advance of the Biden-Netanyahu call that the US President had been expected to press Netanyahu to soften his stance on the Philadelphia Corridor.

Blinken told reporters late Tuesday night that the Gaza ceasefire and hostage deal included a detailed schedule of IDF withdrawals from Gaza when he spoke to them prior to leaving Qatar.

“The agreement is very clear on the schedule and the locations of IDF withdrawals from Gaza, and Israel has agreed to that,” Blinken told reporters.

Blinken, who in Tel Aviv had appeared to indicate that the issue of the two corridors was an issue that still needed to be worked out, said in Qatar that IDF withdrawals were clarified in the existing agreement.

“It is laid out in the agreement, an agreement that Israel has endorsed, and it is specific as to the locations and the schedule for withdrawals,” Blinken said.

He reiterated that Netanyahu had endorsed the “bridging proposal,” which included a clear withdrawal schedule.Israel and Hamas must show flexibility toward the deal so that it can be completed in the coming days since time is of the essence, Blinken said.

There is a “fierce urgency” to get this “done in the days ahead, and we will do everything possible to get it across the finish line,” Blinken stressed.

Hamas has insisted that it is committed to the original framework deal but not the “bridging proposal”, which it says favors new points Israel has inserted into the agreement.

“Over the coming days, we are going to do everything possible to get Hamas on board,” Blinken said.

“Our message is simple, clear, and urgent. We need to get the ceasefire and hostage agreement over the finish line, and we need to do it now. 

“Time is of the essence because, with every passing day, the well-being and lives of the hostages are in jeopardy,” Blinken said.

He spoke just after the IDF discovered the bodies of six hostages killed in captivity and returned them to Israel.Blinken also stressed the importance for the Palestinians in Gaza of a ceasefire that would stop the suffering they had endured for over ten months in a war “they didn’t start and can not stop.”

There is also an urgency because the deal would prevent a dangerous regional escalation, Blinken said as he referred to threats of reprisal attacks by Iran and its proxy group Hezbollah against Israel.

The US fears that such attacks would spark a regional war.“We’re working in our different ways to try to ensure that there is no escalation, sending the necessary messages to all of the potential actors, including Iran and Hezbollah, to avoid taking any steps that could escalate the conflict or spread it,” Blinken said.

“It’s very important that everyone [Israel and Hamas] do what’s necessary to bring the flexibility to the table [to finalize the deal],” he said.

Defense Minister Yoav Gallant visited the Philadelphi Corridor, stating that Hamas’s Rafah brigade located there had been defeated and that over 150 tunnels have been destroyed in the region.

He believed that the IDF could withdraw from the Philadelphi Corridor in order to pave the way for a deal that would secure the release of the remaining 109 hostages in Gaza, of whom 73 are believed to still be alive.

“Out of the 150 tunnels that were destroyed, around 100 tunnels are, in fact, trenches dug using engineering tools above ground and then covered with a meter or two of dirt.

“I gave an immediate directive to the IDF to destroy the remaining tunnels. It is critical to remember the goals of the war and to achieve them – regarding Hamas, regarding the hostages [held by Hamas],” he said.

It was also important, he said, for the IDF to focus now on threats for the North. 

“We also understand why we are looking toward the North,” he stated.

Reuters contributed to this report.