Biden says on ‘brink’ of hostage release/Gaza ceasefire deal

“On the war between Israel and Hamas, we are on the brink of a proposal that I laid out in detail months ago finally coming to fruition,” President Biden said in a speech at the State Dept today.

President Biden, a week before he is due to hand over power, expressed optimism about prospects for at long last reaching a deal for the release of some of the 100 hostages held by Hamas in exchange for Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli prisons, and a phased ceasefire in Gaza. The basic structure of the three phase deal is one the administration has been pursuing for over eight months.

“On the war between Israel and Hamas, we are on the brink of a proposal that I laid out in detail months ago, finally coming to fruition,” Biden said in a valedictory foreign policy speech at the State Department today.

“We are pressing hard to close the deal we have structured that would free the hostages, halt the fighting, provide security to Israel, and allow us to significantly surge humanitarian assistance to the Palestinians, who have suffered terribly in this war that Hamas started,” Biden said. “They've been through hell. So many innocent people have been killed.

“The Palestinian people deserve peace, and the right to determine their own futures,” Biden said. “Israel deserves peace and real security. And the hostages and their families deserve to be reunited. And so we're working urgently to close this deal.”

“I have learned in many years of public service to never, never, never, ever give up,” Biden added.

Earlier, national security advisor Jake Sullivan said that Biden Middle East envoy Brett McGurk and Trump’s Middle East envoy Stephen Witkoff have been closely coordinating to try to get the deal over the finish line. McGurk has been in Doha, Qatar for the past week trying to help close the deal. Witkoff met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Israel on Sunday.

“In fact, we've seen in the context of the Middle East that we have coordinated on common messaging around the ceasefire in Lebanon, and we are very closely coordinated, including with Steve Witkoff and Brett McGurk, around trying to bring this hostage deal to a close,” Sullivan told journalists at what he expected to likely be his final White House briefing today.

“It’s because there is a spirit being brought to this work which says these are not partisan issues,” Sullivan continued. “These are American national security issues. And it's the kind of spirit that President Biden has brought to this job from the very beginning that said, set the politics aside, do what's right for the country…And I have to say, our coordination thus far, the engagement we've had, it's been professional. It's been deep and substantive.”

Because the United States would, along with Qatar and Egypt, be a guarantor of the deal reached, it is important in order for the negotiations to succeed to be able to demonstrate to the parties that the United States’ position on the terms would be honored by the team that will be in place after January 20, a USofficial explained.

This is particularly important for the issue involving efforts to turn the temporary ceasefire in the first phase of the deal into a more enduring ceasefire in phase 2. The first phase is supposed to last for 42 days, according to a draft of the deal published by Israel’s Hebrew Broadcasting Authority:

“During the first phase, Hamas releases 33 Israeli detainees (alives or bodies), including women (civilians and female recruits), children (under the age of 19 non-soldiers), the elderly (over the age of 50) and wounded and sick civilians, in exchange for a number of prisoners in Israeli prisons and detention centers,” the draft says, going onto to specify details on the sequence of releases and categories and the Palestinian prisoners to be released in exchange.

“No later than the sixteenth day, indirect negotiations between the two sides will begin on the agreement on the terms of implementation of the second phase of this agreement, including those relating to the keys to the exchange of prisoners and prisoners between the two sides (soldiers and other men),” the draft continued. “Agreements on this issue must be reached before the end of the fifth week of this phase.”

Biden, in his remarks at the State Department today, said his administration was handing over to the next one an America with strong alliances and a domestic economy that is the envy of the world.

“It’s clear my administration is leaving the next administration with a very strong hand to play, leaving them an America with more friends and strong alliances, whose adversaries are weaker and under pressure, an America that once again is leading,… setting the agenda,” he said. “An America which is no longer at war, which has made historic investments in American workers, … and generated the strongest economy in the world, which is now in a much better position to win the future against any competitor.”

But a nation too still riven by deep political divisions. But which Biden and his successor have at least on the issue of a Middle East peace deal managed to set aside their differences for the sake of trying to free the hostages and end the awful bloodshed in Gaza.

Photo: U.S. President Joe Biden delivers a speech at the State Department in Washington, U.S. January 13, 2025. REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein.

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