Biden urges Hamas to accept Israel’s latest proposal to end war in Gaza

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• Geoff Bennett:

  President Biden today detailed a proposal that would release Israeli hostages in Gaza in exchange for a cease-fire. The president called on Hamas to accept the deal and said it would lead to the end of the war in Gaza.

  Joe Biden, President of the United States: It's time to begin this new stage, for the hostages to come home, for Israel to be secure, for the suffering to stop. It's time for this war to end and for the day after to begin.

• Geoff Bennett:

  Our foreign affairs correspondent, Nick Schifrin, is following this, and he joins us now.

  So, Nick, what's in this latest proposal?

• Nick Schifrin:

  This is an Israeli proposal, Geoff, that President Biden unveiled for the first time in a speech today, and it's split into three phases.

  Phase one would last six weeks during which Israel would cease fire. Hamas would release about 30 hostages. That includes the female, the elderly, and the infirm. And Israel would release at least 700 Palestinian detainees, including those convicted of terrorism. Israel would allow the — quote — "surge of humanitarian aid." That includes temporary housing.

  And, finally, Israel would withdraw from cities. If we get past that, phase two would also last six weeks, beginning with the release of the remaining living hostages — quote — "the cessation of hostilities permanently."

  That is what President Biden today called the end of the war. And as the president put it — quote — "Israeli forces would withdraw from Gaza."

  And I want to focus on this fourth point coming up. Cease-fire will continue as long as negotiations continue. That is the main new aspect of this proposal, Geoff. It might seem small, but it's significant. In the past, Israel was basically threatening to restart the war after phase one, after the first six weeks.

  Now Israel is promising to hold fire beyond phase one, beyond six weeks, so long as Hamas continues its negotiations. And if the two sides were to get that far, phase three would be the return of hostages who died in Hamas custody and a three-to-five-year reconstruction of Gaza with — quote — "demilitarized Hamas."

  And then that's where you get the bigger goals, Geoff, of course, Hezbollah moving back from the Lebanese border and perhaps even Israeli-Saudi normalization.

• Geoff Bennett:

  Well, Nick, how have the Israeli government and Hamas responded to this?

• Nick Schifrin:

  They have actually both responded positively, although with some ambiguity and definitely interpreting the president's words as they want to see them.

  So, first, let's see Hamas' response. Hamas — quote — "confirms its readiness to deal positively and in a constructive manner with any proposal based on permanent cease-fire, full withdrawal, reconstruction, the return of the displaced, and a genuine prisoner swap."

  So, clearly, that first statement there, permanent cease-fire, Hamas sees this as the end of the war.

  Now, Israel's response came from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office. He made it said — he said that the proposal would — quote — "enable Israel to continue the war until all its objectives are achieved, including the destruction of Hamas' military and governing capabilities."

  And he also called the transition from phase one to phase two conditional, so clearly leaving the possibility of the war continuing, and that Israel gets to decide and only Israel gets to decide whether to move from a temporary cease-fire to a permanent cease-fire.

  And President Biden actually implicitly rebutted that argument, almost, today. He said for the first time that Israel had degraded Hamas to the point where it could not launch another October 7 attack. That is not intelligence that the U.S. has made public today.

  U.S. officials, as we have talked about, Geoff, have been worried about Netanyahu not having a plan for the day after, as President Biden put it today, pursuing indefinite war in pursuit of an unidentified notion of total victory.

  And Biden said today explicitly that, if you do that, you're going to bog Israel down, you're going to bog yourself down, and you're going to further isolate yourself.

  And that's why analysts are telling me that this was not just an attempt to pressure Hamas. This was actually an attempt to pressure the Israeli government to follow through on its own proposal and, if Hamas were to accept it, to actually see it through.

  And, as for Netanyahu, well, he will have his say in Washington soon. He's been invited to give a joint statement to Congress in the coming days.

• Geoff Bennett:

  That's right.

  Nick Schifrin, our thanks to you for that great reporting. Thank you.

• Nick Schifrin:

  Thank you.