White House optimistic about Gaza cease-fire as talks stall over holidays

The White House insisted Friday that a cease-fire deal between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas is still in reach in the final days of President Joe Biden’s term, as Israel and Hamas blame each other for an impasse in talks.

White House National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby told reporters on Friday that negotiators are continuing to push for a deal this week and that the administration is working “as hard as we can to try to get a cease-fire deal in place before we leave office.” But talks are getting bogged down in minutiae as remaining issues become subject to “more detailed” discussions, he explained.

Kirby argued that Hamas is to blame for delaying further progress on a deal.

“It is because of Hamas throwing up obstacles or refusing to move on any of these details that we are still not at a conclusion,” Kirby said. “But we believe, as [national security adviser] Jake [Sulivan] has said, we’re very, very close, and so we’re not going to give up.”

Israeli negotiators returned from a round of talks in Doha, Qatar, on Dec. 24, the office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced. Hopes were high that those talks would bring both sides closer to a diplomatic breakthrough that would end the over-yearlong conflict in the Gaza Strip, which has killed thousands of civilians and devastated the enclave.

But Israel and Hamas traded accusations on Wednesday that the other side was negotiating in bad faith and imposing unreasonable demands.

Israeli media outlets reported that Hamas said on Wednesday that “Israel is delaying the negotiations by adding new conditions.” The group insisted that it was being flexible in the Egyptian and Qatari-facilitated talks.

Israel has rejected Hamas’ characterizations of its negotiation process. “The terrorist organization Hamas is lying again,” Netanyahu’s office said in a statement, “reneging on the understandings already reached, and continuing to make it difficult for the negotiations.”

Kirby did not specify what issues were causing the disagreements, but Axios and Israeli media outlets reported the disagreement was over a list of living hostages remaining in Hamas captivity that would be released in the first phase of a cease-fire deal. Nearly 100 hostages taken during the Oct. 7 attacks are believed to remain in Gaza and their families have warned that further delay in securing a deal increases the risk of them being killed by Hamas or dying of starvation, disease or injuries.

The standoff is a setback for the White House. Earlier in December, the White House dispatched both Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Sullivan to the region. More recently, CIA Director Bill Burns and top White House Middle East official Brett McGurk were in the region. These visits were part of a considerable push by the Biden administration to reinvigorate the talks and capitalize on diplomatic momentum following a November cease-fire deal between Israel and Hezbollah in southern Lebanon.

Still, both sides signaled optimism earlier this week. Netanyahu told the Knesset on Dec. 23 that “some progress” was being made toward a cease-fire deal, while a Palestinian official told the BBC that a cease-fire deal was 90 percent finished, even as conversations over the status of the Philadelphi Corridor, an area along Gaza’s border with Egypt that Israel wishes to control for security reasons, continued.

All the while, international pressure has mounted in recent days for a more immediate end to the conflict. In his Wednesday Christmas address, Pope Francis reiterated his call for a cease-fire in Gaza. Aid groups have also re-upped worries about famine in Gaza amid what they describe as insufficient flows of humanitarian aid into the territory.