DELICATE DEAL

Biden Reportedly Urges Netanyahu to Agree to 3-Day Pause for Hostage Release

Two officials told Axios that Netanyahu doesn’t believe Hamas can be trusted to agree to a hostage deal and humanitarian pause.

In a Monday phone call, President Joe Biden suggested to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that he agree to a three-day pause in the war in order to work on freeing some of the hostages held by Hamas in Gaza, two U.S. and Israeli officials told Axios. The U.S. official told the outlet that the U.S., Israel, and Qatar have been working on a deal in which Hamas would release 10-15 hostages in return for the pause. But the two officials mentioned that Netanyahu doesn’t believe Hamas would be trustworthy in a hostage deal and humanitarian pause, with the Israeli source citing an incident in which Hamas militants killed several Israeli soldiers in a pause during the 2014 war. In an interview with ABC News’ David Muir, Netanyahu seemed to consider a shorter break of “an hour here an hour there.” As of Tuesday, Hamas had released two elderly Israeli women and an American mother and daughter.