Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s qualified support for “tactical little pauses” is seen as a slight shift within the Biden administration.
The Biden administration is confident Israel has moved, ever so slightly, closer to its view that there must be humanitarian pauses throughout the war against Hamas to help civilians, senior U.S. officials said.
For weeks, the U.S. has engaged in a flurry of diplomacy with Israel to push for temporary halts in fighting so hostages can be safely rescued, Palestinians in Gaza can move freely and humanitarian aid can get into the enclave. A chasm has persisted between the two countries, as Israeli leaders insisted any pause would benefit Hamas, the militant group that killed 1,400 people in Israel on Oct. 7.
But Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu appeared to shift his stance during a Monday night interview.
“There'll be no cease-fire, general cease-fire, in Gaza without the release of our hostages," he told ABC News’ David Muir, repeating Israel’s long-held stance. But Netanyahu added: “As far as tactical little pauses, an hour here, an hour there. We've had them before, I suppose, will check the circumstances in order to enable goods, humanitarian goods to come in, or our hostages, individual hostages to leave.”
That remark came hours after a call between the Israeli leader and President Joe Biden in which they “discussed the possibility of tactical pauses,” according to a White House readout.
Axios reported Tuesday that, during the call, Biden suggested a three-day pause because it could lead to multiple hostage releases. The extended timeline could help with verifying the identities of the hostages, according to Axios.
Two senior U.S. officials, who like others requested anonymity to discuss a sensitive dynamic, said Netanyahu has closed the gap between Israel’s position and that of its closest ally. His comments were seen internally as less than a win but better than a stiff arm, one official said, indicating Israel may be inching toward the American position. Negotiations with the Israelis continue as part of an ongoing process, the official added.
A second senior administration official said “it’s much better that Netanyahu’s indicating an openness to U.S. requests for pauses in fighting than rejecting it out of hand.” U.S. officials don’t see a substantive difference between “humanitarian” and “tactical” pauses, the official said. “They’re the same thing.”
National Security Council spokesperson Adrienne Watson said in a statement to POLITICO Tuesday that “we support tactical pauses … We are continuing to work in earnest towards this goal.”
It’s the clearest indication yet that the U.S. and Israel are acting more in step as the war goes on. It signals that painstaking talks, which led Biden to send Secretary of State Antony Blinken to Israel and other Middle Eastern countries in recent days, closely followed by CIA Director Bill Burns, might be paying off for Washington.
The U.S. and Israel are still far apart and pitfalls remain. Netanyahu said that Israel should be in charge of Gaza’s security after the war. The Biden administration would like longer, geographically broader pauses in fighting centered around the safety of Palestinians in Gaza. Israel, for the moment, has placed conditions on when it would temporarily lay down arms.
“Israel is willing to do pauses, but only and if there's a substantial release of hostages,” said a senior Israeli official. “We're discussing localized solutions for specific needs with the American administration."
In an MSNBC interview on Tuesday, NSC spokesperson John Kirby hinted at remaining disagreements between Biden and Netanyahu regarding a pause in the conflict after their call on Monday. “I can’t say for sure coming out of this conversation that there was an agreement in date and time and length and purpose,” he said.
Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.), who led a joint statement by Senate Democrats last week calling on Israel to shift course, separately said on MSNBC Tuesday that any pauses have “got to be more than an hour or two.” The progressive wing of the Democratic Party and demonstrators around the country are calling for a cease-fire — a full cessation of hostilities — that neither the U.S., Israel nor Hamas want.
Eighteen heads of United Nations agencies, some of them American, on Monday demanded that the fighting end. “Enough is enough,” they said in a joint statement, noting that 88 colleagues had died during the war — “the highest number of United Nations fatalities ever recorded in a single conflict.”
The Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry says 10,000 people have been killed — about a third of them children — with 25,000 injured since Israel started retaliating against the militant group for its brutal surprise attack a month ago. Israeli troops are now fighting deep inside Gaza City, the enclave’s largest population center, increasing fears that the civilian death toll is set to spike.
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