By Jeff Mason and Nandita Bose
ABOARD AIR FORCE ONE/MILWAUKEE (Reuters) – U.S. President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris said on Thursday that the death of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar set the stage for the return of Israeli hostages and an end to the war in Gaza.
The killing of Sinwar, a mastermind of the Oct. 7, 2023, attack that triggered the Gaza war, by Israeli forces in the Palestinian enclave marks a major success for Israel and a milestone in the yearlong conflict.
But Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, speaking after the operation that killed the Hamas leader in the southern Gaza Strip, said the war would go on. After months of starts and stops, ceasefire negotiations have not succeeded and have shown no signs of movement in weeks.
“I will be speaking soon with Prime Minister Netanyahu and other Israeli leaders to congratulate them, to discuss the pathway for bringing the hostages home to their families, and for ending this war once and for all,” Biden said.
Speaking on the sidelines of campaign events for her 2024 presidential campaign in Milwaukee, Harris reinforced the point.
“This moment gives us an opportunity to finally end the war in Gaza,” Harris said.
The ongoing conflict in the Middle East has been a political liability for the Biden administration ahead of the Nov. 5 U.S. elections. Harris faces intense pressure from Arab American, Muslim and liberal voters over her administration’s weapons aid and diplomatic support for Israel amid conflicts in Gaza and Lebanon.
The Hamas attack last year killed 1,200 people in Israel and ended with the capture of more than 250 hostages, according to Israeli tallies.
Israel’s assault on Hamas-governed Gaza has killed more than 42,000 people, the local health ministry has said, while displacing nearly its entire population and causing a hunger crisis. In Lebanon, where Israel said it is targeting Iran-backed Hezbollah militants, the death toll is over 2,000, according to the Lebanese government.
“We see an opportunity now that we want to seize to try to secure the release of the hostages,” said Biden national security adviser Jake Sullivan. “We will have to work to ensure that his death actually does deal the kind of long-term blow to Hamas that all of us would like to see.”
It was not immediately clear how Washington intended to restart efforts to secure the release of hostages and obtain a ceasefire.
In recent weeks, the Biden administration has publicly blamed Sinwar for stalling talks but has privately also doubted Netanyahu’s willingness to do a deal.
(Reporting by Jeff Mason aboard Air Force One and Nandita Bose in Milwaukee; Writing by Trevor Hunnicutt; Editing by Don Durfee; editing by Jonathan Oatis)
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