President Joe Biden said Thursday that US mediators were making progress in reaching a Gaza ceasefire deal as he called for an end to the Israel-Hamas war.
Biden, in a high-stakes, nearly hour-long news conference aimed at repudiating doubters of his reelection bid, acknowledged concerns about Israeli actions despite his overall support for the US ally.
"There's a lot of things in retrospect I wish I had been able to convince the Israelis to do, but the bottom line is we have a chance now. It's time to end this war," he said after a NATO summit in Washington.
Biden acknowledged there remained "difficult, complex issues" between Israel and Hamas.
"There are still gaps to close. We're making progress," Biden said.
"The trend is positive, and I'm determined to get this deal done and bring an end to this war, which should end now," he said.
Biden more than a month ago laid out a plan in which Israel would temporarily halt its offensive in Gaza and Palestinian militants would release hostages, setting the stage for talks for a permanent end to the devastating nine-month war.
Hamas came back with counterproposals and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has faced pushback from some of his hard-right government allies.
But diplomats have spoken of progress in the latest round of talks that closed Thursday in Qatar, the key mediator.
- Pushing Israel 'really hard' -
Biden threw his support behind Israel after the October 7 attack by Hamas which resulted in the deaths of 1,195 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli figures.
Israel responded with a military offensive that has killed at least 38,345 people in Gaza, also mostly civilians, according to figures from Hamas-run Gaza health ministry.
Biden, 81, recalled his meeting a half-century ago as a young senator with Israeli prime minister Golda Meir -- and acknowledged that times have changed.
"We pushed it really hard, and Israel occasionally was less than cooperative," Biden said of Netanyahu's government.
"This war cabinet is one of the most conservative war cabinets in the history of Israel, and there's no ultimate answer other than a two-state solution here," he said.
Biden also stood firm on his decision to hold up delivery of massive 2,000-pound bombs, even as his administration moves forward on other munitions.
"I'm not providing the 2,000-pound bombs. They cannot be used in Gaza or any populated area without causing great human tragedy and damage," Biden said.
He again pressed Israel for a "day-after" plan for the war's end and spoke of his diplomacy to persuade Arab states to help with security.
"At the end of the day, there has to be no occupation by Israel in the Gaza Strip," Biden said.
He also acknowledged he was "disappointed" by a pier to deliver aid into Gaza, which Biden announced in March and the US military built at a cost of $230 million as Israel impeded land routes for aid trucks.
The United States plans soon to end the use of the pier permanently after it was plagued by problems, including the weather.
"I was hopeful that would be more successful," Biden said.
Biden says 'disappointed' with troubled Gaza aid pier
US President Joe Biden said Thursday he is "disappointed" with the problem-plagued effort to deliver aid to Gaza via a temporary pier, which American officials say will soon permanently end.
The $230-million military pier has repeatedly been detached from the shore because of weather conditions since its initial installation in mid-May. The project also faced issues with the distribution of assistance due to conditions onshore.
"I've been disappointed that some of the things that I've put forward have not succeeded as well, like the port we attached from Cyprus -- I was hopeful that would be more successful," Biden said of the pier project during a news conference in Washington.
Earlier in the day, US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan told journalists he anticipates "that in relatively short order, we will wind down pier operations."
Pentagon spokesman Major General Pat Ryder said in a statement that "the pier will soon cease operations, with more details on that process and timing available in the coming days."
The pier was detached from the coast late last month due to anticipated high seas, and Ryder said an effort to reattach it on Wednesday was unsuccessful.
US personnel "attempted yesterday to reanchor the temporary pier to the beach in Gaza to resume humanitarian operations. However, due to technical and weather-related issues," they were unable to do so, Ryder said.
- No reattachment date set -
"The pier and support vessels and equipment are returning to Ashdod (in Israel) where they will remain until further notice. A reanchoring date has not been set," he said.
The pier was damaged by bad weather in May and had to be removed for repairs. It was then reattached on June 7, but was moved to Ashdod on June 14 to protect it from anticipated high seas -- a situation that was repeated later in the month.
Biden announced the pier project during his State of the Union address in March as Israel held up deliveries of aid by land.
"To date, more than 8,100 metric tons (nearly 20 million pounds) of humanitarian aid have been delivered from the pier to the marshaling area where it can be collected by humanitarian organizations for onward delivery and distribution," Ryder said.
But distribution has been a problem, with the UN World Food Programme suspending deliveries of assistance that arrived via the pier last month to assess the security situation after Israel conducted a military operation nearby.
Gaza is suffering through a war that broke out after Hamas's unprecedented October 7 attack on Israel that resulted in the deaths of 1,195 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli figures.
Israel's retaliatory offensive has killed at least 38,345 people in Gaza, also mostly civilians, according to figures from Gaza's health ministry.