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President Joe Biden said that a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas could begin in roughly a week.
While stopping by a Manhattan ice cream shop with Seth Meyers for a taping of his late night NBC show Monday, reporters asked the president if he had a time frame for a possible ceasefire.
“I hope by the end of the weekend,” Biden replied. “My national security adviser tells me that we’re close, we’re close, we’re not done yet,” he added. “My hope is by next Monday we’ll have a ceasefire.”
Biden’s remarks arrive after Jewish Voice for Peace, a group that has called for the ceasefire, demonstrated inside 30 Rockefeller Plaza, the NBCUniversal Building where Meyers’ show takes place.
Earlier this month, The Washington Postreported that Bidenwas “warming” to the idea of being more publicly critical of Israeli Prime MinisterBenjamin Netanyahu. Biden and the prime minister have known each other for over four decades, and the president has long been a supporter ofIsrael. However, Biden recently showed his growing frustration with the Israeli leader, according to WaPo, when he said the “conduct of [Israel’s] response” in Gaza was “over the top.”
“A lot of innocent people are starving,” Biden said. “A lot of innocent people are in trouble and they’re dying. And it’s got to stop.”
In November, hundreds of Biden appointees and government staffers representing over 40 U.S. agencies signed a letter to his administration calling for a ceasefire in theGazaStrip.Israel’s retaliatory siege against Gaza following the Oct. 7 terrorist attacks by Hamas, which killed 1,400 Israelis, has now killedmore than 29,000 Palestinians.
The letter called on Biden to “urgently demand a cease-fire; and to call for de-escalation of the current conflict by securing the immediate release of the Israeli hostages and arbitrarily detained Palestinians; the restoration of water, fuel, electricity and other basic services; and the passage of adequate humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip.”
