President Joe Biden criticized Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for his so-called lack of urgency in securing a hostage deal with Hamas terrorists after six hostages were found dead in Gaza this weekend.
On Monday, Biden accused Netanyahu of not doing enough to finalize a deal with Hamas to release the hostages it had been holding captive for nearly 11 months by the Palestinian terrorist group.
He and Vice President Kamala Harris met in the White House Situation Room to discuss a deal that would release the remainder of the hostages. Biden said both sides are “very close” to a ceasefire and a hostage release deal.
“Hope springs eternal," the president added when asked whether a deal with Hamas terrorists would be successful.
The bodies of six hostages, including Israeli-American Hersh Goldberg-Polin, were found in Rafah, murdered by Hamas terrorists just shortly before the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) reached them.
Biden demanded for Hamas leaders to suffer consequences and vowed they would “pay for their crimes,” but then criticized Israel for not taking enough action against the terrorist group.
To put into perspective, in March, the president threatened to withhold weapons if Israel ignored the Biden Administration’s “red line” and invaded Rafah. At the time, Netanyahu insisted that Rafah was one of the last places Hamas could be holding hostages, adding that he would invade the region with or without the Biden Administration’s blessing.
A father of an Israeli-American hostage still being held demanded a “negotiated agreement with Satan,” criticizing the Biden Administration for “perpetuating this fantasy of total victory over Hamas based on the sacrifice of our sons, daughters, grandparents who are hostages in Gaza.”
There are still at least seven Americans being held by Hamas, including four believed to be alive and three whose deaths have already been confirmed.
“We’ve been at this for 11 months, hearing from our government that a little more military pressure and a little more military pressure is going to cause Hamas to come begging for an agreement in exchange for our hostages. Clearly, that has not happened. Six bodies were returned yesterday of hostages who were alive until this past week. A week before that, six other hostages were returned after their murder, months and months after [Oct. 7th],” the father said in an interview with “Fox & Friends.”