Biden says Netanyahu not doing enough to secure Gaza ceasefire deal

US president says Washington is ‘very close’ to putting forward a final proposal for an agreement between Israel and Hamas.

Washington, DC – In what is still a rare public criticism of Benjamin Netanyahu, United States President Joe Biden has said that the Israeli prime minister is not doing enough to finalise a Gaza ceasefire deal.

Biden told reporters outside the White House on Monday that the US is “very close” to presenting a final proposal that would lead to the release of Israeli captives in Gaza.

Asked why he thinks this push would succeed when other attempts to bring about a ceasefire in Gaza have failed, Biden said: “Hope springs eternal.”

The US president then answered with a simple “no” when a reporter asked him whether Netanyahu is doing enough to secure a ceasefire agreement with Hamas.

Despite the Biden administration attempting to put some distance between itself and Netanyahu over the past few months, amid the unpopularity of Israel’s war on Gaza among Democrat supporters in particular, the criticism is one of the most overt made by the US president – even if it was brief and apparently off the cuff.