President Joe Biden has told reporters that Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is not “doing enough” to negotiate a deal with the Hamas terrorists who control Gaza.
Biden made the remarks to reporters before heading into the White House Situation Room.
He is convening with Vice President Kamala Harris and a hostage deal negotiating team.
The meetings follow the murder of 23-year-old Israeli-American Hersh Goldberg-Polin and five other hostages by Hamas on Saturday.
Biden was asked about the situation on the South Lawn of the White House as he disembarked from Marine One upon returning from his vacation home in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware.
One reporter asked, “Mr. President, do you think it’s time for Prime Minister Netanyahu to do more on this issue?
“Do you think he is doing enough?
“No,” Biden responded flatly.
Another reporter asked the president if he had a message for the hostages’ families.
“Yes. I have spoken to the American hostage,” Biden said.
“I spoke to his mom and dad, and we are not giving up.
“We are going to continue to push as hard as we can. Thank you.”
WATCH:
Biden comes back from two weeks of vacation and the 1st thing he does is criticize Netanyahu for not doing enough for the hostages
— Shaun Maguire (@shaunmmaguire) September 2, 2024
Where is the criticism of Khamenei and Sinwar?
Meanwhile his admin has unfrozen Iranian funds and withholds weapons
pic.twitter.com/L6oOoM5g7Y
Earlier Monday, Jonathan Dekel-Chen, the father of an Israeli-American hostage still being held by Hamas, pleaded for the U.S. and Israel to broker a deal “with Satan.”
Appearing on Fox & Friends, Dekel-Chen acknowledged that the United States, together with Qatar and Egypt, is trying to broker an agreement between Israel and “a savage* terrorist organization.”
However, he insisted that Israeli intelligence shows Hamas’s forces are depleted at this stage.
He said Netanyahu cannot offer “an excuse anymore to not complete this deal” to bring home the remaining 101 hostages, including seven Americans, taken into Gaza on October 7, 2023
Israel saw a massive strike on Monday after demonstrators took to the streets in droves Sunday.
They were protesting Israel’s leadership’s failure to reach an agreement to release the hostages 11 months into the war.
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