U.S. officials reviewing ceasefire proposal by Hamas, Biden tells Netanyahu he still opposes Israeli operation in Rafah

At the White House press briefing on Monday, National Security Communications Adviser John Kirby told reporters that U.S. officials were reviewing a proposal by Hamas to release hostages and to enter a ceasefire in Gaza. Kirby also said that in a call with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, President Biden reiterated his opposition to an Israeli military operation in Rafah.

Video transcript

As Corine noted, there has been a response from Hamas to the hostage deal.We're currently reviewing that response and we're discussing it with our partners in the region.Director burns as you know is there and he's working this in real time on the ground.I won't be able to comment any further on this until we know where things stand.I hope you can understand that.I know everybody's curious about what's in this response, what the Israeli reaction to it is.I'm just not going to get ahead of the process.We want to get these hostages out.We want to get a cease fire in place for six weeks.We want to increase humanitarian assistance.And the last thing that I want to do is say anything at this podium that's gonna put that process at risk regardless as we've said before.We still believe that reaching an agreement is the absolute best outcome, not only for the hostages but for the Palestinian people.And we're not gonna stop working to that outcome.Now, as you know, the president talked with Prime Minister Netanyahu this morning call lasted about 30 minutes and was constructive and I also want to take a moment to address the latest reports.Now out of Rafa, which was also a topic of discussion on the on the call.I'll reiterate again that we cannot and we will not speak for ID F operations.But we've made clear our views about operations in Rafah that could potentially put more than a million innocent people at greater risk.During his call with Prime Minister Netanyahu, the president again made this clear, he also made clear that we continue to believe that the hostage deal is the best way to avoid that sort of an outcome while securing the release of those hostages.And as I said, those conversations continue, Israel has called on people and to evacuate.Does that presage a full scale assault?What do we see?As I said in my opening statement, I'm not going to speak for IDF operations or their military intentions and plans.They should be the ones to answer those kinds of questions.What I can only reiterate is that we've been consistent and the president was consistent again this morning that we don't support ground operations in Rafah that would put the majority or even any of the, the the civilians there at any greater risk.We want to see their safety and security allowed for and factored in.