Biden Says Israel and Hamas Agreed to Cease-Fire Framework, Negotiations ‘Making Progress’

President Joe Biden announced Israeli and Hamas negotiators have now both agreed to a cease-fire framework after Hamas requested changes in June.

President Joe Biden announced on July 12 Israeli and Hamas negotiators have both agreed to a framework for Hamas to release hostages and for both sides to impose a cease-fire in the ongoing Israel–Hamas war.

“There is still work to do and these are complex issues, but that framework is now agreed to by both Israel and Hamas,” President Biden announced in a July 12 social media post. “My team is making progress and I’m determined to get this done.”

The announcement was made nine months into the conflict, which began after Hamas fighters carried out widespread attacks across southern Israel, and took around 250 people back to the Gaza Strip as hostages.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has repeatedly expressed a wartime goal to free all of the hostages, eliminate Hamas, and ensure no new threat to Israel can persist in the Gaza Strip. Mr. Netanyahu’s office reiterated some of those objectives, in a July 11 press statement, amid the reports of renewed deliberations on the cease-fire framework.

“Any outline must allow Israel to return to fighting until all the objectives of the war are achieved,” the Israeli Prime Minister’s office said.

Mr. Netanyahu’s office further said Israel would not allow weapons to flow into the Gaza Strip from Egypt or “the return of armed terrorists and the entry of war materiel to the northern Gaza Strip.”

The Israeli prime minister’s office also said his team will insist that Hamas releases “the maximum number of living hostages” possible in the first phase of a multi-part cease-fire framework.

This is a breaking news article and will be updated.