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All summer long, the White House has been talking about a deal to end the war in Gaza. The line's been that a resolution is in sight, even after Hamas killed six hostages, and the Israeli prime minister cast doubt on the negotiations. Here's NPR White House correspondent Asma Khalid, on President Biden's optimism for a deal.
ASMA KHALID, BYLINE: In late May, President Biden walked into the state dining room of the White House and said that after intensive diplomacy with Israel, Qatar and Egypt, he had an announcement.
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PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN: Israel has now offered - Israel has offered a comprehensive new proposal. It's a road-map to an enduring cease-fire and the release of all hostages.
KHALID: It was an unusual moment. The President of the United States was laying out in detail a three-phase deal that he says Israel had put forth. But the message was being delivered from Washington on what was a Friday evening in Israel. Biden called on Hamas to take the offer. Fast-forward to July at the annual summit of NATO leaders, and Biden sounded quite optimistic.
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BIDEN: Six weeks ago, I laid out a detailed plan in writing that was endorsed by the U.N. Security Council, the G7. That framework is now agreed on by both Israel and Hamas.
KHALID: Biden said he had sent his team to the region to hammer out details.
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BIDEN: There's still gaps to close. We're making progress. The trend is positive.
KHALID: By mid-August, the president sounded even more confident.
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BIDEN: We are closer than we've ever been. I don't want to jinx anything.
KHALID: Since the start of the talks, thousands more Palestinians in Gaza have died. Then last weekend, Hamas killed six of the hostages. The White House stressed a new urgency. Here's Biden talking to reporters on Monday after stepping off his Marine One helicopter.
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UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Are you planning to present a final hostage deal to the - both sides this week?
BIDEN: We're very close to that.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: What makes you think that this deal will be successful in a way that the other deals were not?
BIDEN: Hope springs eternal.
KHALID: Behind closed doors, U.S. officials have acknowledged that the killing of hostages has made the negotiations more difficult. A senior administration official told reporters, the release of Palestinian prisoners for hostages has been a primary sticking point. Another major issue is the withdrawal of Israeli military forces from a key corridor along the Gaza-Egypt border. But the official also insisted that 90% of the deal is done. Then the next morning, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu went on Fox News and flatly disputed that 90% characterization.
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PRIME MINISTER BENJAMIN NETANYAHU: Hamas is not there with a deal. There's not a deal in the making, unfortunately.
KHALID: The daylight between these public statements raises questions about who is telling the truth? John Kirby, with the White House National Security Council, downplayed the discrepancies.
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JOHN KIRBY: The basic framework of the deal has been agreed to. What we're talking about now is the implementing details and, specifically, the exchange of prisoners. And now that calculus is different because of what happened over the weekend. It's not guaranteed that Mr. Sinwar is ever going to accept the deal. We've all said that.
KHALID: Yahya Sinwar is the leader of Hamas. Neither Sinwar nor Netanyahu seems to be showing a lot of urgency right now to close the deal, according to longtime Middle East expert Aaron David Miller. He says, the Biden administration is coming off as desperate.
AARON DAVID MILLER: To continuously message publicly that, in fact, we're close to a deal - that is the worst signal to send to the two decision-makers with whom you're negotiating because it basically conveys the message that you are in a greater hurry than they are.
KHALID: Biden is in a hurry - less than two months from the election, a one-term president who prides himself on his international diplomacy. But it's not just his legacy. His vice president is now the Democratic presidential nominee, and the war has been one of the only points of disagreement in an otherwise united Democratic Party, Asma Khalid, NPR News. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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