WASHINGTON (Reuters) -President Joe Biden is meeting Middle East ally, Jordan’s King Abdullah II, at the White House on Monday as Hamas said it accepted a ceasefire proposal but Israel said it was unacceptable.
An Israeli official said the ceasefire proposal that Hamas had accepted was a “softened” version of an Egyptian proposal. Earlier in the day, Israel told Palestinians to evacuate parts of the southern Gaza city of Rafah.
On Sunday, Hamas reiterated its demand for an end to the war in exchange for the freeing of hostages, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu flatly ruled that out. Hamas also attacked the Kerem Shalom crossing into Gaza, which Israel said killed three of its soldiers.
A Jordanian diplomat told Reuters Monday’s meeting between Biden and King Abdullah is not a formal bilateral meeting but an informal private meeting.
Earlier on Monday, Biden pressed Netanyahu not to go ahead with a large-scale Israeli military offensive in Rafah. The U.S. president has been vocal in his demand that Israel not undertake a ground offensive in Rafah without a plan to protect Palestinian civilians.
The Biden administration and Israeli officials remain at odds over Israel’s planned military incursion in the southern Gaza city of Rafah where it told Palestinians to start evacuating some parts on Monday.
Biden last met King Abdullah at the White House in February and the two longtime allies discussed a daunting list of challenges, including the looming Israeli ground offensive in southern Gaza and suffering of Palestinian civilians.
Jordan and other Arab states have been highly critical of Israel’s actions and have been demanding a ceasefire since mid-October as civilian casualties began to skyrocket.
The war began after Hamas stunned Israel with a cross-border raid on Oct. 7 in which 1,200 people were killed and 252 hostages taken, according to Israeli tallies.
More than 34,600 Palestinians have been killed and more than 77,000 wounded in Israel’s assault, according to Gaza’s health ministry.
With pro-Palestinian protests erupting across U.S. college campuses, Biden faces increasing pressure politically to persuade Israel to hold off on an invasion. Biden addressed the campus unrest over the war in Gaza last week but said the campus protests had not forced him to reconsider his policies in the Middle East.
(Reporting by Nandita Bose and Steve Holland in Washington; Editing by Lincoln Feast and Jonathan Oatis)
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