Joe Biden's call for two-state solution as PM Netanyahu plans Israel's ‘full force’ after Gaza truce

Israel-Hamas war updates: US President Joe Biden said he hoped the pause in fighting can go on as long as prisoners are getting released. Biden hoped more Americans would be released by Hamas although he did not have firm news. The US president also advocated for a “two-state solution”, stating that this is the only way to guarantee the long-term security of both the Israeli and the Palestinian people.

Biden was briefing the media after Hamas released 17 hostages held in Gaza, including a four-year-old American girl, on Sunday while Israel was also seen releasing prisoners on the third day of their truce. Biden said the four-year-old hostage, Abigail Edan, had witnessed her parents being killed by Hamas fighters during their October 7 raid into Israel and had been held since then.

"What she endured is unthinkable," Biden said. “Two days ago, Abigail – one of our fellow Americans – turned four years old. She spent that birthday and the last 50 days held hostage by Hamas. Today, she is free once more. We will keep working until every hostage is returned to their loved ones,” he added.

Biden said the US continues to press that additional Americans be released. “And we will not stop working until every hostage is returned,” he said.

Over the future of Gaza, Biden said, “A two-state solution is the only way to guarantee the long-term security of both the Israeli and the Palestinian people. To make sure Israelis and Palestinians alike can live in equal measures of freedom and dignity. We will not give up on working toward this goal.”

“To keep this pause in fighting going beyond tomorrow is our goal – so that we can continue to see more hostages come out and surge more humanitarian relief to those in need,” Biden said.

Biden has already made it clear that there was no going back to the status quo before October 7, when Palestine's militant group Hamas launched a surprise assault in Israel killing over 1,200 people, meaning in part that when the crisis is over, there must be a view of what comes next.

What is a two-state solution?

The two-state solution calls for establishing an independent state for Palestinians alongside that of Israel. The US has been supporting it – for decades, it has been the primary proposed framework for resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

However, failed peace dialogues, logistical questions, expanded Israeli settlements, Palestinian attacks and recurring clashes have kept it from becoming a reality. The two-state solution has seen dwindling support from both Palestinians and Israelis over the years.

Four-day Israel-Hamas truce

The four-day truce is the first halt in fighting in the seven weeks since Hamas killed 1,200 people and took about 240 hostages back into Gaza.

In response to that attack, Israel has vowed to destroy the Hamas militants who run Gaza, bombarding the enclave and mounting a ground offensive in the north. Some 14,800 Palestinians have been killed, Gaza health authorities say, and hundreds of thousands displaced.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday met security forces inside the Gaza Strip. He also said he spoke to Biden about the hostage release, adding that he would welcome extending a temporary truce if it meant that on every additional day 10 captives would be freed.

However Netanyahu said he also told Biden that, at the end of the truce, "we will return with full force to achieve our goals: The elimination of Hamas, ensuring that Gaza does return to what it was; and of course the release of all our hostages."

However, Netanyahu also said he would welcome extending the truce if it facilitated the release of 10 additional hostages every day, as agreed under the original Qatari-brokered deal.

(With inputs from agencies)

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