Biden tells Netanyahu: Now is the opportunity to seek peace in Gaza

For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Please try again later {{ /verifyErrors }} Joe Biden has told Israel’s prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu to use the killing of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar as an “opportunity to seek a path to peace” in Gaza. Mr Biden, speaking from Berlin where he was meeting German chancellor Olaf Scholz on Friday, said: “I told the prime minister of Israel yesterday, let’s also make this moment an opportunity to seek a path to peace, a better future in Gaza without Hamas.” He added that Sinwar “had the blood of Americans and Israelis, Palestinians and Germans and so many others on his hands”. “Sinwar’s death also provides an extraordinary opportunity to achieve a lasting ceasefire, to end this awful war and to rush humanitarian aid into Gaza.” Describing Sinwar as the chief obstacle to securing a ceasefire in Gaza, White House spokesperson John Kirby also told reporters: “We believe, continue to believe, that finding an end to the war is critical, and we also believe that Mr Sinwar’s death. can provide an inflection point to getting there.” Ronen Neutra, father of the Israeli-American hostage Omer Neutra, agreed, saying: “We are at an inflection point where the goals set for the war with Gaza have been achieved, all but the release of the hostages.” Joe Biden said he told Benjamin Netanyahu in a call to use Yahya Sinwar’s death as an opportunity to seek peace But Sinwar’s Qatar-based deputy Khalil al-Hayya, who has represented Hamas in several rounds of ceasefire negotiations, vowed that no hostages would be returned until “the end of the aggression on Gaza and the withdrawal from Gaza”.