Biden Says Netanyahu Not Doing Enough to Free Hostages in Rare Rebuke

AP Photo/Evan Vucci

President Joe Biden said Benjamin Netanyahu is not doing enough to secure a hostage deal in a rare rebuke of Israel’s prime minister.

Reuters White House correspondent Jeff Mason asked Biden, as he returned to the White House from a vacation in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, if he thought Netanyahu was doing enough to secure the release of the hostages still being held by Hamas in Gaza. Over the weekend, Israel discovered the bodies of six hostages held in Gaza since Oct. 7, and said Hamas had executed them just days ago.

“Do you think he’s doing enough?” Mason asked Biden.

“No” Biden replied.

He also said, according to a pool report, that he had spoken to the family of Israeli-American hostage Hersh Goldberg-Polin , one of the six killed.

The killing of the hostages sparked large protests and a general strike in Israel. “Bibi, you’re killing the hostages,” one crowd chanted, according to The Guardian . The editorial board of Haaretz, in a scathing op-ed , wrote: “It was Hamas terrorists who pulled the trigger, but it was Netanyahu who sealed their fate.”

Biden has mostly avoided criticizing Netanyahu over Israel’s response to the Oct. 7 attack, which has taken the form of a months-long bombing campaign in Gaza that has killed more than 40,000 people , the vast majority believed to be women and children, according to local authorities.

Protestors have accused Netanyahu of pushing off a deal that would secure the release of the remaining hostages. Far-right ministers in his coalition government vehemently oppose a deal.