Biden says Haniyeh's assassination not helpful for Gaza cease-fire

ISTANBUL

US President Joe Biden said the assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh has not helped efforts to reach a cease-fire in the Gaza Strip.

"It has not helped," the US president told reporters late on Thursday when asked if Haniyeh's assassination ruined the chances for the truce agreement.

Biden also said he had a "very direct" conversation with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. "We have the basis for a cease-fire. He should move on it, and they should move on it now," he added.

Earlier in the day, Biden and Netanyahu spoke by phone and discussed US military deployments to support Israel against various threats, the White House said.

Israel has continued its air and ground attacks on Gaza since a cross-border incursion by Hamas on Oct. 7, 2023 that killed 1,200 people and around 250 others were taken as hostages. Since then, it has killed nearly 40,000 Palestinians, most of them women and children, levelled the territory and left most of the people hungry and homeless.

Haniyeh was assassinated during a visit to the Iranian capital of Tehran on Wednesday. Israel has not commented on his death directly.

The assassination came a day after Hezbollah commander Fouad Shukr was killed in an Israeli airstrike in Beirut’s southern suburb.

Talks for a cease-fire and hostage exchange, which continue through mediators the US, Qatar and Egypt, appear to have stalled after the attacks in Beirut and Tehran.