Biden says there must be a ‘real’ Palestinian state after the war

President Biden said on Wednesday that the endpoint of the conflict between Israel and Hamas must be a Palestinian state that is “real,” alongside an Israeli state.

He added that he and his aides have been negotiating with Arab countries on next steps, but gave no details.

“I can tell you that I don’t think ultimately it will end until there is a two-state solution,” Biden said at a news conference at an estate south of San Francisco after his summit with Xi Jinping, the Chinese leader.

Mr. Biden and Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken have publicly emphasized the need for a two-state solution in recent days. The establishment of a Palestinian state has long been a US policy goal, but no recent administration has been able to make any substantive progress in this regard. The last major step in that direction came from John Kerry when he was Secretary of State in the Obama administration.

Mr. Biden said he had no specific idea when to tell Israel to end the war in Gaza. He said the fighting would end once Hamas could no longer do “heinous things” to the Israelis. Hamas still has weapons and technology among hospitals in Gaza, he said.

U.S. officials have said in recent days that Hamas maintains a complex beneath Al-Shifa Hospital, which the Israeli army raided this week despite the presence of civilian patients and doctors. Israeli officials have said the hospital sits atop a key hub of Hamas’ tunnel network, and that the terrorist group stores weapons in the area.

Fighters from Hamas and other militant groups killed about 1,200 people in southern Israel on October 7. The groups also kidnapped about 240 others.

Israel’s attacks on Gaza in response have killed at least 11,000 people, about 40 percent of them children, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, which is run by Hamas.

Mr. Biden said that Israeli forces allowed doctors and nurses at Al-Shifa to stay out of harm’s way, and that “this is a different story than what I think happened before with indiscriminate bombings.”

Hamas has released four hostages since October 7 and recently informed Israel through mediators in Qatar that it is willing to release another 50 women and children if the right conditions are met, including Israel’s release of a similar number of hostages . Women and children are being held captive, said an official briefed on the talks.

Israeli officials have said Hamas has at least 100 women and children and must release them all, the official said. Negotiators are also discussing the possibility of Israel pausing its strikes for three days to allow the release of hostages in batches.

Mr. Biden said he was “slightly hopeful” that some hostages would be released, but added that he did not know what had happened during the talks over the past four hours.

Mr. Biden added that the United States had worked well with Qatar, which hosts an office for Hamas political leaders, to try to secure the release of the hostages.