Biden, leaders of Egypt and Qatar urge more Gaza ceasefire talks next week

In a joint statement issued Thursday, the leaders urged Israel and Hamas to meet for negotiation on Aug. 15, an invitation the U.S. says Israel has welcomed.

The three countries, which have been trying to mediate a deal for months, also said they are ready to present a “final bridging proposal" to overcome the remaining obstacles to a cease-fire agreement if Israel and Hamas fail to make headway in next week’s talks, which are to be held in either Cairo or Doha.

“There is no further time to waste nor excuses from any party for further delay," said the statement, which was issued by Biden, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Al Sisi and Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani. “It is time to release the hostages, begin the cease fire, and implement this agreement."

Officials didn’t provide details of the proposal that the three leaders said in their statement could resolve “remaining implementation issues in a manner that meets the expectations of all parties."

The push for a cease-fire has been snagged for months and might be set back further if Iran mounts a major attack on Israel in retaliation for the killing of a senior Hamas leader last month in Tehran, which the Iranians have blamed on the Israelis.

Dennis Ross, who has served as a senior official on Middle East issues in Democratic and Republican administrations, said the three-nation call for the talks is likely to have followed consultations between the U.S. and Israel as well as parallel discussions between Egyptian and Qatari officials and Hamas.

“One reason I am hopeful about it is that I think the bridging proposal probably does reflect those parallel consultations," Ross said. “But we have seen some hopeful developments before that have not materialized."

Other experts on the Middle East say Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar might have their own reasons to hold back from a deal but are also under pressure to agree to a cease-fire.

The Hamas leader has observed that the high casualty toll in Gaza has worked to the group’s advantage by turning much of international opinion against Israel. Yet many of Hamas’s fighters are also eager for a respite from the Israeli military’s attacks, Middle East experts say.

Netanyahu might be calculating that the U.S. presidential election could lead to a Republican administration that is more supportive of his policy goals. Yet the Israeli military has also been stressed by the months of fighting in Gaza and faces new security challenges on its northern frontier with Lebanon’s Hezbollah, where tensions have been escalating.

“Netanyahu and Sinwar both have reasons to think that holding out on a deal will better support their political objectives," said Jonathan Panikoff, a former senior U.S. intelligence officer who is at the Atlantic Council think tank. “But they also are facing pressure from domestic constituencies, which combined with U.S. and Arab state pressure, could finally be enough to reach at least a temporary cease-fire."

A senior Biden administration official cautioned that a significant amount of work remains to overcome complicated issues between Israel and Hamas on how the agreement would be implemented.

“We believe there is enough trade space," said the official. “Having a proposal that’s unified between the three mediators can be quite powerful."

Write to Michael R. Gordon at michael.gordon@wsj.com