Biden, top advisers meet on latest Gaza cease-fire deal

President Joe Biden was meeting Monday with top advisers at the White House to discuss efforts to get Israel and Hamas to reach an agreement on a cease-fire deal, according to a person familiar with the discussions.

White House officials had talks earlier Monday morning about the state of the negotiations with Egyptian and Qatari officials, who have been serving as intermediaries with Hamas.

The person, who wasn’t authorized to speak publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity, said that the U.S. side is frustrated with Hamas demands for the release of more Hamas prisoners in the first stage of the deal after last week’s killing of six hostages. That demand is a non-starter for the Israeli-side, but the White House still has hope that Qatar can persuade Hamas to a more reasonable position on the hostage for prisoner swap.

White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan spoke Monday with Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

Sullivan and the crown prince also discussed the U.S.-push for normalization of relations between Israel and Saudi Arabia as well as concerns about Iran’s nuclear program, according to a person familiar with the conversation.

Meanwhile, dozens of mourners attended a funeral procession for a Turkish-American activist who a witness says was shot dead by Israeli forces in the West Bank.

The procession on Monday for Aysenur Ezgi Eygi was organized by the Western-backed Palestinian Authority. Its security forces carried her body draped in a Palestinian flag with a traditional black-and-white checkered scarf over her face.

Several Palestinian officials took part in the procession in the West Bank city of Nablus.

A fellow pro-Palestinian protester said the 26-year-old was shot in the head by Israeli forces during a period of calm after a clash between the soldiers and Palestinian protesters.

The military said it was investigating the shooting, and that the forces had fired at an “instigator of violent activity” in the area of the protest last Friday.

The Turkish Foreign Ministry said it was working to repatriate her remains for burial in Turkey.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Monday that Turkey would seek justice for the slain activist by taking her “brutal” killing to an international court.

“We will take every legal step to ensure that our daughter, Aysenur Ezgi’s blood is not left unavenged and we will continue our fight against the state of Israel by applying at the highest level to the International Court of justice in The Hague,” Erdogan said following a Cabinet meeting.

A deputy State Department spokesman fended off questions Monday about whether the U.S. was being slow to respond to Friday’s killing of Eygi, a 26-year-old Seattle resident and American citizen.

The deputy spokesman, Vedant Patel, said the Biden administration was still speaking to Israeli allies about the shooting.

“Our partners in Israel have indicated they are conducting a process” examining the killing “and they will make public their finding,” Patel said, adding that they will let that process play out.

“Should whatever happened deem that there be accountability” by Israelis, “we of course” will expect that. Pressed by reporters on the contrast to the administration’s swift condemnation of the killing of American hostage Hersh Goldberg-Polin in Hamas custody last week, Patel said that reflected the “direct murder of American Israeli citizens being held by a terrorist group.” Patel said any direct investigation would be carried out by the Justice Department, not State.

The Palestinians have circulated a draft U.N. resolution demanding that Israel end its “unlawful presence” in Gaza and the West Bank within six months.

The proposed General Assembly resolution follows a ruling by the top United Nations court in July that said Israel’s presence in the Palestinian territories is unlawful and must end.

Israeli Ambassador to the U.N. Danny Danon denounced the resolution and described it as a “reward for terrorism.” He called for the resolution to be rejected.