President Joe Biden has said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is not doing enough to get a hostage deal and ceasefire, amid protests and general strike after six hostages were killed by Hamas.
Biden was speaking to reporters outside the White House ahead of meeting the US hostage deal negotiating team alongside Vice President Kamala Harris.
Six hostages were found dead in Gaza on Sunday by the Israeli military, prompting a hostage family group to say that Netanyahu has failed.
Biden was asked by a reporter whether he felt Netanyahu was doing enough to get the hostages home, to which he responded "no."
Biden has returned to Washington after a two-week vacation in California and at his Delaware Beach house.
Biden also told reporters that the team was "very close" to presenting a final hostage deal to Israel and Hamas.
The meeting is closed to the press and will be held in the Situation Room.
The remarks follow criticism of Tim Walz for failing to answer similar questions.
The Minnesota governor came under fire after a video appeared to show him walking away as he was asked about the hostages found dead in Gaza.
Protests broke out in Israel on Sunday night after the bodies of the hostages were found.
A nationwide general strike on Monday, organized to protest the government's failure to secure the return of hostages held in Gaza, led to widespread closures and disruptions across the country.
However, the strike was cut short after a labor court ordered it to end by midafternoon, siding with a government petition that argued the strike was politically motivated.
Before Sunday's discovery of the bodies, Israel said it believed 108 hostages were still held in Gaza and that about a third of them were dead.
More than 100 were freed during a weeklong ceasefire in November in exchange for the release of Palestinians imprisoned by Israel.
Eight hostages have been rescued by Israeli forces, with Qaid Farhan Alkadi, 52, freed last week.
Following the meeting, Biden and Harris are set to co-headline an event in the battleground state of Pennsylvania later on Monday, campaigning together for the first time since she officially became the Democratic nominee for president.
They are scheduled to attend Pittsburgh's Labor Day Parade and offer some remarks.
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