US President Joe Biden spoke with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday, the White House said, as US officials race to reach an agreement on the ceasefire and the hostages in Gaza before Biden leaves office on January 20.
Biden and Netanyahu discussed ongoing efforts to reach a deal to stop fighting in the Palestinian enclave and free remaining hostages there, the White House said in a statement after the two leaders spoke by phone.
Biden “underscored the immediate need for a ceasefire in Gaza and the return of hostages with an increase in humanitarian aid thanks to the cessation of fighting under the agreement,” he said.
Netanyahu informed Biden of the progress in the talks and the mandate he gave to his high-level security delegation in Doha to advance the hostage agreement, Netanyahu said in a statement.
The two leaders also discussed “the fundamentally changed regional circumstances following the agreement ceasefire in Lebanonthe fall of the Assad regime in Syria and the weakening of Iran’s power in the region,” the White House said.
Biden’s national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, said Sunday on ‘s “State of the Union” that the sides were “very, very close” to reaching a deal but had yet to close it.
He said Biden was receiving daily updates on talks in Doha, where Israeli and Palestinian officials have said since Thursday that some progress has been made in indirect talks between Israel and the Hamas militant group.
“We remain determined to use every day we have in office to get this done,” Sullivan said, “and we are not, by any stretch of the imagination, letting this go.”
He added that there was still a chance of reaching an agreement before Biden leaves office, but that it was also possible that “Hamas, in particular, remains intransigent.”
During their call, Netanyahu also thanked Biden for his lifelong support of Israel and “the United States’ extraordinary support for Israel’s national security and defense,” the White House said.
Israel launched its assault on Gaza after Hamas fighters stormed across its borders in October 2023, killing 1,200 people and taking more than 250 hostages, according to Israeli counts.
Since then, more than 46,000 people have died in Gaza, according to Palestinian health authorities, with much of the enclave devastated and plunged into a humanitarian crisis, and the majority of its population displaced.
Vice President-elect JD Vance told “Fox News Sunday” in an interview taped Saturday that he expects a deal for the release of American hostages in the Middle East to be announced in the final days of the Biden administration, perhaps in the last one or two days.
President-elect Donald Trump, a staunch supporter of Israel, has strongly backed Netanyahu’s goal of destroying Hamas. He promised to bring peace to the Middle East, but did not say how he would achieve it.
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