US President Joe Biden spoke with Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over the phone on Sunday about the progress in negotiations for Gaza’s ceasefire deal, according to a statement by Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
“The Prime Minister discussed with the American President the progress in the negotiations to release our hostages and updated him on the mandate he gave to the negotiating team in Doha to advance the release of our hostages,” the statement read.
During Sunday’s call, Biden “stressed the immediate need for a ceasefire in Gaza and return of the hostages with a surge in humanitarian aid enabled by a stoppage in the fighting under the deal,” the statement continued.
The White House said that during the call Biden also discussed with Netanyahu the “fundamentally changed regional circumstances” that followed last year’s ceasefire in Lebanon, the overthrow of former Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s government the following month, and Iran’s diminished regional position.
Israeli negotiators have voiced “cautious optimism” about the negotiations that took place in Doha this past weekend, which included a high-level Israeli team led by Israeli intelligence Mossad chief David Barnea.
With one week left in Biden’s term of office, the US president’s phone call is the first to be publicly announced since October and is said to be contributing to momentum toward reaching a deal, the BBC reported.
Mediator Qatar handed Israel and Hamas a “final draft” of a deal on Monday after a “breakthrough” at midnight on Sunday.