U.S. President Joe Biden spoke on Sunday with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the White House said, as U.S. officials race to reach a Gaza hostage and cease-fire deal before Biden leaves office on Jan. 20.
Biden and Netanyahu discussed efforts underway to reach a deal to halt the fighting in the Palestinian enclave and free the remaining hostages there, the White House said in a statement after the two leaders spoke by telephone.
Biden "stressed the immediate need for a cease-fire in Gaza and return of the hostages with a surge in humanitarian aid enabled by a stoppage in the fighting under the deal," it said.
Netanyahu updated Biden on progress in the talks and on the mandate he has given his top-level security delegation now in Doha in order to advance a hostage deal, Netanyahu said in a statement.
The two leaders also discussed "the fundamentally changed regional circumstances following the cease-fire deal in Lebanon, the fall of the Assad regime in Syria, and the weakening of Iran's power in the region," the White House said.