Biden and Netanyahu discuss the latest in the effort to reach an Israel-Hamas war ceasefire

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and U.S. President Joe Biden spoke on Sunday about efforts to reach a ceasefire and hostage release agreement in the Israel-Hamas war, signaling an intensified push to secure a deal before Donald Trump takes office next week.

Negotiations mediated by the U.S., Egypt, and Qatar over the past year have repeatedly stalled at moments when an agreement seemed close. Nevertheless, in recent days, U.S. officials have expressed hope that a deal could be reached. The Sunday call between Biden and Netanyahu occurred as David Barnea, head of Israel's Mossad foreign intelligence agency, and Brett McGurk, Biden's senior Middle East advisor, were both in Doha, the capital of Qatar.

Netanyahu's office confirmed that Barnea's presence meant that senior Israeli officials needed to sign off on any agreement were now involved in the talks. Biden’s National Security Advisor, Jake Sullivan, said in an interview on CNN’s “State of the Union” that McGurk had been working on the final details of a text being presented to both sides. But he said he would not predict whether an agreement could be reached before the January 20 inauguration. “We are very, very close,” he said. “However, very close still means we are not there, until we actually cross the finish line.” Both the White House and Netanyahu's office confirmed the call between the two leaders, but offered no details.

There has only been one brief pause in the fighting during the 15-month war, which occurred in the first few weeks of the conflict. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said this week that an agreement was "very close" and that he hoped to finalize it before handing off diplomatic efforts to the incoming Trump administration. What is being discussed is a phased ceasefire, and Netanyahu has said he is only committed to the first phase, which would involve a partial release of hostages in exchange for a weeks-long pause in fighting.

Hamas is insisting on a complete withdrawal of Israeli forces from the mostly destroyed territory, but Netanyahu insists on destroying Hamas' fighting capabilities in Gaza. Issues in the negotiations include which hostages would be released in the first part of a phased ceasefire, which Palestinian prisoners would be released, and the extent of an Israeli troop withdrawal from Gaza population centers. According to the territory's health ministry, Israel's military operation in Gaza has killed more than 46,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, with the ministry's statistics not differentiating between combatants and civilians. Israel's military operation was triggered by the Hamas attack on October 7, 2023, when militants killed about 1,200 people and kidnapped around 250.

Families of the roughly 100 hostages still being held in Gaza are pressuring Netanyahu to reach a deal to bring their loved ones home. Israelis rallied again in Tel Aviv on Saturday night, displaying pictures of the hostages. In Gaza, Palestinians are tempering their hopes for a halt to Israeli military operations, which have devastated much of the territory and displaced more than 80% of its 2.3 million people. “We hear every day there are negotiations, but we see nothing,” said Mazen Hamad, a resident of the southern city of Khan Younis. “We will believe there is a truce when we see it happening on the ground.”