Biden, Netanyahu discuss Gaza truce by phone

NEW YORK, Jan 13 (BBC): US President Joe Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have spoken by phone - Biden's final week in office - as momentum builds towards a Gaza ceasefire and hostage release deal.

Israel and Hamas are understood to be making progress but uncertainty remains over key aspects of the potential agreement.

The White House said Biden discussed the "fundamentally changed regional circumstances" following Israel's ceasefire with Hezbollah in Lebanon, the fall of the Assad regime in Syria, and the weakening of Iran's power in the region.

Netanyahu's office said he had updated Biden on instructions he had given to senior negotiators in Doha "in order to advance the release of the hostages".

During Sunday's call, which was the first to be publicly announced since October, 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".

It came a day after Netanyahu sent a top Israeli security delegation, including the directors of the Mossad spy agency and Shin Bet security service, to indirect negotiations in Qatar's capital mediated by Qatari, US and Egyptian officials.

Israeli media reported that Netanyahu was meeting members of his cabinet opposed to a ceasefire deal to persuade them not to resign. And UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy met his Israeli counterpart in Jerusalem to discuss progress on a deal.