Jerusalem, Israel - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke with outgoing President Joe Biden on Sunday, updating him on progress in negotiations to reach a hostage release deal in Gaza.

A readout from Biden's office confirmed the call and said that the president "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".

Netanyahu's office said the prime minister informed Biden about how the talks were progressing.

"The prime minister discussed with the American president the progress in the negotiations for the release of our hostages and updated him on the mandate he has given to the negotiating team in Doha, aimed at advancing the release of the hostages," Netanyahu's office said in a statement.

Joke of the Day Joke of the Night for January 9, 2025: The best jokes to laugh the day away

The two leaders spoke a day after Netanyahu's office announced that Israel was sending a delegation of senior officials to Qatar for the negotiations.

The announcement followed a meeting in Jerusalem with President-elect Donald Trump's Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff, a representative of Biden, and senior Israeli officials.

Netanyahu's office confirmed to AFP on Sunday that the delegation, which includes the heads of the Mossad and Shin Bet internal security agency, had arrived in Doha.

For more than a year, the US has been mediating talks alongside Qatar and Egypt for a deal to end the war in Gaza and release the remaining hostages.

Indirect negotiations between Israel and Hamas resumed last weekend in Qatar.

Trump previously warned Hamas that there would be "hell to pay" if the hostages were not released by his inauguration on January 20.

Hamas's attack on October 7, 2023, resulted in the deaths of 1,210 people on the Israeli side, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of official Israeli figures.

Since then, Israel's genocidal assault on Gaza has killed at least 46,660 people, a majority of them civilians, though the true death toll is believed to be around 40% higher than recorded by the Palestinian territory's health ministry.