Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is set to speak with President Joe Biden on Thursday, the Prime Minister’s Office told JNS.
While the PMO declined to comment on the nature of the conversation, Biden will reportedly pressure the Israeli leader to accept a modified hostage-for-terrorists exchange proposal that Hamas presented on Wednesday.
Ahead of the call, Netanyahu is set to hold meetings with his negotiating team and then convene the Security Cabinet to discuss the proposal.
The changes are believed to have been made to a framework Biden presented in May.
U.S., Qatari and Egyptian mediators have conveyed “Hamas’s remarks on the outline of the hostages deal,” according to a PMO statement on behalf of the Mossad late Wednesday.
“Israel is evaluating the remarks and will convey its reply to the mediators,” added the statement.
Jerusalem immediately accepted Biden’s proposal, which Netanyahu stressed does not call for a permanent end to the war sparked by Hamas’s Oct. 7 massacre of some 1,200 people and the kidnapping of some 250 others, of whom 120 remain in Gaza.
Hamas rejected the deal, demanding a permanent end to the conflict and the full withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza.