What Joe Biden said to Benjamin Netanyahu shortly after the ceasefire was approved

US President Joe Biden spoke with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, a few minutes after the political cabinet approved the ceasefire agreement.

According to a report by Walla's Barak Ravid, they discussed the details of the agreement, but the president immediately instructed Netanyahu that now was the time to focus on a deal that would lead to the release of the hostages from Gaza.

Ravid relies in his report on two senior American officials, who added that the conversation lasted several minutes and dealt mainly with the hostages, with the president making it clear that the opportunity to return the hostages should not be missed.

Prime Minister Netanyahu made it clear that he wants to do everything possible for the release of the hostages and he wants to try a deal as well. He repeated that the main thing is to bring about the release of the hostages.

But not everyone in Netanyahu's cabinet is happy to go for a hostage deal, and Ravid quoted one of the senior cabinet ministers as saying that Netanyahu himself is interested in a partial hostage deal that would not force him to end the war and fully withdraw from the entire Gaza Strip.

To date, Hamas has rejected such deals, but now that it remains alone in the campaign and is under very heavy pressure, it may agree.