US President Biden spoke with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel on Sunday to discuss the prospects of a possible cease-fire deal to secure the release of hostages held by Hamas, while repeating his warnings about a new Israeli assault on the city of Rafah in southern Gaza, officials said, reported from The New York Times.

The call was meant to pave the way for Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken, who left Washington just a few hours earlier on Sunday for his latest trip to the Middle East aimed at scaling back the war in Gaza.

An administration official said that about three-quarters of Biden’s nearly hourlong call to Netanyahu focused on the possible cease-fire and hostage deal. American officials have said that Israel has accepted the US-drafted plan, and they have placed blame for the failure to reach an agreement squarely on Hamas, which in their description has not been constructive. During the call, the president agreed that the onus remained on Hamas to accept the latest proposal, the official said.

The two leaders also discussed hostage videos released by Hamas last week, including those showing two hostages with American citizenship. American officials have been puzzling over why Hamas would release those videos more than six months after seizing the hostages, although it is possible the goal was to increase Israeli public pressure on Netanyahu to make more concessions to reach a deal so that he could bring the hostages home.

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