Netanyahu’s office said Mossad intelligence chief David Barnea had met US and Qatari officials in Doha and agreed they should talk to Hamas about a deal to free Israelis JERUSALEM: Israel said Monday it had discussed with international mediators the outline of proposed talks with Hamas on a deal to release Israeli hostages held in Gaza, as its forces pounded both Lebanon and the Palestinian territory. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said Mossad intelligence chief David Barnea had met US and Qatari officials in Doha and agreed they should talk to Hamas about a deal to free Israelis seized in last year’s October 7 attack. The statement came two days after Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi proposed a two-day truce and limited hostage-prisoner exchange that, he said, could lead to a permanent ceasefire. “During the meeting, the parties discussed a new unified framework that combines previous proposals and also takes into account key issues and recent developments in the region,” Netanyahu’s office said. “In the coming days, discussions will continue between the mediators and Hamas to assess the feasibility of talks and to further efforts to promote a deal.” US President Joe Biden, asked about the possibility of a ceasefire just over a year after Hamas’s cross-border attack triggered the Gaza war which has spread to Lebanon and threatened to draw in Iran, said he would talk to Israel immediately to push for a ceasefire. “My staff is talking to them right now,” Biden said, after casting an early ballot in the race for his successor. “We need a ceasefire. We should end this war. It should end, it should end, it should end.” The United States is Israel’s top military supplier and a mediator in the Doha talks. Biden has stood by the country’s right to defend itself despite international outrage at the mounting death toll in both Gaza and Lebanon, where for the past month it has engaged in a ground and air war against the Iran-backed Hezbollah group.