
Smoke rises from a building destroyed in Israeli airstrike at the Bureij camp for Palestinian refugees in the central Gaza Strip. AFP
The White House official also said Biden would speak to Netanyahu soon.
"We are very, very close [to a deal]. Yet being very close still means we're far," Sullivan told CNN. "Because until you actually get across the finish line, we're not there."
He added the Biden administration is determined to use "every day we have in office to get this done".
The US President-elect Donald Trump has called for a deal to be reached before he takes office, saying "all hell will break out in the Middle East" if it does not.
On Saturday, Netanyahu met in Jerusalem with Steve Witkoff, the incoming US envoy for the Middle East under the Trump administration.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has dispatched a high-level delegation to Qatar to advance negotiations on a hostage-ceasefire agreement with Hamas, The Times of Israel reported on Saturday night.
Hamas sources said a deal had been finalized, pending Netanyahu's approval.
A Hamas official told Qatari outlet Al-Araby Al-Jadeed that the deal is essentially complete, with mediators awaiting Israel's response. The official noted that Hamas had agreed to defer several unresolved issues to later phases of the agreement, provided subsequent stages proceed as planned.
Mediators from Egypt, Qatar, and the United States facilitating the negotiations reportedly support Hamas's latest proposals. The Hamas official described the talks as "at the closest point [yet] to completing the agreement."
According to the Qatari report, should Israel approve the agreement, mediators would hold a press conference detailing the deal's terms, timeline, and implementation schedule.
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