Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and U.S. President Joe Biden have spoken in a phone call on the latest efforts to reach a ceasefire and hostage release in the Israel-Hamas war.

Israel says Hamas has not provided any information about the status of those 34 hostages, dampening any notion that the endorsement is a step toward a deal to stop the war.

Hamas has named 34 hostages, some of them believed to have died in captivity, who it says it would return to Israel in the first phase of an evolving if still elusive ceasefire in Gaza.