US President Joe Biden said on Monday evening that Israel would end its military operations against Hamas in the Gaza Strip during Ramadan as part of a negotiated truce, AFP and Reuters reported, as quoted by Agerpres.

“Ramadan is approaching and there is an agreement with the Israelis that they will not participate in operations during Ramadan to give us time to take all the hostages” held by Hamas, Biden said in an interview with American television NBC News.

Egypt, Qatar, the USA, France and other countries have been trying to negotiate a new truce between Israel and Hamas for several weeks. “I hope that by next Monday we will have a truce,” the American president also said on Monday evening in New York during his trip.

“My national security adviser tells me we’re close, (but) it’s not done yet,” Biden said.

An Israeli official, speaking on condition of anonymity, confirmed to the Ynet website that “the trend is positive,” given that the government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has yet to make any official statement on the matter.

Joe Biden warns Israel that it risks losing “the support of the whole world”

According to a Hamas source, the talks will be aimed at a six-week truce involving the release of hostages held by Hamas and Palestinian prisoners held by Israel, as well as the flow of significant humanitarian aid to Gaza.

In his interview for NBC, Joe Biden estimated that such an agreement “gives us time to start moving in directions that many Arab countries are willing to accept” regarding the normalization of relations with Israel. “I think that if we get this temporary truce, we can go in a direction that will allow us to change the dynamics,” the American president added.

Israel “promised” to evacuate large parts of Rafah before “eliminating the rest of (Islamist movement) Hamas,” Joe Biden noted.

But he warned that “the only way for Israel to survive” is to reach an agreement that guarantees “peace and security for Israelis and Palestinians.”

Amid rising tensions with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Biden warned that if Israel continues its “incredibly conservative government … it will lose the support of the whole world.”