Biden in talks with Netanyahu presses for Gaza ceasefire

US President Joe Biden pressed for a ceasefire to the 9-month-old war in Gaza in talks with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday.

White House national security spokesperson John Kirby said gaps remain between Israel and the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas for a ceasefire but "we are closer now than we've been before."

"Both sides have to make compromises," Kirby said.

State Department spokesperson Matt Miller said: "I think the message from the American side in that meeting will be that we need to get this deal over the line."

"We've got a lot to talk about," Biden said when he welcomed Netanyahu to the Oval Office.

"I want to thank you for 50 years of public service and 50 years of support for the state of Israel," Netanyahu told Biden.

Biden and Netanyahu later were due to meet together with the families of American hostages held by Hamas.

Today, Netanyahu travels to Florida to meet former president and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump.

Meanwhile, Israeli forces advanced deeper into some towns on the eastern side of Khan Younis in southern Gaza yesterday and tanks advanced in central Rafah, with airstrikes and shelling killing 30 Palestinians over the past day, health officials said.

Fighting in recent days has centred around the eastern towns of Bani Suaila, Al-Zanna, and Al-Karara, where the army said on Wednesday it had found the bodies of five Israelis who were killed on Oct. 7 and held in Gaza since.

Gaza's health ministry said Israeli military strikes on areas in eastern Khan Younis had killed 14 people, taking the death toll across Gaza over the past 24 hours to 30 people with 146 injured.

Several were wounded in the eastern towns during Israeli tank and aerial shelling, while an airstrike east of Khan Younis killed four people, Palestinian health officials said.

Israeli bombardment intensified in several areas in Rafah, near the border with Egypt, as tanks operated north, west and in the town centre, residents and medics said. Several Palestinians were also wounded in Israeli fire earlier yesterday.