WASHINGTON

The White House said on Friday that Israel's decision to send a delegation to Doha, Qatar for talks over a potential cease-fire in the besieged Gaza Strip is "encouraging."

"We think that's a good step, and certainly doesn't diminish at all our hope that a deal can be had. We think that a new deal is both urgent and possible, and again, we welcome the Israelis' decision to send another team to Doha," National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby told reporters.

"The president has made clear his national security team will be a participant all the way to the very end, and we're going to be doing everything we can to see if we can broker a new cease-fire deal again that will get the hostages home. So I don't have any breakthroughs to speak to today or announcements to make about participation physically, but I can tell you that we're definitely going to stay focused on this. And again, we welcome Israel's decision to send another team to Doha. We think that that's an encouraging step," he added.

Earlier in the day, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office announced that he agreed to send the team to the Qatari capital for talks over releasing Israeli hostages who remain held in Gaza.

The delegation includes senior officials from the military, the Mossad intelligence agency and the internal security agency, Shabak, the statement added, without disclosing the identities of any of the members of the group.

Hamas has repeatedly expressed a willingness in recent months to negotiate a prisoner swap and a cease-fire deal with Israel. In May, the group agreed to a proposal from US President Joe Biden.

Opposition leaders and hostage families accuse Netanyahu of blocking a deal in order to maintain his political position, with extremist ministers, including National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, threatening to topple the government if any cease-fire in Gaza is agreed upon.

Over 45,650 people have been killed in Gaza since Israel began its war on the besieged coastal enclave following the Hamas-led Oct. 7, 2023 cross-border attack on Israel. Some 1,200 people were killed during the attack, and about 250 more were taken back to Gaza as hostages. Roughly 100 remain there.

In November, the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Netanyahu and his former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.

Israel also faces a genocide case at the International Court of Justice for its war on the enclave.