greg mullin, former fire and rescue nsw commissioner.g newsday on bbc news. 0utgoing us pre5identjoe biden has less than a week before he steps down and in his last week as president, he held a phone call with israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu to discuss gaza. israeli and palestinian officials have said since thursday that some progress has been made but did not elaborate. 0ur correspondent merlyn thomas has more on that call. according to the white house, president biden has spoken to the israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu about the urgent need for a ceasefire deal and the immediate return of hostages being held by hama5. the white house also said that president biden actually asked for the increase of humanitarian aid going into gaza, which has been enabled by a halt to fighting. it comes a day after prime minister netanyahu sent a senior delegation of officials to qatar, where the negotiations are taking place. and this is part of a long—running variety of efforts by the biden administration to come to some sort of deal