WASHINGTON (AP) Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited the White House Thursday to discuss the war in Gaza and the possibility of securing a cease-fire deal with President Joe Biden and likely Democratic nominee Vice President Kamala Harris .

Netanyahus first White House visit since 2020, when former President Donald Trump was in office, comes at a time of growing pressure in Israel and the U.S. to find an endgame to the nine-month war thats left more than 39,000 dead in Gaza and some 1,200 dead in Israel. Dozens of Israeli hostages are still languishing in Hamas captivity.

White House national security spokesman John Kirby said Biden was using the meeting to reiterate his calls for Israel and Hamas to quickly agree to a cease-fire deal that would bring home the remaining hostages. White House officials say the negotiations are in the closing stages, but there are issues that need to be resolved.

The gaps are closable, Kirby said. He added, But its going to require, as it always does, some leadership, some compromise.

Harris is scheduled to meet separately on Thursday with Netanyahu and is also expected to press him on securing a deal to release the hostages, who were kidnapped during Hamas Oct. 7 attack on Israel that launched the war. The Israeli leader is headed to Florida on Friday to meet with the Republican presidential nominee Trump.

Biden greeted Netanyahu in the Oval Office, where the Israeli leader thanked the president for his service.

The conservative Likud Party leader Netanyahu and centrist Democrat Biden have had ups-and-downs over the years. Netanyahu, in what will likely be his last White House meeting with Biden, reflected on the roughly 40 years theyve known each other.

From a proud Jewish Zionist to a proud Irish American Zionist, I want to thank you for 50 years of public service and 50 years of support for the state of Israel, Netanyahu told Biden at the start of their meeting.

Biden thanked Netanyahu and joked that his first meeting with an Israeli prime minister, Golda Meir, in 1973 soon after he was elected to the Senate came when he was only 12.