Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said on Tuesday that the Prime Minister informed the families of hostages being held in the Gaza Strip that an agreement would soon be reached that would guarantee the release of their relatives.

“Conditions are undoubtedly improving,” Netanyahu told the families on Monday in Washington. This is a good indicator.”

 Netanyahu is expected to meet US President Joe Biden later this week after delivering a speech to Congress.

Efforts to reach a ceasefire agreement in Gaza, the details of which Biden announced in May and which Egypt and Qatar are mediating, have gained momentum over the past month.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Friday that negotiators were “heading towards the goal line.”

Robbie Chen, the father of Itai Chen, a soldier whose body is still being held in Gaza and who holds American and Israeli citizenship, was one of the family members who met Netanyahu.

“He did say that conditions are improving, but I am treating that with some caution,” Chen told Israeli Army Radio.

Chen said he hopes Biden will put more pressure on Netanyahu to reach an agreement. Biden withdrew from the presidential election race and supported the candidacy of Vice President Kamla Harris of the Democratic Party to run in the elections scheduled for November.

The Palestinian Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) led a surprise attack on towns in southern Israel on October 7, killing 1,200 people and taking about 250 hostages, according to Israeli figures. Hamas and other factions are still holding 120 hostages, while the Israeli authorities announced the death of a third of them.

According to the Palestinian Ministry of Health in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip, the number of Palestinian martyrs as a result of the Israeli military campaign in the Strip has reached more than 39,000 Palestinians so far.

More than 105 hostages were released in a week-long truce in November, in exchange for the release of 240 Palestinians from Israeli prisons.