US President Joe Biden has told the Emir of Qatar, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, that Hamas is the only obstacle to a ceasefire agreement between Gaza and Israel and urged him to put pressure on the group to accept the deal.

Biden “reiterated that Hamas is now the only obstacle to a full ceasefire” and “confirmed Israel's willingness to move forward with the terms” he outlined last week, the White House statement said Monday in a phone call between the two leaders.

Qatar's Amiri Diwan confirmed that Sheikh Tamim had received a call from the US president “to discuss efforts to achieve a permanent ceasefire in the Gaza Strip,” it said in a statement.

It was further stated that the two heads of state discussed “developments in the Gaza Strip and the occupied Palestinian territories”.

Qatar, along with Egypt and the United States, has played a key role in brokering indirect negotiations between Hamas and Israel.

The ceasefire proposal includes a three-phase plan that includes an exchange of Israeli prisoners for Palestinian prisoners, the withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza and the reconstruction of the destroyed enclave.

The proposal excludes Hamas from remaining in power, something the group has repeatedly rejected.

The G7 bloc of industrialized countries said on Monday that it supported the proposal and called on Hamas to accept it.

“We, the leaders of the Group of Seven (G7), fully support” the ceasefire plan, “which would lead to an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, the release of all hostages, a significant and sustained increase in humanitarian assistance for distribution throughout the Gaza Strip, and a lasting end to the crisis, while safeguarding Israel's security interests and the safety of the civilian population in the Gaza Strip,” the statement said.

“We call on Hamas to accept this agreement, which Israel is ready to implement, and we call on all countries with influence over Hamas to help make this happen,” it said.

The G7 countries are the USA, Canada, Japan, France, Germany, Italy and Spain.

Hamas spokesman Osama Hamdan welcomed the ceasefire plan, but told Al Jazeera on Sunday that the group had not yet received any written documents.

According to Palestinian health authorities, Israel's war against Gaza has killed more than 36,000 people, caused widespread destruction and forced 90 percent of the Gaza Strip's 2.3 million inhabitants to flee.

The Gaza government media office said on Monday that more than 3,500 children under the age of five were at risk of death due to shortages of food, nutritional supplements and vaccines as Israel continued to severely restrict the entry of urgently needed humanitarian supplies into Gaza.

Six-week ceasefire plan

The latest agreement proposed by the US calls for a six-week complete ceasefire that will see Israeli forces withdraw from all populated areas of Gaza, where famine is already raging in parts of the north.

Although the Israeli War Cabinet has met to discuss the proposal, it remains unclear whether it agrees with it.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu considers the plan to be “incomplete,” a government spokesman said on Monday.

“The draft presented by President Biden is incomplete,” government spokesman David Mencer quoted Netanyahu as saying, adding in a press conference: “The war will be stopped for the purpose of releasing the hostages,” which will be followed by talks on how to achieve Israel's goal of eliminating Hamas.

In a separate statement from his office, Netanyahu said: “Claims that we agreed to a ceasefire without our conditions being met are false.”

Families of Israeli prisoners in Gaza called on the Israeli government to accept the plan and urged Netanyahu to publicly support the proposal. They have been protesting against the government for months and have repeatedly called on it to accept previous, indirectly negotiated agreements.

The Israeli military confirmed on Monday the deaths of four more hostages in Gaza, naming them Haim Perry, Yoram Metzger, Amiram Cooper and Nadav Popplewell.

Military spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said: “We believe the four were killed while they were together in the Khan Younis area during our operation against Hamas there.”

Earlier this month, Hamas approved A ceasefire proposal put forward by mediators Qatar and Egypt, but Israel reiterated that the proposal fell short of its demands.

Israel is coming under increasing international pressure to stop its attacks and is becoming increasingly isolated.

Even the International Court of Justice's order to halt the offensive on the city of Rafah in the south of the Gaza Strip has not stopped Israel from continuing to launch attacks on the overcrowded area and from expanding a ground operation there.