Joe Biden 'hoping' there's a Gaza ceasefire by Ramadan: President admits negotiators are still 'far apart' on hostage talks as US military prepares to airdrop food

President Joe Biden has now said he is 'hoping' for an agreement for Hamas to release Israeli hostages and a Gaza ceasefire by the start of Ramadan on March 10.

'I’m hoping so, we’re still working real hard on it. We’re not there yet,' Biden told reporters as he left the White House on Friday night on the way to Camp David with his granddaughters Naomi and Maisy and Naomi's husband Peter Neal.

He admitted negotiators are still 'far apart' on reaching a truce to release the hostages, hours after he announced the U.S. military would begin aid airdrops for Palestinians.

It comes five days after the president, 81, said he believed a ceasefire could happen as early as Monday while eating ice cream in New York with late night talk show host Seth Meyers.

Biden wouldn't reveal details of the 'holdup' in talks and when he asked if there was still a chance of a negotiated ceasefire, he said: 'I'm still hoping for it. You know, it's not over until it is over'.

Biden heads off for a weekend in Camp David with (from right to left) granddaughters Naomi and Maisy and Naomi's husband Peter Neal 

Biden has now said he is 'hoping' for an agreement between Israel and Hamas on the release of hostages and a Gaza ceasefire by the start of Ramadan on March 10

His comments and the announcement of aid airdrops comes a day after hundreds of Palestinians were killed by Israeli forces in a rush to get food from an assistance convoy.

At least 576,000 people in the Gaza Strip - one quarter of its population - are one step away from famine, according to the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

Biden met earlier in the Oval Office with Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, said the food drops would arrive in the coming days. 

He noted he played Ray Charles' 'Georgia on My Mind' as the Italian prime minister came into the Oval Office.

'We're going to discuss the Middle East and yesterday's tragic and alarming event in north Gaza, trying to get humanitarian assistance in there,' he said.

'The loss of life is heartbreaking. People are so desperate that innocent people got caught in a terrible war unable to feed their families and you saw the response when they tried to get aid in.'

Biden admitted negotiators are still 'far apart' on reaching a truce to release the hostages, hours after he announced the U.S. military would begin aid airdrops for Palestinians

Biden speaks to reporters alongside his granddaughter Naomi before a weekend in Camp David 

He admitted negotiators are still 'far apart' on reaching a truce to release the hostages, hours after he announced the U.S. military would begin aid airdrops for Palestinians. Jordanian forces have already started dropping food 

'We need to do more and the United States will do more.'

Then he started talking of the Ukraine: 'In the coming days, we are going to join with our friends in Jordan and others in providing airdrops of additional food and supplies into Ukraine and seek to continue to open up other avenues into Ukraine, including the possibility of a marine corridor to deliver large amounts of humanitarian assistance.'

Biden then caught himself and said it was aid to Gaza: 'In addition to expanding deliveries by land, as I said, we're going to insist that Israel facilitate more trucks and more routes to get more and more people the help they need. No excuses, because the truth is aid flowing to Gaza is nowhere nearly enough now — it's nowhere nearly enough. Innocent lives are on the line and children's lives are on the line.'

He also said they hope to know 'shortly' if a ceasefire can be worked out between Israel and Hamas.  

'We are trying to work out a deal between Israel and Hamas — the hostages being returned and the immediate ceasefire in Gaza for at least the next six weeks, and to allow the surge of aid to the entire Gaza Strip, not just the south,' the president said.