Hamas has proposed several changes to a US-backed proposal for a ceasefire with Israel in Gaza, some of them unworkable, but mediators are determined to bridge the gap, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Wednesday.

Senior Hamas official Osama Hamdan denied that the Palestinian Islamist group had put forward new ideas. Speaking to pan-Arab Al-Arabi TV, he reiterated Hamas’ stance that it was Israel that was rejecting the proposals and accused the US administration of siding with its close ally.

White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan said many of Hamas’ proposed changes are modest “and not unexpected,” while others differ significantly from what was outlined in a UN Security Council resolution on Monday that endorsed the plan proposed by US President Joe Biden.

“Our objective is to bring this process to a conclusion. We believe the time for bargaining is over,” Sullivan told reporters.

Two Egyptian security sources told Reuters that Hamas also wants written guarantees from the US on the ceasefire plan.

Hamas issued a statement late Wednesday stressing its “positivity” in the talks and urging the United States to pressure Israel to accept a deal that would lead to a permanent ceasefire in Gaza, a full withdrawal of troops from the territory, reconstruction and the release of Palestinian prisoners.

The Palestinian group said that although US officials have said Israel has accepted the ceasefire proposal outlined by Biden on May 31, “we have not heard any Israeli official confirm this acceptance.”

Biden’s proposal calls for a ceasefire and the phased release of Israeli hostages in Gaza in exchange for Palestinians held in Israeli jails, eventually leading to a permanent end to the war.

At a news conference with Qatar’s prime minister in Doha, Blinken said some of the counter-proposals from Hamas, which has ruled Gaza since 2007, sought to revise the terms it had accepted in previous talks.

Negotiations lasted for months

Negotiators from the United States, Egypt and Qatar have been trying for months to broker a ceasefire in the conflict – which has killed thousands of Palestinians and devastated densely populated areas – and to free hostages, more than 100 of whom are still held in Gaza.

“Hamas could have answered with one word: yes,” Blinken said. “Instead, Hamas waited nearly two weeks and then proposed even more changes, many of which went beyond the positions it had previously taken and accepted.”

In its statement late Wednesday, Hamas said it had expressed its willingness to cooperate while Israel had not. Blinken’s stance “is a continuation of US policy in the brutal genocide against our Palestinian people.” The group said the US was providing Israel with political and military cover to pursue its assault on Gaza.

The US has said Israel has accepted its offer, but Israel has not said so publicly. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has repeatedly said Israel will not commit to ending its campaign before Hamas is destroyed.

Major powers are stepping up efforts to defuse the conflict to prevent it from spiraling into a wider Middle East war, with a dangerous flashpoint being escalating hostilities on the Lebanon-Israel border.

According to Israeli figures, the fighting in Gaza began on October 7, when Hamas-led militants crossed the border, killing 1,200 Israelis and taking more than 250 hostage.

Since then, Israel’s air and ground war has killed more than 37,000 Palestinians, displaced most of Gaza’s population of 2.3 million and destroyed housing and infrastructure, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry.

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The head of the World Health Organization said on Wednesday that many people in Gaza are facing “catastrophic hunger and famine-like conditions”, where more than 8,000 children under the age of five have been diagnosed with acute malnutrition and are being treated.

A UN investigation found that both Israel and Hamas had committed war crimes at the start of the Gaza War, and that Israel’s actions amounted to crimes against humanity as they caused heavy civilian casualties.

Israel continues attacks in Gaza

While diplomats were seeking a ceasefire agreement, Israel continued attacks in central and southern Gaza, in some of the bloodiest assaults of the war.

Residents said the Israeli military stepped up air and tank bombardment of Rafah and central Gaza on Wednesday night. Medics said three people were killed in an Israeli airstrike on a house in the al-Nuseirat refugee camp.

Earlier, residents reported that Israeli forces bombarded various areas of Gaza on Wednesday while tanks advanced towards northern Rafah, which borders Egypt.

Palestinian health officials said six people were killed in air strikes on Gaza City in the north and one person was killed by a tank shell in Rafah.