US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has arrived in Israel as part of the United States' intensifying diplomatic push to achieve a ceasefire in Gaza that will end the ten-month-old war between Israel and Hamas.
The top US diplomat's tenth trip to the region since the war began in October last year comes days after the US put forward bridging proposals that it and mediators Qatar and Egypt believe would close gaps between the warring parties.
US officials cite fresh optimism to bring the deal over the finish line but also caution that there is still work to be done.
"What we've done is taken the gaps that remain and have bridged those in a way that we think basically is a deal that is now ready to close and implement and move forward," a senior Biden administration official told reporters on Friday.
In Israel, Mr Blinken will meet tomorrow with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, President Isaac Herzog and Defence Minister Yoav Gallant.
He will travel to Egypt on Tuesday as part of his trip to the Middle East.
The negotiations are taking place in the shadow of a feared regional escalation. Iran has threatened to retaliate against Israel after the assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran on 31 July.
The US has repeatedly warned Iran not to go ahead with any retaliatory action against Israel. The US official said such an act could have "cataclysmic" consequences, particularly for Iran.
Foreign ministers of the United Kingdom, France, Germany and Italy in a joint statement threw their support behind the ongoing ceasefire talks, urging all sides to avoid any "escalatory action".
Talks on how to implement the deal are expected to continue early next week, before senior officials reconvene in Cairo, with the aim to conclude the deal later in the week in Cairo.
Israel's negotiating team expressed "cautious optimism" on the possibility of advancing a deal, according to a statement from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office.
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Hamas again accuses Netanyahu of 'obstructing' truce deal
Hamas on Sunday again accused Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of "obstructing an agreement" for a truce and hostage exchange in Gaza.
The Palestinian militant group said in a statement following the latest round of talks in Qatar that Mr Netanyahu was "fully responsible for thwarting the efforts of the mediators, obstructing an agreement, and (bears) full responsibility for the lives" of hostages in Gaza.
Following two days of talks in Doha between US, Egyptian and Qatari mediators, the United States on Friday submitted a new compromise proposal.
According to Hamas, the proposal "responds to Netanyahu's conditions, especially his rejection of a permanent ceasefire and a comprehensive withdrawal from the Gaza Strip, and his insistence on continuing to occupy the Netzarim junction, the Rafah crossing and the Philadelphi corridor".
The latter two places are seen by Israel as important for preventing the flow of any weapons into the Gaza Strip, while the Netzarim junction sits at a strategic point between northern and southern Gaza.
Mr Netanyahu "also set new conditions in the prisoner exchange file and retreated from other items, which prevents the completion of the exchange deal", Hamas said.
The Israeli premier had earlier denounced the militant group for being "obstinate" and not sending a delegation to the talks, saying Hamas not Israel should be under pressure.
In its statement, Hamas reiterated its support for a proposal set out by US President Joe Biden in May, which he said was an Israeli plan.
That proposal involved a three-phase deal, starting with a six-week truce alongside the release of hostages taken on 7 October and an Israeli withdrawal from densely populated parts of Gaza.
At least 21 killed in Israeli strikes in Gaza
Israeli strikes killed at least 21 people in Gaza this morning, including six children, Palestinian health authorities said.
The children and their mother were killed in an Israeli airstrike on a house in the central town of Deir Al-Balah, health officials said. There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military.
The Israeli military said it destroyed rocket launchers used to hit Israel from the southern city of Khan Younis, the scene of intense fighting in recent weeks, and killed 20 Palestinian fighters.
On Friday, the military ordered the evacuation of areas north of Khan Younis and east of Deir Al-Balah where hundreds of thousands of people displaced by the fighting had been sheltering in dire conditions.
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said Friday's orders, which included other enclave areas outside the humanitarian zones, had reduced the size of the "humanitarian area" designated as safe by Israeli forces to about 11% of the total area of the Gaza Strip.
The Deir Al-Balah municipality, estimating the current population in the city at 1 million, said the evacuation orders meant more people were crammed into a smaller space.
The latest round of war in the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict began on 7 October when Hamas fighters rampaged into Israel, killing around 1,200 people and seizing around 250 hostages according to Israeli tallies.
Israel's subsequent military campaign has reduced much of Gaza to rubble and killed more than 40,000 Palestinians, mostly civilians, according to Palestinian health authorities.
Israel says it has eliminated 17,000 Hamas fighters.
