By James Mackenzie and Nidal al-Mughrabi

JERUSALEM/CAIRO (Reuters) – U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken called on Monday for a final push for a ceasefire in Gaza before President Joe Biden leaves office, after being told by a A Hamas official told Reuters that the group had released a list of 34 hostages who would be the first to go free under a ceasefire.

“We very much want to bring it to the finish line in the next two weeks, the time we have left,” Blinken told a news conference in South Korea, when asked if a ceasefire agreement was imminent. – bone.

Israel sent a group of middle-ranking officials to Qatar for talks brokered by Qatari and Egyptian mediators. Some Arabic media reports say that David Barnea, the head of the Mossad, who is leading the negotiations, is expected to join them. The Israeli prime minister’s office did not comment.

It remains unclear how close the two sides remain, with some signs of movement but little sign of a shift in some of the demand factors that have so far blocked any truce for more than a year.

US President-elect Donald Trump has said there will be “hell to pay” in the Middle East if hostages held by Hamas are not released before his inauguration on January 20, which is now seen in the region as a unofficial deadline for a truce deal.

According to Gaza health officials, nearly 46,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israel’s attack on Gaza. The attack was launched after Hamas fighters invaded Israeli territory in October 2023, killing 1,200 people and taking more than 250 hostages, according to Israeli tallies.

More than 100 hostages are believed to be being held in Gaza, and Hamas has said it will not release them without an agreement to end the war with Israeli withdrawal. Israel says it will not stop its attack until Hamas is disbanded as a military and governing power and all hostages are freed.

A Hamas official told Reuters the group had removed a list submitted by Israel of 34 hostages who could be released in the initial phase of a truce. The list provided by the official included female soldiers, plus the elderly, women and minor civilians.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said the list had been provided to Israel by Qatari mediators in July, and so far Israel has received no confirmation or comment from Hamas on whether its hostages are alive. .

“Israel will continue to act relentlessly for the return of all our hostages,” it said in a statement.

CHILD DIED OF COLD

Israeli forces, which have intensified their operations in recent weeks, continued shelling the entire enclave, killing at least 48 people and wounding 75 in the past 24 hours, according to the ministry. on the health of Gaza.

The harsh winter weather continues to cost hundreds of thousands of people displaced from makeshift shelters, with officials saying a 35-day-old baby has died from exposure, at least the eighth victim of the cold in the last two weeks.

Officials from Al-Awda Hospital in Nuseirat in the central Gaza Strip said an Israeli airstrike on a school compound sheltering displaced families injured at least 40 people.

While the Israeli military says Hamas has been largely destroyed as an organized military force, its fighters continue to hold on to the rubble of Gaza, which has been largely deserted by months of bombing.

On Monday, three rockets were fired from Gaza, one of which hit a building in the nearby Israeli city of Sderot without causing any casualties, Israeli police said.

In the Israeli-occupied West Bank, a breakaway Palestinian territory where violence has also surged since the start of the Gaza war, gunmen killed three Israelis and wounded several others when they shot a cars and buses near the Israeli settlement of Kedumim.