US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has pinned blame on Hamas for rejecting a temporary Gaza truce as he also pressed Israel again to allow more aid into the Palestinian territory, AFP reports.

A Hamas official told AFP on Friday that the group had received a proposal from Egypt and Qatar for a short-term truce and rejected it for not including a lasting ceasefire to the nearly 13-month offensive.

In a telephone call with Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty, Blinken “noted that Hamas has once again refused to release even a limited number of hostages to secure a ceasefire and relief for the people of Gaza”, a State Department statement said.

Blinken “emphasised the importance of bringing the war in Gaza to an end, securing the release of all hostages and increasing and sustaining the delivery of humanitarian assistance,” it said.

In hopes of making progress, CIA chief Bill Burns in recent discussions with his Mossad counterpart in Qatar spoke of a short-term ceasefire for the release of some of the hostages, according to a source knowledgeable of the talks.