Top US diplomat Antony Blinken has urged Hamas to accept a Gaza truce plan despite an Israeli warning that the army will keep fighting the group after any ceasefire, AFP reports.

Mediators have proposed a truce deal that would halt fighting for 40 days and exchange dozens of hostages for many more Palestinian prisoners.

Hamas has said it will respond “within a very short period” to the proposal.

“Hamas needs to say yes and needs to get this done,” Blinken said while in Israel on his seventh Middle East crisis tour since the crisis broke out in October.

He later added: “If Hamas actually purports to care about the Palestinian people and wants to see an immediate alleviation of their suffering, it should take this deal.”