The pressure has led Israel to make significant concessions in the negotiations, two officials said, including an offer to release 15 Palestinians jailed on terrorism charges in exchange for five female Israeli soldiers held in Gaza.
That offer was part of a broader proposal to exchange dozens of Palestinian prisoners and detainees in exchange for about 35 other hostages during a ceasefire lasting about six weeks, the officials said.
Hamas’s political leaders have insisted, at least publicly, that any deal to free the more than 100 hostages still held in Gaza is conditional on a permanent ceasefire and the withdrawal of Israeli forces. Israel has said it will not compromise on its goal of overthrowing Hamas in Gaza, suggesting it will not agree to a long-term ceasefire.
At a news conference in Washington on Tuesday, Matthew Miller, a State Department spokesman, said negotiators “made significant progress” last week and continued to push for an agreement between Israel and Hamas.
“We’re trying to get this deal across the finish line,” Mr. Miller said. “We think it is possible.”
But he added: “Ultimately, part of this comes down to Hamas and whether Hamas is willing to agree to a deal that would deliver significant benefits to the Palestinian people they claim to represent.”
In the absence of an agreement, the Palestinian Red Crescent said it had suspended emergency medical missions for two days in a part of Gaza, where Israeli forces on Sunday intercepted a convoy evacuating patients from a hospital, and interrogated and detained workers on suspicion that they are transporting Hamas fighters.
The Red Crescent and U.N. officials said they had reached arrangements with Israeli authorities for the evacuation. Jens Laerke, a spokesman for the U.N. aid agency in Geneva, said Tuesday that Israel knew the details of the route, the vehicles and the identities of those traveling in the convoy.
But after the convoy left Al-Amal Hospital in the southern city of Khan Younis, carrying 24 patients needing surgery, it was stopped by Israeli forces.
The soldiers ordered patients and emergency workers out of vehicles, forced paramedics to strip naked and held the convoy for seven hours, U.N. officials said. One of those arrested was released hours later, the Red Crescent said.