Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is obstructing the ongoing cease-fire discussions, Palestinian resistance group Hamas said Monday.

The group, in a statement on Monday, called on mediators to interfere against what it called "maneuvers and crimes" by Netanyahu.

Palestinians on Monday fled heavy battles in Gaza City as the Israeli military expanded an evacuation order nine months into its relentless attacks.

Hamas has signaled it would drop its insistence on a "complete" cease-fire, a demand Israel has repeatedly rejected.

A top Hamas official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told AFP that mediators had offered assurances "that as long as the... negotiations continued, the ceasefire would continue."

Netanyahu's office reiterated in a statement that "any deal will allow Israel to return and fight until all the goals of the war are achieved."

White House says gaps remain between Israel and Hamas on ceasefire deal

Senior U.S. officials are in Cairo for talks to achieve a cease-fire between Israel and Hamas, but gaps still remain between the two sides, White House national security spokesperson John Kirby said Monday.

Speaking at a briefing, Kirby said CIA Director Bill Burns and U.S. Middle East envoy Brett McGurk were in Egypt, meeting with their Egyptian, Israeli and Jordanian counterparts on Monday. He added that there will be follow-up discussions in the next few days.

"We've been working this very, very hard. And there are still some gaps that remain in the two sides in the positions, but we wouldn't have sent a team over there if we didn't think that we had a shot here," Kirby said.

"We're trying to close those gaps as best we can," he added.

Hamas last week dropped a demand that Israel first commit to a permanent cease-fire before the Palestinian movement would sign an agreement. Instead, the militant group said it would allow negotiations to achieve that throughout the six-week first phase, a Hamas source told Reuters on Saturday.

The move prompted an official on the Israeli negotiating team to say there was a real chance of a deal.

Since Oct. 7, at least 38,193 Palestinians have been killed in Israel's attacks and 87,903 have been wounded, Gaza's health ministry said in an update on Monday.

Kirby repeated Washington's long-standing position that Israel should do more to protect civilians.