National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said the U.S. government “fully expects” Israel will accept the ceasefire proposal, which would halt hostilities in Gaza for six weeks if Hamas accepts the deal.
The three-part plan unveiled by President Joe Biden last week would also be a “surge” of humanitarian aid and the exchange of some hostages for Palestinian prisoners before the war ends for good.
However, the proposal faced strong opposition from some members of the Israeli government.
The talks come as fighting continues in Rafah, which came under heavy Israeli air strikes over the weekend.
According to UNRWA, the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees, all 36 shelters in the Rafah area were empty after residents were forced to flee.
An estimated 1.7 million people are also displaced in Khan Younis and parts of central Gaza.
In an interview with ABC News on Sunday morning, Kirby said the United States “fully expects” Israel to “agree” to the proposed ceasefire if Hamas accepts it.
“We are awaiting a formal response from Hamas,” he said, adding that the United States hoped both sides would agree to launch the first phase of the plan “as soon as possible.”
Kirby said that during the initial six-week pause in the fighting, “both sides will sit down and try to negotiate what phase two will be and when it will start.”
In a televised speech last week, Biden said the second phase of the plan would repatriate all remaining living hostages, which would include male soldiers. The ceasefire will be a “permanent cessation of hostilities”.
However, on Saturday, two far-right Israeli ministers threatened to quit and break up the country’s ruling coalition if Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu agreed to the deal.
Finance Minister Bezarel Smotrich and National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir said they opposed any deal until Hamas was destroyed.
Likewise, Mr Netanyahu insisted there would be no ceasefire until Hamas’s military and governance capabilities were destroyed and all hostages released.
Hanok Mirevsky, a senior member of parliament from Netanyahu’s Likud party, told the BBC on Sunday that Israel’s ruling coalition was unanimously opposed to the deal, which he called “totally unacceptable.”
Mr Mirewski said: “There has been no change in the Israeli government’s mind, which means that Hamas can no longer rule Gaza, it no longer has any capacity, either military or civilian, to hold power and all the hostages need to be returned “The war will not stop until these demands are met. ”
Kirby said that U.S. intelligence now believes that Hamas’s military strength has degraded and that it will no longer be able to repeat the attack launched by its militants on October 7.
“We are not saying that they no longer pose a real threat to the Israeli people. Of course they do,” he said. “But they didn’t have the military capability to do what they did.”
In another development on Sunday, the Maldivian government announced it would ban Israeli citizens from entering the Indian Ocean archipelago, prompting Israel’s foreign ministry to warn its citizens to avoid the country.
About 11,000 Israelis visited the Maldives last year, less than 1% of the total number of tourists.
More than 36,000 people have been killed in Gaza since the conflict began, according to the Hamas-run health ministry.
The war began in October when Hamas gunmen launched an unprecedented attack on Israel, killing about 1,200 people and taking 252 people back to Gaza as hostages.
In the United States, President Joe Biden has faced growing domestic criticism over the extent of U.S. support for Israel and has called for more to be done to encourage the warring sides to negotiate.
