US Secretary of State Antony Blinken called Monday for a final push for a Gaza ceasefire before President Joe Biden leaves office, after a Hamas official said the resistance group had cleared a list of 34 captives as first to go free under a truce."We very much want to bring this over the finish line in the next two weeks, the time we have remaining," Blinken told a news conference in South Korea, when asked whether a ceasefire deal was close.Blinken voiced confidence that a ceasefire deal would come together, but possibly after President Joe Biden leaves office on January 20."If we don't get it across the finish line in the next two weeks, I'm confident that it will get its completion at some point, hopefully sooner rather than later," Blinken said on a visit to Seoul.Israel has sent a team of mid-ranking officials to Qatar for talks brokered by Qatari, US and Egyptian mediators. Some Arabic media reports said David Barnea, the head of Mossad, who has been leading negotiations, was expected to join them.It remains unclear how close the two sides remain, with some signs of movement but little indication of a shift in some of the key demands that have so far blocked any truce for more than a year.More than 100 captives are still believed to be held in Gaza, and Hamas says it will not free them without an agreement that ends the war with Israeli withdrawal.The list provided by the Hamas official included female soldiers, plus elderly, female and minor-aged civilians.Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said Israel had so far received no confirmation or comment from Palestinian resistance movement Hamas about whether the hostages on it were alive.Hamas needed time to determine their condition, the group's official said."Hamas has agreed to release the 34 prisoners, whether alive or dead," the official said. "However, the group needs a week of calm to communicate with the captors and identify those who are alive and those who are dead."Israel's left-leaning Haaretz newspaper reported Monday that negotiations with Hamas "are approaching a crossroads, and Israeli decision makers are optimistic that a deal can be finalised within the next few days".Israeli forces, which have intensified their operations in recent weeks, continued bombardments across the enclave, killing at least 48 people and wounding 75 over the past 24 hours, according to the Gaza health ministry.Israel's military offensive in the Gaza Strip has killed at least 45,854 Palestinians and wounded 109,139 since Oct. 7, 2023, the Palestinian enclave's health ministry said Monday.Harsh winter weather continued to exact a toll on the hundreds of thousands displaced into makeshift shelters, with officials saying a 35-day-old baby had died of exposure, at least the eighth victim of the cold in the past two weeks.Israeli campaign group the Hostages and Missing Families Forum called Monday for a "comprehensive agreement" to secure the release of hostages.In the Israeli-occupied West Bank, a separate Palestinian territory where violence has also surged since the start of the Gaza war, gunmen killed three Israelis and wounded several others when they opened fire on a car and bus near the Israeli settlement of Kedumim.