The White House is hoping to see a ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas concluded before Joe Biden leaves office, Antony Blinken has said.

The US Secretary of State’s comments, which come ahead of Donald Trump’s inauguration on Jan 20, were made during a press conference as he was quizzed on renewed efforts to reach a deal.

Mr Blinken told reporters: “We very much want to bring this over the finish line in the next two weeks, the time we have remaining.”

It comes after Hamas claimed it had provided Israel with the names of 34 hostages that would be released under the first phase of a ceasefire deal.

A source familiar with the negotiations told The Telegraph that the list, which includes children, women and the elderly, did not include any information on which hostages were still alive.

“Israel of course demands that the hostages released are alive and not corpses. So until there’s a clarification on the list, there’s still work to be done to agree on the ceasefire,” they said.

The source added that Israel had agreed which Palestinian prisoners would potentially be released in return.

The office of Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, said Hamas had not provided its own list of hostages and the names were the same ones given to mediators by Israel in July last year.