Top US diplomat says Hamas is moving the goalposts on a cease-fire

• Hamas wants to change the terms of a US-backed ceasefire proposal, says Antony Blinken.
• Israel has already accepted the deal, but Hamas is holding out.

The US-led plan for a cease-fire in the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza has hit another stumbling block — and the US says Hamas is to blame.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken says the militant group has made new demands, moving the goalposts on a proposed cease-fire to end the 8-month-long war.

Blinken told reporters from Doha on Wednesday that Hamas has not agreed to a US-backed ceasefire proposal because it wants to make "numerous changes," despite the deal being "virtually identical" to one Hamas had previously accepted.

Blinken said Israel has already accepted the deal, and that while "Hamas could have answered with a single word: yes," it has not.

"Instead, Hamas waited nearly two weeks and then proposed more changes, a number of which go beyond positions it had previously taken and accepted," Blinken continued.

Blinken did not specify what aspects of the deal Hamas wanted to change, but a source familiar with the matter told CNN that Hamas's response, which was submitted to Qatari mediators, includes establishing a timeline for a permanent ceasefire and for Israel to completely withdraw its forces from Gaza.

"Some of the changes are workable. Some are not," Blinken said.

Blinken added that because the negotiations have gone on for so long and Hamas keeps changing its demands, he is beginning "to question whether they're proceeding in good faith or not."

Hamas had previously agreed to another deal, proposed by mediators Egypt and Qatar, that included a permanent ceasefire, withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza, as well as a release of both Israeli hostages and Palestinian prisoners. But Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected that deal, saying it was "very far" from Israel's central demands.

Qatari Minister of Foreign Affairs Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al-Thani, a mediator who spoke to reporters alongside Blinken, said that on different occasions, the behavior from both Israel and Hamas has been "counterproductive to the efforts."

Blinken said the US and mediators will work with Hamas in the coming days to resolve its issues as best as possible and close the deal.

"The longer this goes on, the more people will suffer, and it's time for the haggling to stop and the cease-fire to start," Blinken said. "It's as simple as that."

Palestinian health authorities have said Israeli forces have killed over 37,000 people in Gaza since the war began in October when Hamas launched terrorist attacks across the Israeli border, killing nearly 1,200 people and taking more than a hundred hostages.