The U.S. expects Gaza peace talks to move forward as planned, the State Department said on Monday, adding it believes a ceasefire deal remains possible even after Hamas cast doubt on whether it would participate in a Thursday meeting called by mediators, Reuters reported.

Palestinian militant group Hamas on Sunday asked mediators to present a plan based upon previous talks instead of engaging in new negotiations for a Gaza ceasefire agreement.

Last week, leaders of the U.S., Egypt and Qatar urged Israel and Hamas to meet for negotiations on Aug. 15 in either Cairo or Doha to finalize a Gaza ceasefire and hostage-release deal.

State Department deputy spokesperson Vedant Patel, speaking to reporters at a regular news briefing, said the U.S. fully expects talks to continue and it would continue to work with the parties involved, adding that agreement was still possible.

“We fully expect talks to move forward, as they should. All negotiators should return to the table and bring this deal to conclusion,” Patel said.

Patel declined to say if the talks would go ahead without Hamas or whether Washington was working with regional partners to ensure their participation or not.

President Joe Biden laid out a three-phase ceasefire proposal in an address on May 31. Washington and regional mediators have since tried arranging the Gaza ceasefire-for-hostages deal but have run into repeated obstacles, read the report.

Israel launched its assault on Gaza after Hamas fighters stormed into southern Israel on Oct. 7, killing 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and capturing more than 250 hostages, according to Israeli tallies.

Since then, nearly 40,000 Palestinians have been killed in the Israeli offensive in Gaza, according to the health ministry, Reuters reported.

Moscow and Kyiv accused each other of starting a fire on the grounds of Europe’s largest and now Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in Ukraine on Sunday, with both sides reporting no sign of elevated radiation.

The U.N.’s International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) nuclear watchdog, which has a presence at the vast six-reactor facility, said its experts had seen strong, dark smoke coming from the northern area of the plant in southern Ukraine following multiple explosions.

“These reckless attacks endanger nuclear safety at the plant and increase the risk of a nuclear accident. They must stop now,” IAEA chief Rafael Grossi warned in a separate statement, without attributing blame for the attack.

The fire comes less than a week after Ukraine’s forces launched their largest incursion into Russian territory since the war-start in 2022, a surprise move that has brought conflict into a new phase, after weeks of Moscow’s battlefield gains.

Russian state news agencies, TASS and RIA, cited the country’s nuclear energy company Rosatom as saying the main fire was extinguished shortly before midnight on Sunday.

RIA, citing Rosatom, said a drone attack started the fire at the cooling tower, without providing evidence.

Ukraine’s nuclear power company Energoatom said in a statement on the Telegram messaging app that one of the cooling towers and other equipment were damaged.

Russia’s TASS agency also reported, citing Rosatom’s statement, that a cooling tower was damaged. Citing local Russian emergency ministry representatives, TASS said it was a non-functioning tower.

Grossi said the agency requested “immediate access” to the cooling tower to assess the damage. There was no immediate response from Moscow or Kyiv to Grossi’s statement.

Russia captured the plant from Ukraine shortly after launching its full-scale invasion on its smaller neighbour in 2022, an attack described by Moscow as a “special operation”. The plant’s six nuclear reactors are in cold shutdown.

By early Monday, it was not clear what caused the fire that started at around 8 p.m. (1700 GMT) on Sunday.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy accused Russia of lighting the fire which he said was visible from the Kyiv-held city of Nikopol, which looks out onto the Russian-held plant.

The IAEA said there had been no reported impact on nuclear safety at the site.

“Team was told by (the nuclear plant) of an alleged drone attack today on one of the cooling towers located at the site,” it wrote on X.

Ukraine’s Energoatom said Russia’s “negligence” or arson could have sparked the fire. Without providing evidence, it also said Russia uses the plant’s cooling towers to store military equipment and explosives.

Russia’s officials in turn, including Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, Maria Zakharova, accused Kyiv of deliberately trying to destroy the plant and sow “nuclear terror.”

Zelenskiy published grainy video showing belching black smoke that appeared to be coming out a cooling tower with a blaze burning at its foot.

“Currently, the radiation indicators are normal. But as long as Russian terrorists retain control over the nuclear plant, the situation is not and cannot be normal,” he said.

The six reactors at the plant located close to the front line of the war in Ukraine are not in operation but the facility relies on external power to keep its nuclear material cool and prevent a catastrophic accident.

Moscow and Kyiv have routinely accused each other of endangering safety around it. – Reuters

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken told Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant in a phone call on Friday that the escalation of tensions in the Middle East was “in no party’s interest” while also stressing the need for a Gaza ceasefire, the State Department said.

There has been an increased risk of escalation into a broader Middle East war after recent killings of Palestinian Islamist group Hamas’ leader Ismail Haniyeh in Iran and of Hezbollah military commander Fuad Shukr in Beirut drew threats of retaliation against Israel, Reuters reported.

As a result, many fear a widening of Israel’s war in Gaza that has already killed tens of thousands and caused a humanitarian crisis, following Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel.

“The Secretary reaffirmed the United States’ ironclad commitment to Israel’s security and discussed how escalation is in no party’s interest,” the State Department said in a statement.

Blinken stressed the “urgent need to reach a ceasefire in Gaza” that could release hostages held in the enclave and “create the conditions for broader regional stability,” the State Department added.

A day earlier, Gallant spoke to U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin about the situation in the region, read the report.

The latest bloodshed in the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict was triggered on Oct. 7 when Hamas attacked Israel, killing 1,200 and taking about 250 hostages, according to Israeli tallies.

The Gaza health ministry says that since then Israel’s military assault on the Hamas-governed enclave has killed nearly 40,000 Palestinians while also displacing nearly the entire population of 2.3 million, causing a hunger crisis and leading to genocide accusations that Israel denies.

President Joe Biden laid out a three-phase ceasefire proposal in an address on May 31. Washington and regional mediators have since tried arranging the Gaza ceasefire-for-hostages deal but have consistently run into obstacles.