After comments from Israeli officials predicted the war in Gaza would last through the end of the year, White House national security communications adviser John Kirby expressed a desire to reach an end much sooner than that -- “as soon as possible,” he said.

“I’ll let the defense minister speak for his own views and opinions. Our view, in our opinion, is we gotta get this hostage deal now. The time is now to do it -- to get that temporary cease-fire and to end this conflict as soon as possible,” Kirby said.

“I can tell you that President Biden is committed to seeing that we find a way to end this conflict. And to end as soon as practicable.”

Kirby confirmed that there is a “fresh” proposal on the table that the Israels are “fully supportive of,” but it is too “fresh” to provide details on. He emphasized that the Biden administration still believes there is a path for a cease-fire deal that could “lead to something more sustainable” and a “potential end of the conflict.”

Kirby also said the fighting “could end tomorrow if Mr. Sinwar did the right thing and agreed to this deal,” referring to the Hamas leader.

-ABC News’ Cheyenne Haslett

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke about the catastrophic strike over the weekend in Rafah -- becoming the first top-level U.S. official to publicly respond to the attack in detail.

"The incident a couple days ago was horrific," he said. "I don't think anyone who has seen the images cannot be deeply affected by them, just on a basic human level."

Blinken was also asked about reports indicating that the U.S. supplied the weapons used in the strike; he said he couldn't yet say where they came from, but if Israel's claims that it used small diameter munitions were true, the incident illustrated how even precision attacks could cause immense damage to civilians in Rafah.

"I think we also see that even limited, focused, targeted attacks, designed to deal with terrorists who've killed innocent civilians that are plotting to kill more -- even those kinds of operations can have terrible, horrific, unintended consequences," he said.

Blinken then said it was "very important in this moment after Israel has had real success in helping to destroy Hamas' capacity to repeat October 7th" that Israel "has to ask whether, and especially in the absence of a plan for the day after in Gaza, further incremental gains against Hamas, but gains that may not be durable in terms of Hamas' defeat in the absence of a plan--how that stacks up against some of the, again, unintended, but horrific consequences of military action in a place where the people you're going after are so closely embedded with civilians."

-ABC News' Shannon Crawford

A video showing Israeli hostage Alexsander Trufanov, who was captured by Hamas on Oct. 7, was publicly released by the Hostage Families Forum on Tuesday.

"The proof of life from Alexsander (Sasha) Trufanov is additional evidence that the Israeli government must give a significant mandate to the negotiating team, which will be able to lead to a deal for the return of all the hostages - the living to rehabilitation and the murdered to burial," the Hostage Families Forum said in the release with the video.

Israel submitted a new cease-fire proposal to negotiators in Egypt on Monday. They are now awaiting a response from Hamas, according to an Egyptian security source who spoke with ABC News.

-ABC News' Dorit Long and Marwa Mouaki

At least 21 people were killed in an attack near the International Medical Corps American hospital as explosions continue in Rafah on Monday night and Tuesday, according to Palestinians on the ground and local authorities.

Of the 21 people killed, 14 of them were female, according to the Hamas-run Gaza Ministry of Health said Tuesday. Their ages have not yet been released.

These bombings were not in the exact same location as the strike on May 26 that killed 50 people and injured at least 249 others.

-ABC News' Diaa Ostaz

An Israeli government official said the Israeli Prime Minister’s Office wasn’t informed that President Joe Biden’s Friday remarks would include a permanent end to the fighting.

“If you listen to what Biden said, you come to the impression that we agree to a permanent cease-fire without, or, without our conditions being met, and that's not the case,” the official said.

The official said the Israeli Prime Minister’s Office, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, was informed 30 minutes before that Biden was giving a speech. The official said Netanyahu was told that the speech would focus on the hostages, with no mention of implementing a permanent cease-fire.

A senior U.S. official said the Biden administration "engaged with the Israelis at multiple levels before the president delivered the speech." The official said the U.S. specifically engaged with the Israeli Prime Minister's Office and the Israeli war cabinet.

The official also pointed to when Biden said in his speech that it was a proposal that the Israelis agreed to. The official noted that Netanyahu himself said that it was an Israeli proposal.

An Israeli official and two other Israeli sources who are familiar with the matter told ABC News that what Biden presented is indeed the outline of the Israeli proposal. The sources said the proposal was approved by all war cabinet members, including Netanyahu, and sent to the mediators earlier in the week.

The sources added that there are “interpretation gaps,” referring to the way the outline was presented by Biden.

Biden presented on Friday what he said was an Israeli proposal to draw the war in Gaza to a close.

Biden said the deal had been transmitted to Israel and Hamas, through Qatar.

The president said the first phase would last for six weeks and include a "full and complete cease-fire, a withdrawal of Israeli forces from all populated areas of Gaza [and] release of a number of hostages." Palestinians would also be able to return to their homes and 600 trucks of humanitarian aid would be delivered to Gaza every day.

The second phase would include a release of all remaining living hostages and the temporary cease-fire would become a permanent cease-fire with Israel withdrawing all forces from Gaza "as long as Hamas lives up to its commitments," Biden said.

In phase three, there would be a major reconstruction of Gaza.

-ABC News’ Britt Clennett, Dana Savir and Michelle Stoddart