US President Joe Biden warned Tuesday of a "very, very dangerous" situation without a Gaza ceasefire deal by Ramadan, adding that it was up to Hamas to accept a deal as talks continue in Cairo.

US President Joe Biden speaks to reporters before boarding Air Force One at Hagerstown Regional Airport in Maryland.

As the US military made its second airdrop of aid to Gaza, Biden also told ally Israel there were "no excuses" for failing to allow more aid into the Palestinian enclave where the UN warns famine is looming.

Biden's comments came as US frustration grows both with Israel over Gaza's aid needs and spiraling civilian death toll, but also with Hamas for stalling on conditions including the release of hostages.

"It's in the hands of Hamas right now," Biden, 81, told reporters as he flew back to the White House from the Camp David presidential retreat in the hills of Maryland.

"The Israelis have been cooperating, the offer (of a ceasefire) is rational. We'll know in a couple of days. But we need the ceasefire."

He added: "There's got to be a ceasefire because Ramadan -- if we get into circumstances where this continues to Ramadan, Israel and Jerusalem could be very, very dangerous."

Ramadan will start on March 10 or 11, depending on the lunar calendar.

Biden did not elaborate, but the United States last week urged Israel to allow Muslims to worship at the flashpoint Al-Aqsa mosque compound in Jerusalem during Ramadan, after a far-right minister proposed barring Palestinians from the occupied West Bank.

Democrat Biden faces acute political pressure in an election year over his support for Israel amid Gaza's soaring civilian death toll, which the health ministry there has put at 30,631, mostly women and children.

Israel vowed to eliminate Hamas after its unprecedented October 7 attack on southern Israel that resulted in the deaths of around 1,160 people, according to an AFP tally of official figures

- 'No excuses' -

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken separately called on Hamas to accept an "immediate ceasefire" with Israel as the militants met Qatari and Egyptian mediators in Cairo.

"It is on Hamas to make decisions about whether it is prepared to engage in that ceasefire," he said as he met the Qatari prime minister in Washington.

While Washington publicly put the onus on Hamas to agree a ceasefire, it has become increasingly frustrated with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's refusal to rein in the offensive or let in aid.

"I'm working with them very hard," Biden, who is seeking reelection told reporters. "We must get more aid into Gaza. There's no excuses, none."

US cargo planes airdropped more than 36,000 meals to Gaza Tuesday in a joint operation with Jordan, the US military said.

It is the second such operation since Biden gave the order last week in the wake of a horrific incident in which more than 100 people were killed in chaotic scenes around a convoy of aid trucks in Gaza City.

Biden also brushed off suggestions of tensions with Netanyahu, after Benny Gantz, one of Netanyahu's rivals in the Israeli war cabinet, visited the White House on Monday for talks with Vice President Kamala Harris.

On Tuesday former military chief Gantz met US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin at the Pentagon and Blinken at the State Department.

Biden said his relationship with Netanyahu was "like it's always been."

Democrat Biden and rightwinger Netanyahu have often been at odds during the four decades in which their political paths have crossed, but Biden has stuck by Israel during its war with Hamas.

Hamas: Gaza ceasefire talks in Cairo extended for a day

These airdrops of aids may provide a brief glimpse of hope for some Gazans on Tuesday (March 5) as Hamas said negotiators from the militant group will remain in Cairo for another day at the request of mediators, keeping ceasefire talks going after two days with no breakthrough.

This extension comes just days before the start of Ramadan, the Muslim fasting month which is due to start next week.

The Cairo talks had been billed as a final hurdle to reach the war's first extended ceasefire.

It would be a 40-day truce between Israel and Hamas during which dozens of Israeli hostages would be freed...

...and aid would be pumped into Gaza to stave off a famine.

Three security sources from host and mediator Egypt told Reuters the warring sides still wanted a deal but were sticking to demands that had held up an agreement so far.

Israel says it is interested only in a temporary truce during which more hostages would be freed.

Hamas says it wants any deal to lead to a permanent end to hostilities.

The Egyptian security sources said U.S., Egyptian and Qatari mediators were seeking to overcome this difference by offering separate guarantees to Hamas of peace talks to end the war.

In Rafah, displaced Gazans, like Yasmeen Mahany, said on Monday (March 4) they yearned for peace after five months of war.

“We want to return to our cities, our houses, to our families. We are tired, we have been dispersed. T here’s no aid for the Palestinian people. We need radical solutions.”

Senior Hamas official Bassem Naim told Reuters the militant group had presented its proposal for a ceasefire agreement to the mediators and was now waiting for a response from the Israelis, who have stayed away from this round.

Israel has declined to comment publicly on the talks in Cairo.

But a senior Israeli official denied Israel was holding up a deal, saying they were waiting a response from Hamas.

A source told Reuters earlier that Israel was staying away because Hamas had rejected its demand to furnish a list of all hostages who are still alive.

Naim said this was impossible without a ceasefire first as hostages were scattered across the war zone and held by separate groups.

Washington, Israel's closest ally, has said an Israeli-approved deal is already on the table and it is up to Hamas to accept it.

Hamas disputes this account as an attempt to deflect blame from Israel if the talks collapse with no deal.

US calls on Hamas to accept ceasefire terms

The White House on Monday said a temporary ceasefire in Gaza was essential to a hostage deal and called on Hamas to accept the terms currently on the table, as talks to secure a truce proceeded in Cairo.

White House national security spokesperson John Kirby told reporters that the United States still hoped to conclude a ceasefire-for-hostages deal by the start of Ramadan on March 10.

He said Hamas has yet to agree to the terms of a proposed ceasefire deal that would include a six-week ceasefire in exchange for the release of some of the sick, elderly and wounded hostages taken by the Palestinian militants in their Oct. 7 assault on southern Israel.

Kirby also said the United States would airdrop more humanitarian supplies into Gaza and was exploring using a maritime option for getting in more aid. He said truck deliveries had been slowed by opposition from some members of Israel's cabinet.

"Israel bears a responsibility here to do more," he said.

Hamas responds to ceasefire proposal but accuses Israel of ‘stalling’

Hamas said Tuesday there could be no “exchange of prisoners” before a permanent ceasefire and a full Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, as it responded to proposals from Egyptian and Qatari mediators.

“The security and safety of our people will not be achieved except through a permanent ceasefire, the end of the aggression, [Israel’s] withdrawal from every inch in Gaza…and the entry of aid to our people in Gaza is our utmost priority,” Hamas senior leader Osama Hamdan told a news conference in Beirut.

“Any prisoner exchange will not be completed except after the completion of all this.”

Hamas’ response comes as negotiators race to reach a deal that would pair a pause in fighting with the release of Israeli hostages held in Gaza before the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. Whether that deadline can be met remains uncertain. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has previously ruled out stoping the military campaign before Hamas is completely destroyed.

Hamdan on Tuesday also accused Israel of stalling on reaching an agreement and warned that the negotiations would not be “open-ended” as Israel continues its offensive in Gaza.

“We have affirmed our conditions for a ceasefire: complete withdrawal from the sector, the return of displaced persons to the areas they left, especially in the north, and the provision of sufficient aid, relief, and reconstruction,” he said.

Reuters and Al Jazeera reported last week that Hamas was reviewing a draft proposal for an initial ceasefire lasting roughly six weeks, during which 40 Israeli hostages would be exchanged for 400 Palestinian prisoners.

Hamdan’s response came just hours after US President Joe Biden said a potential ceasefire was “in the hands of Hamas” as he boarded Air Force One at Hagerstown airport.

Biden said the “Israelis have been cooperating” and that a ceasefire is necessary.

“We need a ceasefire,” he said, calling the deal on the table a “rational offer” and saying the Israelis had agreed to it.

“We have to see what Hamas does,” he said.

Race against the clock

The Biden administration has been racing against the clock to secure a ceasefire before Ramadan, which is expected to begin March 10, fearing any aggressive military push by Israel during the Muslim holy month would only further inflame tensions across the region.

Biden said Tuesday that without a deal by Ramadan, the situation in Israel and specifically Jerusalem would be “very, very dangerous.”

Negotiators have been gathered in the Egyptian capital Cairo since Sunday for talks on a deal, but Israel did not send a delegation, an Israeli official told CNN, despite increasing international pressure to end hostilities and allow for a desperately needed surge of humanitarian aid.

An Israeli official told CNN that the reason behind the decision was that Hamas had not responded to two Israeli demands: a list of hostages specifying which are alive and which are dead; and confirmation of the ratio of Palestinian prisoners to be released from Israeli prisons in exchange for hostages.

When Biden was asked about his relationship with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, he said it was “like it’s always been.” And he repeated his assertion there were “no excuses” for Israel not to allow more aid into Gaza.

The US has become increasingly vocal about the humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza, where the United Nations warns hundreds of thousands of people are on the brink of famine and US ally Israel continues to obstruct the bulk of aid deliveries.

On Saturday, the US made its first humanitarian airdrop into the strip — 66 bundles containing meals but no water or medical supplies, a US official said. Aid groups have criticized the air drops as an ineffective and degrading way to get aid to Palestinians in Gaza, with the International Crisis Group’s UN director saying they are at best a “temporary Band-Aid measure.”

One of the strongest rebukes of Israel by a US official to date came from US Vice President Kamala Harris, who on Sunday forcefully called for more humanitarian aid into Gaza, saying that people in the region are “starving” in the face of “inhumane” conditions and urged Israel to do more.