The White House national security communications advisor, John Kirby, told reporters at a briefing on Monday that the Biden administration believes talks are still progressing, notwithstanding hundreds of rockets that Hezbollah launched at Israel on Sunday after the Jewish state thwarted a major attack.

“There continues to be progress, and our team on the ground continues to describe the talks as constructive,” Kirby said. “Despite the rocket and drone attack by Hezbollah over the course of the weekend, which Israel did a terrific job defending against, it has not affected the actual work on the ground by the teams trying to get this ceasefire deal in place.”

When asked why negotiations had appeared to break down, Kirby said leaders and high-level mediators had departed from the talks to make way for more practical conversations.

The working groups are struggling with is how the procedure would work for Hamas to release hostages and for Israel to exchange Palestinian prisoners held in jail. The negotiations also addressed who would be released and when.

Kirby rejected the notion that talks had been abandoned, insisting that the Biden administration continues to believe that a deal is urgent.

“We’re maintaining a pretty robust force posture there to be able to defend ourselves and defend Israel should it come to that. Hopefully it won’t,” he added. “We want to get this ceasefire deal as soon as possible. We haven’t let our interest in doing that wane.”