A senior Hamas official says that the terror group rejects any proposal for a temporary halt to more than a year of fighting in Gaza sparked by its October 7 onslaught, and insists on a lasting ceasefire.
“The idea of a temporary pause in the war, only to resume aggression later, is something we have already expressed our position on. Hamas supports a permanent end to the war, not a temporary one,” Taher al-Nunu, a senior leader of the movement, tells AFP.
Mediators seeking to broker a hostage deal and ceasefire are expected to propose a truce of “less than a month” to Hamas, a source with knowledge of the talks told AFP yesterday.
Meetings between Mossad head David Barnea, CIA Director Bill Burns and Qatar’s prime minister in Doha, which concluded on Monday, discussed proposing a “short-term” truce of “less than a month,” the source said on condition of anonymity because of the talks’ sensitivity.
The proposal involves exchanging hostages for Palestinians jailed in Israeli prisons and increasing aid to Gaza, the source added, with the US reportedly believing it could lead to a more permanent ceasefire.
Nunu says the group has not received any proposal so far, adding if it gets such a plan, it will respond.
However, he reiterates the demands the terror group has been insisting on for months — “a permanent ceasefire, withdrawal [of Israeli forces] from Gaza, the return of displaced people, sufficient humanitarian aid to Gaza and a serious prisoner exchange deal.”
It is believed that 97 of the 251 hostages abducted by Hamas on October 7 remain in Gaza, including the bodies of at least 34 confirmed dead by the IDF. Hamas is also holding two Israeli civilians who entered the Strip in 2014 and 2015, as well as the bodies of two IDF soldiers who were killed in 2014.
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