Hamas Signals Shift on Key Demand for Gaza Ceasefire

GAZA STRIP: A Hamas official said overnight on Sunday that the Palestinian Islamist group was ready to discuss a hostage release deal with Israel even without a “complete” ceasefire in the Gaza Strip.

The apparent easing of Hamas’s position comes as long-stalled diplomatic efforts to secure a ceasefire and hostage release have gathered pace with a new proposal and meetings hosted by Qatari and Egyptian mediators.

“Hamas had previously required that Israel agree to a complete and permanent ceasefire,” the top official said as the war entered its 10th month.

But mediators have offered assurances “that as long as the … negotiations continued, the ceasefire would continue”, said the official, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Israel, which vowed to destroy Hamas in response to the group’s October 7 attack that sparked the war, has repeatedly rejected demands for a permanent ceasefire.

US President Joe Biden announced a plan in late May that included an initial six-week truce and the exchange of hostages held by Hamas for Palestinian prisoners detained in Israel.

Talks quickly stalled but a US official said Thursday that a new response from Hamas “moves the process forward and may provide the basis for closing the deal”.

In Israel, anti-government protesters demanding a hostage release deal blocked traffic in the commercial hub of Tel Aviv on a nationwide “disruption day”.

Israel has said it would send a delegation to continue talks with Qatari mediators, though a government spokesman said on Friday that here were still “gaps” with Hamas. An official said CIA director William Burns would also go to Qatar this week.

The office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said “any deal will allow Israel to return and fight until all the goals of the war are achieved”.

Witnesses reported strikes and shelling on Sunday in the central Bureij refugee camp, the far-southern Rafah city and elsewhere in Gaza.

Medics and rescuers said at least nine people were killed in three strikes in central Gaza and Gaza City, in the north of the coastal territory.