Hamas official says ‘ready’ for Gaza ceasefire, urges Trump to ‘pressure’ Israel

Hamas has said it is now ready for a ceasefire but has demanded Donald Trump push Israel to stop fighting.

A senior Hamas official said Friday that the group is “ready for a ceasefire” in Gaza and urged US President-elect Donald Trump to pressure Israel to end the war.

It comes as the Lebanese government was reviewing a US truce proposal in the Israel-Hezbollah conflict, Lebanese officials told AFP on Friday, nearly two months since cross-border clashes escalated into a full-blown war.

“Hamas is ready to reach a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip if a ceasefire proposal is presented and on the condition that it is respected” by Israel, Hamas political bureau member Bassem Naim told AFP.

“We call on the US administration and Trump to pressure the Israeli government to end the aggression.

“Hamas informed the mediators that it is in favour of any proposal submitted to it that would lead to a definitive ceasefire and military withdrawal from the Gaza Strip, allowing the return of displaced people, a serious deal for a prisoner exchange, the entry of humanitarian aid and reconstruction,” Mr Naim added.

The demands are the same ones Hamas has made in successive rounds of ceasefire negotiations since the start of the war.

Hamas has called on President-elect Donald Trump to pressure Israel. (Photo by JOE RAEDLE / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA / Getty Images via AFP)

On the campaign trail, Trump promised peace in the Middle East and has vowed to give freer rein to Israel.

Mr Naim’s comments come after Qatar said last Saturday that it had suspended its role as a key mediator for a Gaza ceasefire and hostage release deal until Hamas and Israel show “seriousness” in talks.

The Gulf emirate, which has hosted Hamas’s political leadership since 2012 with US blessing, has been involved in months of protracted diplomacy aimed at ending the war triggered by the Palestinian group’s attack on Israel on October 7 last year.

The Hamas attack resulted in the deaths of 1206 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.

Israel’s retaliatory campaign has killed 43,764 people in Gaza, most of them civilians, according to figures from the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry that the United Nations considers reliable.

People walk amid the destruction in the vicinity of the Kamal Adwan hospital in Beit Lahya in the northern Gaza Strip on October 31, 2024. (Photo by AFP)

Lebanion triuce proposal

Israel has intensified its bombing of mainly Hezbollah targets in Lebanon since September 23 and later sent in ground troops, nearly a year into limited exchanges of fire initiated by the group in support of Palestinian ally Hamas.

Ceasefire efforts spearheaded by the United States and France have so far failed to halt the hostilities between Israel and the Lebanese group, which like Hamas is backed by Iran.

But two Lebanese government officials said a new proposal was on the table.

Requesting anonymity due to the sensitivity of the matter, one top official said US Ambassador Lisa Johnson discussed the plan on Thursday with Prime Minister Najib Mikati and Hezbollah-allied parliament speaker Nabih Berri, who has been involved in mediation efforts on behalf of the group.

The proposal comprises “13 points spanning five pages”, said the official, offering few details.

If an agreement is reached, Washington and Paris would issue a joint statement, he said, followed by a 60-day truce during which Lebanon will redeploy troops in the southern border area, near Israel.

The proposal is “an American one, and Berri asked for a three-day period” to study it, the official added.

The moment a building collapses after an Israeli air strike on Beirut's southern Ghobeiry neighbourhood on November 15, 2024. (Photo by IBRAHIM AMRO / AFP)

He also said Israel has yet to respond to the initiative.

Israeli officials have recently vowed no let-up in the fighting against Hezbollah.

A US State Department spokesman declined to comment on “ongoing, private negotiations”, but said that “we remain committed to a diplomatic resolution that restores a lasting calm allowing residents in both Lebanon and Israel to return safely to their homes.” A second Lebanese official, also requesting anonymity, confirmed a truce proposal was “under study” and said he was “optimistic” about the talks.

“The proposal is the result of the last meeting between Berri and (US special envoy Amos) Hochstein, who reached an understanding for a ceasefire road map based on implementing Resolution 1701,” he said.

Mr Berri and Mr Hochstein last met in October.

UN Security Council Resolution 1701, which ended the last Hezbollah-Israel war of 2006, said Lebanese troops and UN peacekeepers should be the only armed forces deployed in the south, where Hezbollah holds sway.

The resolution also called for Israel to withdraw troops from Lebanon. The second official suggested Lebanon would object to an agreement that would allow Israeli forces to keep conducting operations against Hezbollah inside Lebanon, as some media reports said Israel had demanded.

“If Israel can launch operations in Lebanon, why reach a ceasefire and implement Resolution 1701 at all?” the official said.