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.
"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," Naim added.
The demands are the same ones Hamas has made in successive rounds of ceasefire negotiations since the start of the war.
On the campaign trail, Trump promised peace in the Middle East and has vowed to give freer rein to Israel.
Naim's comments come after Qatar said 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 1,206 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 territory's health ministry that the United Nations considers reliable.
Islamic jihad releases new hostage video
Meanwhile, Hamas ally Islamic Jihad released earlier on Friday a new clip of Israeli hostage Sasha Trupanov, held in Gaza since the October 2023 attack, after releasing a first video earlier this week.
Trupanov, identified by his relatives in the previous video released on Wednesday, appealed to Aryeh Deri, leader of the Sephardi ultra-Orthodox party Shas, a member of Israel's governing coalition, to help free him and the other hostages held in Gaza.
Trupanov, 29, is a dual Russian-Israeli citizen who was abducted with his girlfriend, Sapir Cohen, from the Nir Oz kibbutz near the Gaza border.
His mother and grandmother were also abducted and released along with Cohen during a week-long truce and hostages for prisoners exchange in November 2023.
His father, Vitaly, was killed in the October 2023 attack, the deadliest in Israeli history.
This is now the fourth video of Trupanov released by Islamic Jihad.
Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova called for the release of Trupanov and another hostage, Maxim Herkin, in comments made before the release of the latest clip.
"We reiterate our call for the immediate and unconditional release of all civilians held by Palestinian groups, with priority given to our compatriots," she said.
Herkin, a 35-year-old Russian-Israeli citizen, was abducted at the Nova music festival.
Militants seized 251 hostages during the attack, some of them already dead.
With AFP
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