Hamas considers plan to pause fighting but says it wants permanent ceasefire

Hamas officials said on Friday that the group is studying a proposed ceasefire deal that would include prolonged pauses in fighting in Gaza and swaps of Israeli hostages for Palestinian prisoners, but at the same time appeared to rule out some of its key components.

Ismail Haniyeh, Hamas’ top political leader, and Osama Hamdan, a senior Hamas official in Beirut, said the group remains committed to its initial demands for a permanent ceasefire.

Mr Hamdan also said the group seeks the release of thousands of Palestinian prisoners being held for acts related to the conflict with Israel, including those serving life sentences.

He mentioned two by name, including Marwan Barghouti, a popular Palestinian uprising leader seen as a unifying figure.

Mr Hamdan’s comments on the prisoners were the most detailed demands yet to be raised by the group in public.

The insistence on large-scale prisoner releases and on an end to the fighting in Gaza put the group at odds with the multi-stage proposal that officials from Egypt, Israel, Qatar and the United States put forth this week. The proposal does not include a permanent ceasefire.

Mr Haniyeh said in a statement on Friday that negotiations must “completely end” the Israeli offensive in Gaza and bring the withdrawal of Israeli forces, demands that Israel has rejected.

“There is no way that this will be acceptable by the resistance,” Mr Hamdan told Lebanon’s LBC TV on Friday, referring to proposed successive pauses in fighting.

Israeli leaders have said they will keep fighting until Hamas is crushed, even while agreeing to long pauses that are accompanied by the release of hostages.

Hamas and other militants captured about 250 hostages during their deadly October 7 attack on southern Israel that triggered the war.

They continue to hold dozens of captives, after more than 100 were released during a one-week truce in November, in exchange for 240 Palestinian prisoners.

Since Israel’s offensive began, more than 27,000 Palestinians have been killed and 66,000 wounded, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory.

The conflict has also left vast swaths of the tiny coastal enclave levelled, displaced 85% of its population and pushed a quarter of residents to starvation.

In his remarks, Mr Hamdan also said Hamas wants to free Palestinian prisoners of all factions – not just those affiliated with the militant group.

In addition to Barghouti, he named Ahmed Saadat, the head of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a small PLO faction.

Alluding to additional points of dispute, Mr Hamdan also said that Israel is carving out a buffer zone on the Gaza side of the border.

Israel has not acknowledged such plans officially, but satellite photos show new demolition along a one kilometre-wide path along the border between Israel and the enclave.

As the war nears the four-month mark, fighting continued in the southern city of Khan Younis.

The Israeli military said on Friday that its efforts focused on fighters, weapons and infrastructure in the city, a key target of Israel’s ground offensive in recent weeks.