Hamas denies receiving 2-month cease-fire offer via mediators

By Ahmed Asmar

ANKARA (AA) - Hamas has not received a proposal for a two-month cease-fire in Gaza via mediators, a media officer for the Palestinian resistance group told Anadolu on Monday.

The US-based Axios news website earlier quoted two Israeli officials who said that Israel offered Hamas a proposal via Qatari and Egyptian mediators that includes up to a two-month pause in the fighting as part of a multi-phase deal that would include the release of all remaining hostages held in Gaza.

Speaking to an Anadolu correspondent, Walid Kilani, the media spokesperson for Hamas in Lebanon, said the offer was seen on media platforms but his group "hasn't received it officially."

He stressed that the Hamas's "main condition is a full and comprehensive cease-fire, not a temporary one."

If this condition is agreed to, then there can be talks over exchanges of prisoners in batches, Kilani added.

Israel estimates that Hamas has been holding 136 Israelis in Gaza since Oct. 7, while Hamas demands a cease-fire in Gaza and the release of Palestinian prisoners from Israeli prisons in exchange for releasing Israelis in its custody.

Israel has launched relentless air and ground attacks on the Gaza Strip since a cross-border attack by Hamas, which Tel Aviv says killed 1,200 people.

At least 25,295 Palestinians have since been killed, mostly women and children, and 63,000 injured, according to Palestinian health authorities.

The Israeli onslaught has left 85% of Gaza’s population internally displaced amid acute shortages of food, clean water and medicine, while 60% of the enclave’s infrastructure has been damaged or destroyed, according to the UN.2