Alwaght- Hamas and Israeli regime are still far from a deal that would see end of the ongoing Israeli genocide in Gaza, a senior official in Hamas said according to Aljazeera.
"The gap is still wide. We have to discuss a lot of points with the mediators,” Basem Naim, the head of political and international relations for Hamas, told Al Jazeera from Istanbul on Wednesday.
The comments come hours after the US President Joe Biden said he was hopeful a deal can be reached by next Monday.
Biden administration’s optimistic posture was not “related to the reality on the ground” and has more to do with domestic political considerations in a US election year, Aljazeera quoted Naim as saying.
"They talk on one hand for stopping the aggression or for achieving a ceasefire and avoiding broadening the conflict into the region. But at the same time they are using the veto in the UN Security Council,” Naim said. “They are approving $14bn for Israel, they are securing Israel with more ammunition.
Naim said that the Palestinian movement may tend to show some flexibility, but he will not make decisions on the expense of its "main stratrgic goals."
The ceasefire talks have been underway in Paris since last week, with Qatar, France, and Egypt trying to broker a truce to stop the Israeli campaign in Gaza.
Hamas received a draft proposal from Paris talks for a pause in military operations and the exchange of Palestinian prisoners for Israeli prisoners, a senior source close to the talks said on Tuesday.
Parts of the proposal said both parties should stop their military operations completely, aerial reconnaissance operations over Gaza will stop for eight hours a day, and all Israeli prisoners, including women, children under 19 years of age, the elderly aged 50 years and above, and the sick, must be released in exchange for a specific number of Palestinian prisoners according.
Israeli also will commit to bringing in 500 trucks per day of humanitarian aid and provide 200,000 tents and 60,000 caravans.
Hamas says that the Israeli regime should end its aggression on Gaza and permanently lift its siege on the enclave. But Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu says that war can be stopped only in return for release of Israeli prisoners held by Hamas since October 7.
Israeli PM threatens that if a deal is not reached, he will invade Rafah, a city in southern Gaza hosting over 1.4 million displaced civilians.