Hamas Says it is Ready to Reach 'Complete Agreement' if Israel Stops War in Gaza

New Delhi: In a statement me on Thursday, Hamas said that it h informed mediating parties of its reiness to reach a ‘complete agreement’ including a comprehensive hostages/prisoners exchange' so long as Israel agrees to “stop its war and agression against people in Gaza,” Reuters reported. Earlier this month, Hamas h announced that it was rey to agree to a ceasefire deal that it was presented with. While it was initially believed that agreement it was referring to was very same Israel h tacitly approved, it was subsequently discovered that militant group was agreeing to a changed version of agreement that Israel deemed as being ‘unacceptable’. 

Later, CNN, citing three anonymous sources familiar with matter, reported that agreement that h been passed on to Hamas for its review h been changed by a member of Egyptian intelligence service.

This new version reportedly included several terms that were agreeable to Hamas but were a non-starter for Israel including language about ending war in Gaza and number of hostages that would be released during multi-stage ceasefire.   

While Egypt denied se charges, ceasefire talks ultimately stalled, with all involved sides leaving Cairo without a functional agreement in sight. Last week, CBS, quoting four sources with knowledge of situation, said that US would resume its diplomatic efforts to facilitate ceasefire talks in coming week, with negotiators from Qatar and Egypt also expected to be involved. 

Israeli news outlets, including Ynet, also reported that Israeli war cabinet h expanded mandate of negotiating team in order to facilitate a hostage release deal with Hamas.

At present, or sides in negotiation have not reacted to new statement me by Hamas. However, Israel has previously and repeatedly emphasised that it will not agree to a lasting ceasefire in Gaza and that it would continue its combat operations in Strip until such time that Hamas and its affliate groups are destroyed, regardless of wher a hostage exchange deal is reached or not.