TEL AVIV, December 21. /TASS/. Israel is ready to call a pause to its combat operation in the Gaza Strip for two weeks to allow time for the release of hostages held in the embattled enclave by radical Palestinian group Hamas, although the combatant parties are still a long way off from a truce agreement, with Hamas rejecting Tel Aviv’s proposal, the Israeli Arab-language television channel Makan 33 reported.

According to its sources in Jerusalem, Israel is ready for a two-week ceasefire provided that dozens of abducted people are freed in exchange for the release of Palestinian prisoners from Israeli jails, including those convicted of terrorism. However, the sides "still have a long way to go to reach an understanding."

Meanwhile, Hamas has so far rejected the offer in its proposed format as the Palestinian militants are insisting on a complete halt to the fighting and efforts to provide humanitarian assistance to residents of the Gaza Strip, Makan 33 added.

Tensions flared up again in the Middle East on October 7 after Gaza Strip-based Hamas militants launched a surprise incursion on Israeli territory, killing many Israeli kibbutz residents living near the Gaza border and abducting more than 200 Israelis, including women, children and the elderly. Hamas described its attack as a response to Israeli authorities’ aggressive actions against the Al-Aqsa Mosque on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem’s Old City. Israel declared a total siege of Gaza and started carrying out strikes on the Palestinian enclave, as well as on certain areas in Lebanon and Syria. Clashes are also taking place in the West Bank.

Hamas announced on November 22 that an agreement on a four-day humanitarian ceasefire in the Gaza Strip had been reached through the mediation of Qatar and Egypt. The Gaza ceasefire took effect on November 24. The agreement stipulated the release of Israeli women and children who are being held in Gaza in exchange for the release of Palestinian women and children held in Israeli prisons. The sides extended the truce several times until the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said on the morning of December 1 that Hamas had violated the truce in Gaza and opened fire at Israeli territory, thus prompting the IDF to resume combat operations in Gaza. The Palestinian authorities, in turn, laid responsibility for the resumption of fighting on the United States.