LONDON, November 14. /TASS/. The Palestinian movement Hamas is ready for an immediate ceasefire in the Gaza Strip but it hasn’t received any serious proposal from Israel for months, Basem Naim, a senior Hamas official, said in an interview with Sky News.
According to him, the last "well-defined, brokered deal was the deal of July 2". "It was discussed in all details and I think we were near to reaching a ceasefire," Naim said, adding that unfortunately, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu "preferred to go the other way." "He committed at least two to three big massacres in Khan Younis and Gaza City and then, finally, he assassinated our top leader Ismail Haniyeh. After that, we didn’t receive any serious proposals," the senior Hamas official pointed out.
Naim added that Hamas was "ready to go immediately for a ceasefire to end this war, to go for a serious prisoner exchange."
Speaking about Hamas’s attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, he described it as "an act of defense." "You have to remember that one week before October 7, hundreds of Palestinians were killed near the borders in the Gaza Strip; <...> people were starving in the Gaza Strip, people were dying because of the absence of medicine," he added.
Naim also expressed hope that US President-elect Donald Trump would "take the needed steps" to stop the war in Gaza.