The group has said it wants a truce plan based on US President Joe Biden's May 31 ceasefire proposal.
Hamas has called on mediators to present a plan based on previous truce talks rather than trying to find a new ceasefire deal in Gaza, days before talks proposed by the United States, Egypt and Qatar.
In a statement on its official Telegram channel, the group said it wants a plan “based on [US President Joe] Biden’s May 31 ceasefire proposal, the framework established by mediators Qatar and Egypt on May 6, and UN Security Council Resolution 2735.”
The May 6 proposal, which Hamas had previously accepted and Israel had rejected, also guarantees the release of Israeli captives in Gaza as well as an unspecified number of Palestinians held in Israeli jails.
Hamas' statement on Sunday added that “mediators must enforce this.” [May 6 proposal] on the occupation [Israel] Instead of pursuing new rounds of negotiations or new proposals that would whitewash the occupation's aggression and give it more time to continue its genocide against our people.”
From Amman, Jordan, Al Jazeera's Hamdah Salhut said Israeli media is interpreting Hamas's statement as a complete rejection of ceasefire talks.
“But his [Hamas] “The statement does not say that. They are simply asking the mediators to put on the table the original proposal that they had agreed upon,” he said.
Talks on August 15th
Last week, the leaders of the United States, Egypt and Qatar called on Israel and Hamas to meet for talks on August 15 in Cairo or Doha to finalize a ceasefire agreement in Gaza and the release of captives.
Hamas spokesman Jihad Taha said on Saturday that the group's leadership is “studying” the invitation to the ceasefire talks.
Taha said that “it is the Israeli occupation that is preventing the success of the latest proposal” and stressed that “in order to close the remaining loopholes in the ceasefire agreement, real pressure must be exerted on the Israeli side, which practiced and continues to practice a policy of putting obstacles in the way of any efforts and undertakings aimed at ending the aggression.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has already said he would not accept any deal that would end Israel's war on Gaza without the complete defeat of Hamas. But Israel has said it will send negotiators to take part in the August 15 ceasefire meeting.
If the talks go ahead, it would also be the first time Hamas will enter into talks with Gaza leader Yahya Sinwar at the helm following Israel's killing of Ismail Haniyeh.
Meanwhile, Israel's attacks on Gaza continue.
An Israeli airstrike on the al-Tabin school compound in Gaza City, which houses displaced Palestinian families, killed around 100 people on Saturday.
“Every time there is any kind of movement in these [ceasefire] “If there is a large-scale attack on Gaza, the negotiations will be completely derailed,” Al Jazeera’s Salhut said.
Hamas said Israel's “massacre at the Al-Tabin school” is further “proof that it only wants to escalate its aggression.”
But the group added that despite this attack, it will continue to adhere to the proposal put forward by the mediators that it had previously agreed upon.
