US President Donald Trump said that Israel must immediately stop bombing the Gaza Strip in order to begin ceasefire talks, after the "Hamas" movement earlier last night responded that it agreed to negotiate, BTA reported.
"Based on the statement from "Hamas", I believe they are ready for lasting peace," Trump said.
Last night, the Palestinian radical group said it was ready to release all Israeli hostages – the living and the bodies of the dead, according to the US president's proposal, but said that parts of his 20-point plan were "vague" and expressed a desire for negotiations on some of them.
"The American proposal is unclear, ambiguous, and therefore negotiations through intermediaries are needed", senior member of the movement Mahmoud Mardawi told Agence France-Presse.
In its response to Trump's proposal, "Hamas" did not mention anything about the point of disarmament - a demand of Israel and the United States, which the group had previously rejected.
In its statement, the Palestinian movement noted that "it appreciates the efforts of the Arab, Islamic (countries) and the international (community), as well as the efforts of US President Donald Trump, who called for an end to the war in the Gaza Strip, a prisoner exchange and the immediate admission of humanitarian aid".
"Hamas" added that he was ready to "transfer the governance of the Gaza Strip to a Palestinian body of independent (technocrats), based on the Palestinian national consensus and enjoying Arab and Islamic support".
However, Musa Abu Marzouk, a member of the Palestinian group's political bureau, told Al Jazeera that he doubted that the release of all living hostages and the return of the bodies of the dead could be carried out within 72 hours, as set out in Trump's plan.
"The release of the living hostages and the return of the bodies of the dead within 72 hours is unfeasible under the current conditions," he said.
Abu Marzouk also specified that the "Hamas" movement is ready to hand over its weapons to the future Palestinian Authority that will govern the Gaza Strip, but the plan's provisions regarding the deployment of a peacekeeping contingent in the enclave "require clarification and further discussion".