Hamas to agree to complete ceasefire deal "in stages"

GAZA, May 4 (Xinhua) -- An official source from the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) told Xinhua on Saturday that the movement will agree to a complete ceasefire deal with Israel "in stages".

The source said there should be clear international guarantees that Israel would adhere to the ceasefire and completely end the conflict in the Gaza Strip.

The source refused to talk about more details about the terms of the agreement, pointing out that certain points need to be clearly defined and discussed by the Hamas delegation, who arrived in Cairo Saturday to meet the Egyptian mediators.

Israel has yet to respond to the Hamas proposal.

Taher Al-Nono, an advisor to Hamas' leader Ismail Haniyeh, told Xinhua that the movement's delegation had already begun discussions with Egyptian mediators in Cairo on Saturday to finalize the ceasefire agreement, noting that Hamas is dealing with the ceasefire proposals "seriously, responsibly and positively."

"Any ceasefire agreement must meet our national demands, which are a complete and sustainable cessation of aggression, a comprehensive and complete withdrawal of the Israeli army from the Gaza Strip, the return of the displaced to their homes without restrictions, and a real prisoner exchange deal," he said.

Palestinians in the war-torn Gaza Strip are looking forward to a ceasefire in the territory as negotiations in Cairo continue.

Hisham Rudwan, a Palestinian man who now lives in a tent in the southernmost Gazan city of Rafah near the Egyptian border, has been following updates on the ceasefire talks in Cairo.

"We hope that ceasefire negotiations under Egyptian auspices will go well and a solution will be reached soon," he said.

"The ceasefire is long overdue. A ceasefire will allow us to catch our breath and return to our homes from which we were displaced under the bombing and destruction," said Rudwan, who left his home in the Shejaiya neighborhood in eastern Gaza soon after the outbreak of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in October last year.

Maha Nimer, 52, who lives with her eight-member family in a tent in the city of Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip, also hoped that a ceasefire agreement would be reached to extinguish the flames of war.

"The situation in the Strip is unbearable," said Nimer. "We want a real ceasefire that ends the catastrophic and tragic reality in the Gaza Strip and facilitates people's return to their homes, even if they were destroyed. Life in tents is difficult in both summer and winter," she added.

Akram Atallah, a Palestinian political analyst based in Gaza, said the residents of the Strip were "clinging to a straw of hope, even if it's just temporary, to stop the nightmare that has destroyed their lives for the past seven months."