A senior Palestinian Hamas official has said in Beirut that negotiations for an agreement with Israel on a Gaza ceasefire and hostage release deal had not made any progress, AFP reports.

A plan presented last month by US President Joe Biden, which he said was proposed by Israel, included a six-week truce accompanied by an Israeli withdrawal from densely populated areas and the release of some hostages in exchange for Palestinian prisoners held in Israel.

According to US news site Axios, “three sources with direct knowledge” said Washington had presented a “new language for parts of” the proposed deal.

On Saturday, Osama Hamdan, a Hamas official based in Lebanon, confirmed that the movement had received the latest proposal on June 24, but that it included “nothing new”.

“We can say that there is no real progress in the negotiations to stop the (Israeli) aggression so far”, he said at a press conference. The plan presented by Biden has so far failed to result in a deal, with both sides sticking to their demands.

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