A senior Hamas official said that the group rejects any proposal for a temporary halt to more than a year of fighting in Gaza and insists on a lasting ceasefire, AFP reports.

“The idea of a temporary pause in the war, only to resume aggression later, is something we have already expressed our position on. Hamas supports a permanent end to the war, not a temporary one,” Taher al-Nunu, a senior leader of the movement, told AFP.