The Hamas leader in Gaza said he will only accept a cease-fire proposal if it includes a permanent halt to the war in Gaza, his first official response to the Biden-backed resolution.  

A day after the cease-fire talks resumed on Wednesday in Qatar, Yahya Sinwar — who was a key mastermind of the Oct. 7 attack on Israel — signaled that he would not agree to a compromise endorsed by President Biden last week, since it only calls for a temporary truce, the Wall Street Journal reports.

“Hamas will not surrender its guns or sign a proposal that asks for that,” Arab mediators said Sinwar told them on Thursday. 

Senior Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri echoed Sinwar and said that while the terror group welcomes “Biden’s ideas,” the deal on the table is too similar to an Israeli proposal that Hamas had previously rejected.

“The [US] document … has no mention of ending the aggression or the withdrawal,” Abu Zuhri told Reuters.

“The Israeli documents speak of open-ended negotiation with no deadline, and it speaks of a stage during which the occupation regains its hostages and resumes the war,” he added.

“We had told the mediators that such a paper wasn’t acceptable to us.”

The US-backed deal calls for an immediate cessation of hostilities in the Gaza Strip and the Israeli military’s full withdrawal from the Palestinian enclave in exchange for the return of the remaining Israeli hostages.

Palestinian prisoners would also be released from Israeli jails as part of the deal.

The deal would then allow more aid to reach Gaza.

While the terror group claimed to be amenable to the conditions, Hamas leaders said it also lacked the demands from their own May 5 proposal that called for Hamas to retain control of Gaza.

Israel had immediately rejected that condition, with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reiterating multiple times that the war will only end once Hamas and its hold in Gaza are completely eradicated.

Netanyahu and his war cabinet maintain that military pressure is the only way to free the more than 120 hostages remaining in Gaza, with Defense Minister Yoav Gallant saying that negotiation with Hamas will “only be conducted under fire.”

“We are in a process where we will continue to wear down the enemy,” he said Wednesday.

However, the Netanyahu government is under increasing pressure from the families of hostages and some lawmakers to strike a deal for the return of the Israeli captives first — and destroy Hamas after.

Hamas’ declaration came hours before an Israeli airstrike aimed at a UN school-turned-refugee shelter in Nuseirat, allegedly killing at least 33 people, according to the Hamas-run health ministry.

The Israeli military said it conducted a precise strike at the al-Sardi School, run by the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees, because it was being used as a base by Hamas.

It said the attack took out 20 to 30 terrorists, some of whom were suspected of taking part in the Oct. 7 attack.

The Israeli military, however, has not commented on claims of civilian casualties. It said it had taken “many steps” to minimize harm to “uninvolved people.”

Hospital records verified by Associated Press reporters showed that at least 14 children and nine women were included in the bodies brought in from the school.

Philippe Lazzarini, the commissioner-general of the UN refugee agency, said about 6,000 people were sheltering in the school when it was hit without warning from the IDF.

“Attacking, targeting or using UN buildings for military purposes are a blatant disregard of International Humanitarian law,” Lazzarini wrote on X. “Targeting UN premises or using them for military purposes cannot become the new norm.”

The agency had previously come under fire after 12 staffers were fired over allegations that they assisted Hamas terrorists during the Oct. 7 massacre that left more than 1,200 people dead and some 250 others kidnapped in Israel.

With Post wires