JERUSALEM — A Hamas official this week renewed calls for a ceasefire amid mounting Israeli demands for a broad military offensive in the Gaza Strip. Writing in the Israeli daily Haaretz, Ahmed Yussef, a Hamas foreign policy advisor, called for a long-term ceasefire between Palestinian militants and Israeli forces.

Sderot solidarity demonstraters in downtown Tel Aviv protesting Israel’s inability to put an end to Qassam rocket fire from Gaza

“If the people of (the southern Israeli town of) Sderot want to know why rockets continue to land around them, they should ask their own government why it has continually rejected our calls for a ceasefire and continued its policy of daily incursions and reckless targeting that put the whole population at risk,” he wrote. Yussef pointed out that his democratically movement observed a unilateral ceasefire for the nine months before it won parliamentary elections in January 2006 and for six months thereafter. He told AFP that Hamas was not aiming for a wider confrontation, but had a “political vision aimed at achieving a long truce.” “If there were a sincere Israeli movement towards a truce, in terms of easing the siege and opening the crossings and allowing freedom of movement between the West Bank and Gaza, that would be the basis,” Yussef said. But “if Israel continues with its heavy-handed policies, the confrontation will remain open and the conflict will continue,” he said, adding that Hamas was not seeking direct talks with Israel.