Mediators have proposed a truce deal that would halt fighting for 40 days and exchange dozens of hostages for many more Palestinian prisoners. Senior Hamas official Osama Hamdan told AFP late on Wednesday that the movement’s position on the truce proposal was “negative” for the time being but that discussions were still underway. The group’s aim remains an “end to this war”, senior Hamas official Suhail al-Hindi told AFP, a goal at odds with the stated position of Israel’s hawkish Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Hindi, speaking by phone from an undisclosed location, said there is “great int…