Hamas is ready to fight back if US President Donald Trump’s peace deal unravels and hostilities with Israel resume in the Gaza Strip, a senior official told AFP on Saturday.

“We hope that we will not return to (war), but our Palestinian people and the resistance force will undoubtedly confront and use all their capabilities to repel this aggression if this battle is imposed,” political bureau member Hossam Badran told AFP.

He also said that negotiations over phase two of the peace plan will be complex and difficult.

“The second phase of the Trump plan, as it is clear from the points themselves, contains many complexities and difficulties.”Badran also said that the group would not take part in the formal signing of the Gaza peace deal in Egypt.

“The matter of the official signing -- we will not be involved,” he said, adding that Hamas “acted principally through... Qatari and Egyptian mediators” during ceasefire talks in Egypt.

Commenting on the proposal for Hamas members to leave the Gaza Strip under the plan, Badran said it is “absurd.”

“Talk about expelling Palestinians, whether they’re Hamas members or not, from their land is absurd and nonsense.”