'Door remains open to overcome disagreements but Hamas won't surrender'

The spokesman for Hamas, Sami Abu Zuhri, said on Tuesday that Israel "is trying to impose a surrender agreement on the Palestinian people," but that it will not succeed, because the release of Israeli hostages will only be possible through negotiations. He claimed that the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu "is not interested in a ceasefire agreement, but is only seeking to continue the war."

Hamas "is showing a positive attitude towards attempts to overcome differences between the parties, and the door remains open," he continued. "The hands of the American administration are stained with the blood of the children and women of Gaza," he said, noting that the United States and Israel wanted to recover the hostages without committing to ending the Israeli "aggression."

The spokesperson for the Gaza terrorist group also stated that the American administration is adopting the position of the Israeli government, which is trying to sabotage the ceasefire, and that Netanyahu and Trump must understand that Hamas is not in a position of weakness and will not surrender.

Osama Hamdan, another senior Hamas official, said in an interview with Al Jazeera on Wednesday that "Israel is trying to escape from the ceasefire agreement and conclude a new agreement that Hamas has rejected." He added that Hamas had adopted a positive approach towards US Special Envoy Steve Witkoff's proposal, provided there is a bridge to the beginning of the second phase of the ceasefire agreement.

Hamdan stated that Israel was deluding itself by believing that escalation and military pressure would be effective, adding that Hamas had not received any new Egyptian proposal to stop the war. He also assured that contacts with Qatar and Egypt were continuing to stop the Israeli "aggression."