A senior Hamas official said on Sunday that the organization is determined to reach a ceasefire agreement and an exchange deal of terrorist prisoners and hostages "but not at any cost."
In a conversation with Al-Araby Al-Jadeed newspaper, the senior Hamas official said that "there will be no agreement without a complete ceasefire in the war and withdrawal of the occupation from the entire Gaza Strip."
The official added that Netanyahu "is threatening to invade Rafah militarily as a means of pressuring and thwarting the reaching of an agreement out of personal considerations," stressing that military action in Rafah "will not be a walk in the park, and the occupation will pay a high price for any adventure it undertakes that will end in failure."
He added that Netanyahu "bears full responsibility for the disruption (of the negotiations)", the military campaign he is conducting is "worthless and without goals" and he is "misleading and deceiving the families of the (kidnapped) prisoners, his government and the world".
On Saturday night, a senior Hamas official told the newspaper that the organization did not give its answer to the Egyptian proposal for a ceasefire, but sought clarifications from the mediators on several issues.
An Egyptian source said that the talks with Hamas representatives ended on Saturday night without reaching a final result.
Meanwhile on Sunday, CIA Director William Burns travelled to Doha to meet with Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed Al-Thani in a bid to salvage the hostage talks with Hamas, The Associated Press reported.
An official said that the talks are "near collapse."
“Burns is on his way to Doha for an emergency meeting with the Qatari prime minister aimed at exerting maximum pressure on Israel and Hamas to continue negotiating," the official added.