Hamas says in official statement that it wants to reach ceasefire agreement

In an official statement issued Wednesday by Hamas, the terrorist organization said it wants to advance efforts to reach a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip in an agreement to exchange Israeli and foreign hostages for detained terrorists.

Abu Zuhri, a Hamas official, told Reuters that he "appreciates" Lebanon's right to reach an agreement and halt the war between Israel and Hezbollah, and that he hopes for a pact to end the war in Gaza.

"Hamas appreciates the right of Lebanon and Hezbollah to reach an agreement that protects the people of Lebanon and we hope that this agreement will pave the way to reaching an agreement that ends the war of genocide against our people in Gaza," Abu Zuhri told Reuters.

Following Zuhri's remarks, Hamas issued an official statement saying it wants to move forward on the ceasefire agreement, which has remained stalled for months.

"We are committed to cooperating with any effort to reach a ceasefire in Gaza and we are interested in ending the aggression against our people," said Hamas, which reiterated its outstanding demands for reaching a pact: an end to the war, withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza, the return of displaced Gaza residents to their homes and reaching a hostage swap deal for Palestinian terrorists.

Hamas' request comes after months of effort by Qatar and the US to broker a ceasefire that, for now, produced little progress between Israel and Hamas.

In fact, the poor progress led to the suspension of negotiations, with Qatar advising the two sides that it will suspend its efforts until both are prepared to make concessions.

In particular, Hamas official Abu Zuhri blamed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for the failure to reach a ceasefire agreement. Israel, however, has done the same with the terrorist group.