Hamas accepts Trump’s plan to end the war in Gaza, but with conditions
The plan aims to secure the release of Israeli hostages held in the Gaza Strip and end a two-year conflict that has reduced much of the enclave to rubble.
The president’s positive response and insistence on an Israeli ceasefire came as Hamas said it would release all hostages but set some conditions that could postpone any deal in the short term and delay an immediate end to a two-year conflict that has reduced much of the Gaza Strip to rubble.
Trump stopped short of declaring full victory in a video recorded Friday in the Oval Office and posted on his Truth Social site. “This is a big day,” he said. “We’ll see how it all turns out. We have to get the final word down in concrete. Very importantly, I look forward to having the hostages come home.”
Hamas, which launched the Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel that ignited the war, has been under unprecedented political pressure after Trump’s 20-point peace plan, unveiled Monday, garnered support from numerous international governments.
In its statement, Hamas signaled willingness to release the hostages but also a demand for firmer commitments from Israel on its military withdrawal and — perhaps most difficult for Israel to accept — a discussion about its role in a future unified Palestinian state.
In U.S. consultations with Israel early this week, new details were added to the vague sequence and extent of Israel Defense Forces withdrawal from Gaza after a ceasefire. The document finally handed to Hamas said that the IDF would withdraw “based on standards, milestones and timeframes linked to demilitarization that will be agreed upon” among the IDF, an International Stabilization Force and the United States.
A map included with the final ceasefire proposal showed lines of progressive Israeli retreat without indicating times or conditions, and a permanent Israeli “perimeter” force inside Gaza’s border.
In its statement, Hamas said it agreed “to release all Israeli prisoners, both living and dead, according to the exchange formula contained in Trump’s proposal, provided the field conditions for the exchange are met.” The militant group said it was willing to “immediately enter into negotiations through the mediators,” namely, Qatar, Egypt and the U.S., “to discuss details.”
Hamas also said that additional discussions were needed to address how Gaza will be governed in the future and the role the group would play as part of a “unified Palestinian movement, of which Hamas will be a member and to which it will contribute responsibly.”
The Trump plan calls for the complete disarmament of Hamas and says the group will have no role in the future Gaza governance — intended as an interim Palestinian executive authority overseen by an international board headed by Trump, and an eventual government by the West Bank-based Palestinian Authority.
Trump has previously indicated that the terms of his proposal were not open to negotiation with Hamas, and both Israel and the United States have consistently rejected any future role for the militant group in Gaza.
The office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu released a rare overnight statement saying Israel would prepare to “implement the first phase of Trump’s plan for the immediate release of all hostages,” according to Kan, Israel’s public broadcaster. Israel’s prime minister rarely releases official statements during the Jewish Sabbath. The Hostage Families Forum had earlier called on Netanyahu to “immediately begin efficient and swift negotiations” to release the hostages. Knesset opposition leader Yair Lapid likewise had called on Netanyahu to join negotiations “to close the last details related to the deal.”
The IDF echoed Netanyahu’s statement early Saturday, saying it would prepare for the implementation of the first phase of the Trump plan to release the hostages.
A statement from Qatar’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said Doha “welcomes Hamas’s announcement of its acceptance of President Trump’s proposal to end the war in Gaza and confirms the start of discussions with mediators to ensure an end to the war.”
An Egyptian statement expressed appreciation for Trump’s efforts and said Cairo would “exert maximum effort, in coordination with all Arab and Islamic brothers, the United States, the European side, and the international community, to reach a permanent ceasefire, alleviate the suffering of the Palestinian people, and reconstruct the Gaza Strip.”
At a news conference Monday, Trump had said he would give Israel his “full backing to finish the job of destroying the threat of Hamas” if it did not accept the terms of the 20-point peace plan. He added a day later that he would give Hamas “three or four” days to decide. In a social media post early Friday before the Hamas response was issued, he set a deadline of midnight Sunday, Washington time.
Although Trump’s plan contained substantial elements of previous proposals submitted by Arab countries, it was not crafted in consultation with Palestinians, and Arab officials over the past week have hinted at their frustration that it was modified without their input or agreement during Trump’s last-minute discussions with Netanyahu. The altered plan was released by Trump on Monday, just after Netanyahu’s visit to the White House and before it was handed over to Hamas.
At various points over the past two years, Hamas has said it was ready to relinquish political control over Gaza but giving up its weapons would be a red line. Hamas officials have also said they would not release all of the hostages unless Israel withdrew the entirety of its forces from Gaza and provided guarantees that the war would not resume.
In an interview Wednesday with Al Jazeera, Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani said the issue of Israeli military withdrawal “requires further work” and must be negotiated further.
Trump has said he hoped that an end to the Gaza war would form the basis for a comprehensive regional peace and an expansion of the Abraham Accords, the diplomatic normalization agreement between Israel and four Arab countries that he negotiated during his first term in office.
“This is not about Gaza alone,” Trump said in his Friday statement. “This is about long sought PEACE in the Middle East.”
Emily Davies in Washington and Andrew Jeong in Seoul contributed to this report.
No comments:
Post a Comment