Displaced Palestinians flee northern Gaza carrying their belongings alongside the coastal street close to Wadi Gaza, Thursday, Oct. 2, 2025.
Abdel Kareem Hana/AP
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Abdel Kareem Hana/AP
DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip — Hamas mentioned Friday that it has accepted some components of U.S. President Donald Trump’s plan to finish the battle within the Gaza Strip, together with giving up energy and releasing all remaining hostages, however that others require additional consultations amongst Palestinians.
The assertion got here hours after Trump mentioned that Hamas should conform to the deal by Sunday night, threatening a good higher army onslaught practically two years into the battle sparked by the Oct. 7 assault into Israel. It was unclear how the U.S. and Israel would reply to partial acceptance.
Hamas mentioned it was keen to launch hostages in accordance with the plan’s “system,” probably referring to the discharge of Palestinian prisoners. It additionally reiterated its longstanding openness to handing energy over to a politically impartial Palestinian physique.
But it surely mentioned points of the proposal relating the way forward for the Gaza Strip and Palestinian rights needs to be selected the premise of a “unanimous Palestinian stance” reached with different factions and based mostly on worldwide legislation.
The assertion additionally made no point out of Hamas disarming, a key Israeli demand included in Trump’s proposal.
Trump’s plan would finish the combating and return hostages
Trump seems eager to ship on pledges to finish the battle and return dozens of hostages forward of the second anniversary of the assault on Tuesday. His peace plan has been accepted by Israel and welcomed internationally, however key mediators Egypt and Qatar have additionally mentioned some components want additional negotiation, with out elaborating.
“An Settlement should be reached with Hamas by Sunday Night at SIX (6) P.M., Washington, D.C. time,” Trump wrote Friday on social media. “Each Nation has signed on! If this LAST CHANCE settlement will not be reached, all HELL, like nobody has ever seen earlier than, will escape in opposition to Hamas. THERE WILL BE PEACE IN THE MIDDLE EAST ONE WAY OR THE OTHER.”
Below the plan, which Trump unveiled earlier this week alongside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Hamas would instantly launch the remaining 48 hostages — round 20 of them believed to be alive. It might additionally hand over energy and disarm.
In return, Israel would halt its offensive and withdraw from a lot of the territory, launch a whole bunch of Palestinian prisoners and permit an inflow of humanitarian help and eventual reconstruction. Plans to relocate a lot of Gaza’s inhabitants to different nations can be shelved.
The territory of some 2 million Palestinians can be positioned beneath worldwide governance, with Trump himself and former British Prime Minister Tony Blair overseeing it. The plan gives no path for eventual reunification with the Israeli-occupied West Financial institution in a future Palestinian state.
A Hamas official instructed The Related Press this week that some components of the plan are unacceptable and must be amended, with out elaborating. Palestinians lengthy for an finish to the battle, however many view this and former U.S. proposals as strongly favoring Israel.
U.S. and Israel search to stress Hamas
Israel has sought to ramp up stress on Hamas since ending an earlier ceasefire in March. It sealed the territory off from meals, medication and different items for two 1/2 months and has seized, flattened and largely depopulated massive areas of the territory.
Specialists decided that Gaza Metropolis had slid into famine shortly earlier than Israel launched a serious offensive aimed toward occupying it. An estimated 400,000 individuals have fled town in current weeks, however a whole bunch of 1000’s extra have stayed behind.
Olga Cherevko, a spokesperson for the U.N. humanitarian workplace, mentioned she noticed a number of displaced households staying within the car parking zone of Shifa Hospital throughout a go to on Thursday.
“They aren’t in a position to transfer south as a result of they simply can’t afford it,” Cherevko instructed The Related Press. “One of many households had three youngsters and the girl was pregnant together with her fourth. And there have been many different weak instances there, together with aged individuals and folks with disabilities.”
Trump wrote that almost all of Hamas’ fighters are “surrounded and MILITARILY TRAPPED, simply ready for me to provide the phrase, ‘GO,’ for his or her lives to be rapidly extinguished. As for the remaining, we all know the place and who you’re, and you’ll be hunted down, and killed.”
Most of Hamas’ prime leaders in Gaza and 1000’s of its fighters have already been killed, however it nonetheless has affect in areas not managed by the Israeli army and launches sporadic assaults which have killed and wounded Israeli troopers.
Hamas has held agency to its place that it’ll solely launch the remaining hostages — its sole bargaining chip and potential human shields — in alternate for an enduring ceasefire and an Israeli withdrawal. Netanyahu has rejected these phrases, saying Hamas should give up and disarm.
Second anniversary approaches
Hundreds of Hamas-led militants stormed into Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, attacking military bases, farming communities and an out of doors music pageant, killing some 1,200 individuals, largely civilians. They kidnapped 251 others, most of them since launched in ceasefires or different offers.
Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed greater than 66,000 Palestinians, in accordance with Gaza’s Well being Ministry, which doesn’t say what number of have been civilians or combatants. It says girls and youngsters make up round half the lifeless.
The ministry is a part of the Hamas-run authorities, and the U.N. and plenty of impartial specialists contemplate its figures to be probably the most dependable estimate of wartime casualties.
The offensive has displaced round 90% of Gaza’s inhabitants, typically a number of instances, and left a lot of the territory uninhabitable.
Each the Biden and Trump administrations have tried to finish the combating and produce again the hostages whereas offering intensive army and diplomatic assist to Israel.
