Hamas said on Friday that it approved certain parts of Donald Trump’s ultimatum to end the war in Gaza, agreeing to a hostage exchange and to surrender governing power in the Gaza strip, but said that it wanted further negotiations on other aspects of the plan.
The group did not say whether it would agree to lay down its arms – a key part of Trump’s proposal – and kept vague its response to other parts of the 20-part plan first proposed by Trump last Monday.
It was unclear how Trump would respond to a qualified response to his plan, which came just hours after he gave a Sunday deadline for the group to respond. He said that if an agreement was not reached “all hell” would break out against Hamas, whose fighters he described as surrounded and trapped.
In a statement, Hamas said that it was giving its “approval of releasing all occupation prisoners – both living and remains – according to the exchange formula contained in president Trump’s proposal, with the necessary field conditions for implementing the exchange.”
The statement went on to say that Hamas was prepared to turn over “the administration of the Gaza Strip to a Palestinian body of independent technocrats based on Palestinian national consensus and supported by Arab and Islamic backing.”
However, the group said that “other issues” in Trump’s proposal would need to be discussed further “within a unified Palestinian national framework.” The unspecified issues that Hamas will request negotiations on will likely be the issue of its arms, the withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza and international guarantees for the implementation of a permanent ceasefire.
Trump’s plan called for an immediate end to fighting in Gaza, an exchange of hostages and Palestinian prisoners within 72 hours of the deal’s signing, a gradual withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza, as well as the disarmament of Hamas and a postwar transitional authority headed by Trump.
The deal also stipulated a surge of aid to Gaza, parts of which are currently undergoing famine, and reconstruction to the mostly demolished strip.
The deal was largely seen as unfavourable to Hamas and if agreed in full, would likely spell the group’s end as an armed Palestinian faction while demanding few concessions from Israel. International pressure on the group to accept the plan, was immense however, with most regional and international powers welcoming the Trump imitative.
The catastrophic humanitarian situation in Gaza, with Israel’s continued aid blockade and daily bombing of the strip, also puts pressure on the group to reach an agreement to end the war.
Though the group did not immediately agree to disarm, its agreement to hand over hostages will be seen as significant. The 48 hostages have been used by the group as key leverage throughout the nearly two year war in its negotiations with the US and Israel. Giving them up will we leave the group with few bargaining chips going forward.
Neither the White House nor Israeli officials have yet responded to Hamas’s request for amendments to the Trump ultimatum.
Israel’s war in Gaza has killed at least 62,622 Palestinians and wounded about 170,000, according to the Gaza health authority. The war was launched by Israel in response to Hamas-led militants killing about 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages in Israel about nearly two years ago.