Hamas is signaling it will reject President Donald Trump’s 20-point peace plan to end the war in Gaza, release the remaining hostages, and establish an international stabilization presence in the enclave.
In remarks to the BBC on Wednesday, a senior Hamas official said the proposal “serves Israel’s interests” and “ignores those of the Palestinian people.” The official added that the group will not disarm or surrender its weapons and opposes the deployment of an international force in Gaza — two core conditions of the American framework.
The BBC report contrasts with a CBS report from Tuesday, which cited sources suggesting that Hamas and other Palestinian factions were leaning toward accepting the plan and were reviewing it “responsibly.” According to the BBC, Hamas leaders both inside and outside Gaza are still examining the proposal, but resistance remains particularly strong on the requirement that all 48 remaining hostages be released at once — described by one Palestinian official as giving up their only “bargaining chip.”
Palestinian Islamic Jihad spokesman Mohammed al-Haj Musa told Ultra Palestine that Hamas would convene with other factions to form a collective response. “The proposal does not pertain to Hamas alone, but rather to the entire Palestinian people,” he said, urging the Palestinian Authority to join in point-by-point discussions to craft a unified national position.
The mixed signals come amid mounting diplomatic pressure from key regional mediators. Axios reported Wednesday that officials from Qatar, Turkey, and Egypt have all pressed Hamas to accept the plan. Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani reportedly told Hamas leaders that “this was the best deal he was able to get for them and it won’t get much better.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accepted the plan on Monday after a White House meeting with Trump. At a joint press conference, Trump said, “Israel would have my full backing to finish the job of destroying the threat of Hamas. But I hope we’re going to have a deal for peace. If Hamas rejects the deal, which is always possible — they’re the only ones left. Everyone else has accepted it.”
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One Response
Netanyahu said that if Hamas rejects this deal Israel will “finish the job.” However 2 years of trying to pressure Hamas to return the hostages along with defeating Hamas has shown Israel has no way of achieving this, and if Hamas agrees to release the hostages in a deal with Israel it will be on their terms. In addition continued fighting will result in more Israeli soldiers getting killed and the lives of the hostages are not more valuable than the lives of any other yid. Instead Israel shall simply do nothing, resulting in a situation of Hamas holding the people of Gaza hostage to living in rubble and eating food from aid trucks till they agree to this deal. And sooner or later Hamas will have no choice but to agree to it because they cannot force the people of Gaza to live like this forever.