Hamas says ‘yes, but’ in response to Trump’s plan
The statement by Hamas mentions that there are questions with respect to some points.
They’ve accepted mainly the idea of exchange [of captives], and the idea of a Palestinian technocrat administration of Gaza. However, they have questions on other points, mainly when it comes to the issues such as the international administration of Gaza.
Hamas’s statement says that the future of Gaza – the future of the whole struggle – will be left to Palestinian consensus. They want a broader Palestinian consensus to reach a final answer.
So, what’s clear is that Hamas said, “Yes – but …”
There are big gaps with respect to disarming Hamas, and there are also big gaps with respect to the international body that will govern Gaza, which President Trump has called the “peace council”.
Hamas has a lot of reservations on this, because it isolates Gaza from the core Palestinian cause, and this is probably something Hamas is taking into consideration.
Far-right members of Netanyahu’s cabinet see US plan as defeat
Fifty hours from now is the deadline that US President Trump set for a response to this deal, and Hamas sent a response saying that they’re ready to discuss how they are going to move forward with the specifics and the details that are laid out in Trump’s 20-point plan.
But you have to remember that when Netanyahu arrived back to Israel from the United States [this week], it was a Jewish holiday in Israel; so there was no meeting with his government, there was no meeting with his cabinet, and now we are in Shabbat, meaning there’s also no government meeting. So, Netanyahu’s government hasn’t actually sat down to discuss this.
Some in the Israeli government see this as a defeat for Israel because it would grant amnesty to members of Hamas, there is no territory being annexed, [and] Palestinians will not have to be forcibly displaced and expelled from their homeland – that’s what a lot of members of Netanyahu’s government wanted.
But it’s not what’s going to happen as part of this deal.
Some in Hamas’s military wing had ‘reservations’ over Trump’s proposal
It’s worth pointing out that once this new proposal was put forward at the high-level United Nations week, Hamas and its interlocutors had been looking over the 21-point – now 20-point – plan to try to bring an end to the war on Gaza.
So, this has been under consideration.
This proposal, which had been put together with the special envoy [to the Middle East] Steve Witkoff, had been under consideration, had been under discussion, between Qatar, between other Arab countries and Hamas leadership.
There had been some reporting in the last 24 hours that perhaps some in the military wing of Hamas had serious reservations about this proposal, but Hamas does appear to be willing to accept some, if not most of the proposal.
That is probably what you’d expect to see in a situation like this: that everything needs to be hammered out so that both, or all parties, agree to all the points.
Things aren’t usually just offered and accepted without some subsidiary discussions.
