Hamas agrees to release all hostages but calls for ‘negotiations’ to discuss details of Trump’s Gaza peace plan

Hamas delivered its response to the U.S. President Donald Trump’s peace plan for Gaza to mediators on Friday. In a statement, it confirmed that it accepts the release of all hostages still held in the Gaza Strip — 48 in total (only 20 of them alive) — but demands that “negotiations begin immediately through mediators to discuss the details.”

Earlier in the day, Trump had imposed a countdown for Hamas to accept the 20-point peace plan for Gaza that Washington publicly presented on Monday, which already has Israel’s approval. In a message on Truth Social, his social network, the Republican gave the Palestinian militant group an ultimatum that would expire at 6:00 p.m. on Sunday, Washington time. He warned that “all hell” would “break out against Hamas” if they did not accept the proposal. “There will be peace in the Middle East one way or the other,” he wrote.

Hamas, weakened and under pressure from Arab countries to accept Trump’s plan, is trying to avoid giving Israel and the U.S. any pretext to escalate the situation or trigger the severe response Trump had threatened. In fact, it not only expressed its appreciation for the “Arab, Islamic, and international efforts” to end the conflict, but also specifically the efforts of the U.S. president.

The Islamist movement agreed to the release of the remaining hostages “according to the exchange formula contained in President Trump’s proposal, with the necessary field conditions for implementing the exchange,” which, in the document, include the suspension of ”all military operations, including aerial and artillery bombardment."

In a press appearance alongside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu after a meeting in the Oval Office, Trump stated that, if Hamas accepted, it would have a maximum of 72 hours to release all the hostages at once.

Once released, Israel will free 1,700 Gazans who were detained in the mass arrests that have been carried out by the Israeli military in Gaza since October 7, 2023. This includes all women and children, and 250 prisoners sentenced to at least one life sentence for violent acts in the context of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Nearly all of those sentenced to life imprisonment (around 300) are included in this category. However, in past prisoner exchanges, Israel has chosen which individuals to release, often excluding those who are regarded as heroes by Palestinian nationalists.

For each Israeli hostage body handed over, the Netanyahu government will reciprocate by returning the remains of 15 dead Gazans.

Hamas did not mention one of the most controversial points of the plan: the international body to be chaired by Trump himself, with former British prime minister Tony Blair participating, which would supervise that Hamas does not retain military capabilities. It only emphasizes its “agreement to hand over the administration of the Gaza Strip to a Palestinian body of independents (technocrats), based on Palestinian national consensus and Arab and Islamic support.”

Trump’s plan states that “Gaza will be governed under the temporary transitional governance of a technocratic, apolitical Palestinian committee, responsible for delivering the day-to-day running of public services and municipalities for the people in Gaza.”

This is the first official response from the Palestinian militia to a peace proposal that includes only one specific deadline: the 72 hours for the release of the remaining Israeli hostages in Gaza. On Monday, Hamas claimed it had not had access to the document before the White House made the 20 final points public, which had been adjusted at the last minute to meet Israeli demands. The peace plan, just three pages long, was published immediately before a joint appearance by Netanyahu and Trump.

On Wednesday, sources from the militia, quoted by Saudi media, demanded that the plan include specific deadlines for the withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza, one of Hamas’s main conditions for any potential ceasefire. The Islamist group had also sought to retain part of its weaponry and called for an amendment to Trump’s plan to distinguish between offensive weapons, which it would surrender, and defensive weapons, which it wants to keep. None of these demands are present in its response.