Trump Sets Weekend Deadline for the Militant Group to Endorse Gaza Peace Plan
US President Donald Trump has delivered a time limit to the Hamas organization, requiring them to agree to a US-backed settlement for Gaza or else face extreme consequences.
Through a message on his online channel on the end of the week, Trump declared that an understanding must be finalized by 6 PM EST (10 PM GMT) on the coming Sunday.
This suggested plan includes an swift end to fighting and the release within a short period of 20 living Israeli detainees kept by Hamas—as well as the remains of hostages believed to be no longer alive—for hundreds of detained Palestinians.
Regional mediators are understood to be pressing Hamas for a agreeable answer to the offer, but a senior Hamas representative has suggested that the militant faction is expected to reject it.
"In case this FINAL deal is not achieved, severe retaliation, similar to no one has ever seen, will break out against Hamas. THERE WILL BE PEACE IN THE MIDDLE EAST ONE WAY OR THE OTHER," Trump stated in the Truth Social update.
Negotiators have communicated with the chief of Hamas's combat unit in the territory, who has suggested that he does not agree to the new US halt plan, as per sources.
Sources indicate that a portion of the group's leadership in Qatar are open to accepting the agreement with modifications—yet have realized their leverage restricted as they are without authority over the captives kept by the group.
An additional hurdle for certain in the group is that the proposal necessitates them to hand over each and every the detainees over the first three-day period of the halt—surrendering their sole bargaining chip.
It is estimated to be 48 hostages presently being kept in the Palestinian region by the armed faction, just twenty of whom are thought to be living.
The Israeli army began a operation in the Gaza Strip in response to the Hamas-initiated attack on the region on October 7, 2023, in which approximately over a thousand people were killed and 251 additional individuals were seized.
A minimum of thousands of people have been lost their lives in Israeli attacks in the territory since then, according to the territory's group-administered health ministry.
