Trump Gives Weekend Ultimatum for Hamas to Agree to Gazan Peace Plan
President Trump has set a deadline to Hamas, calling for them to accept a proposed ceasefire agreement for Gaza or else confront extreme repercussions.
Via a message on his Truth Social account on Friday, the President declared that an agreement must be achieved by Sunday evening (22:00 GMT) on Sunday.
The proposed proposal includes an immediate halt to fighting and the freeing within a short period of 20 living Israel hostages captured by Hamas—plus the remains of individuals thought to be deceased—in exchange for hundreds of detained Gazans.
Regional mediators are reported to be pressing the organization for a favorable response to the plan, but a high-ranking group representative has suggested that the militant group is likely to refuse it.
"If this ULTIMATE deal is not secured, severe retaliation, similar to no one has ever witnessed, will break out against Hamas. THERE WILL BE CALM IN THE MIDDLE EAST ONE WAY OR THE OTHER," Trump wrote in the Truth Social post.
Negotiators have made contact with the head of Hamas's military wing in Gaza, who has indicated that he disagrees to the recent US ceasefire proposal, according to sources.
Sources indicate that some of the group's leadership in the Gulf state are open to accepting the plan with modifications—yet have found their leverage restricted as they lack command over the hostages held by the organization.
A further obstacle for a number of in Hamas is that the proposal demands them to hand over the entirety of the detainees over the opening short window of the halt—relinquishing their only negotiating tool.
There are believed to be forty-eight hostages presently being detained in the Gazan region by the armed faction, just twenty of whom are estimated to be surviving.
Israel's army initiated a operation in the Gaza Strip in response to the Hamas-initiated assault on southern Israel on October 7, 2023, in which roughly twelve hundred civilians were killed and two hundred fifty-one others were taken hostage.
No fewer than thousands of people have been lost their lives in Israel's strikes in the territory from that point, based on data from the region's Hamas-run health authority.