- Trump’s Gaza initiative opens “window of opportunity”: UN
- US president calls 20-point plan “last chance” for Hamas.
- Trump warns “innocent Palestinians” to leave for safer Gaza areas.
US President Donald Trump gave Palestinian Hamas until Sunday evening to accept his proposal to end the nearly two-year-old war with US ally Israel in the Gaza Strip, or “all HELL” would break out.
“An agreement must be reached with Hamas by Sunday Evening at SIX (6) PM, Washington, DC time,” Trump posted on social media on Friday. “Every Country has signed on! If this LAST CHANCE agreement is not reached, all HELL, like no one has ever seen before, will break out against Hamas.”
The plan specifies an immediate ceasefire, an exchange of all hostages held by Hamas for Palestinian prisoners held by Israel, a staged Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, the disarmament of Hamas and the introduction of a transitional government led by an international body.
Trump first presented his plan to leaders and officials from Egypt, Indonesia, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Turkiye, Pakistan, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, on the sidelines of last week’s UN General Assembly.
Mediators Qatar and Egypt then shared the 20-point plan with Hamas late on Monday after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu appeared alongside Trump at the White House and endorsed the document, saying it satisfied Israel’s war aims.
‘Intensive Discussion’ underway on Hamas response
Hamas was not involved in the negotiations that led to the proposal, which calls on the Hamas to disarm, a demand it has previously rejected.
Asked whether his group had finalised its response to Trump’s Gaza plan, a Hamas official told Reuters late on Thursday: “Not yet, intensive discussion is underway.” The official said Hamas had held talks with Arab mediators, Turkey and Palestinian factions to shape “the Palestinian response.”
On Tuesday, Trump said he would give Hamas three to four days to accept the plan. On Friday, he described Hamas as a “ruthless and violent threat in the Middle East.”
In his Truth Social post on Friday, Trump made an apparent reference to Israel’s offensive in Gaza City. He said remaining Hamas members in Gaza are trapped and “will be hunted down, and killed” without a deal, and warned “innocent Palestinians” to leave for safer areas of Gaza.
The United Nations has repeatedly said that nowhere in Gaza is safe. Israel blocked Gaza City’s main road on Thursday and has told its million residents to flee south, warning it was their last chance to escape a major offensive.
Trump plan ‘window of opportunity,’ says UN aid chief
Gaza City and the surrounding areas are suffering from famine, and it will likely spread, a global hunger monitor determined in late August. Israel stopped all aid for 11 weeks from March until mid-May and says it is improving access, but the UN and aid groups say much more is needed.
“President Trump’s Gaza initiative opens a window of opportunity. It offers both a chance for Palestinians to receive life-saving aid at the scale urgently needed, and to bring the hostages home,” UN aid chief Tom Fletcher said in a statement on Friday. “We are ready and eager to act.”
Trump’s plan calls for aid to Gaza to be distributed without interference by neutral international groups, with the UN promising 170,000 metric tons ready to enter.
Israel began its offensive in Gaza after the October 7, 2023, Hamas-led attack on Israel in which some 1,200 people were killed and 251 taken as hostages back to Gaza, according to Israeli tallies. Israel’s military campaign has killed more than 66,000 people in Gaza, most of them civilians, according to Gaza health authorities.
Trump said in his Friday post that “more than 25,000 Hamas ‘soldiers’ have already been killed.” Hamas rarely discloses fatalities among its fighters.
