Yesterday, President Trump and Prime Minister Netanyahu announced a peace initiative aimed at ending the war in Gaza. The gist of the plan is that Hamas gives up power and its weapons and frees all of the hostages. In return, Israel ends the war, frees hundreds of prisoners and will grant amnesty to former Hamas members.
That plan was relayed to the current leadership of Hamas yesterday so we are now just waiting for Hamas to respond to the offer. Both Trump and Netanyahu made it clear yesterday that if Hamas rejected the plan, then Israel's IDF would be free to do whatever it takes to put an end to Hamas on the battlefield. Today, Trump made it clear Hamas only had a few more days to decide.
Donald Trump has outlined a peace plan to bring an end to the war in Gaza and issued a deadline of "three to four days" for Hamas to respond.
"It's going to be a very sad end" if Hamas rejects the deal, he told reporters outside the White House on Tuesday.
Hamas haven't yet responded to Trump's plan but Qatar's foreign ministry say the group are studying it "responsibly".
As I said yesterday, I don't think Hamas is going to accept the plan and there is already some indication that's where this is headed.
A senior Hamas figure has told the BBC that the group is likely to reject Donald Trump's peace plan for Gaza, saying it "serves Israel's interests" and "ignores those of the Palestinian people".
The figure said that Hamas is unlikely to agree to disarming and handing over their weapons - a key condition of Trump's plan.
Reuters is hearing the same thing.
A source close to Hamas told Reuters the plan was "completely biased to Israel" and imposed "impossible conditions" that aimed to eliminate the group.
Hamas cannot admit defeat even when the Gaza strip has been largely reduced to rubble. Still, there's no doubt that the new plan puts Hamas under tremendous pressure. Even some of the Gaza elite are publicly turning toward Trump and away from Hamas.
Before the ongoing Israel-Hamas war, Gaza Chamber of Commerce head Ayed Abu Ramadan was one of the key figures in the enclave’s economy, representing Gaza’s traders both inside the Strip and abroad...
...like many others in Gaza, Abu Ramadan longs for one thing: an end to the war. In recent days, Abu Ramadan and 16 other prominent local figures in Gaza sent, through intermediaries, a letter to US President Donald Trump calling on him to pressure Israel and halt the fighting that began with Hamas’s bloody invasion of Israel on October 7, 2023. The group believes Trump received the letter by Friday...
In a series of once almost unthinkable conversations between Gaza-based Palestinians and an Israeli news outlet, The Times of Israel spoke with four of the signatories this week. In unison, they called for an end to the war and distanced themselves from the Hamas terror organization that rules the Strip, saying the group no longer has the support of the public...
Although the letter itself does not mention Hamas, some of the signatories spoke sharply against the movement in private. Marwan Tarazi, a businessman and chairman of the board of Gaza College — the enclave’s oldest private school, founded in 1942 — told The Times of Israel: “Hamas is a terrorist organization, we have no connection to it at all, so why all the killing of the people who are here?”
“Believe me, everyone in the street is now against Hamas,” Tarazi said. “If you ask anyone in Gaza, they’re against Hamas. This is not our tradition to do what happened on October 7. We need to live in peace with Israel, with the Jews.”
The same letter argues that Hamas barely exists as an opposition force to the IDF anymore. The war is all but over on the battlefield. All that remains is for Hamas to admit defeat and release the hostages so this can end.
The real beauty of this peace plan is that it directly confronts what has become the main talking point against Israel, i.e. the claim that this is a genocide. Obviously, if that's true, the victims of the genocide will not turn down a chance to end it. And yet, that's probably what Hamas is going to do. Indeed some of the same people who've made a pastime of attacking Israel for genocide are now calling on Hamas not to agree to the deal.
Step 1: Start a war they can’t win
— AG (@AGHamilton29) September 30, 2025
Step 2: Hide behind civilians as a central war strategy.
Step 3: Claim the consequences of losing the war they started and the strategy they adopted is a “genocide”.
Step 4: Refuse to surrender to give up power to end the war.
Of course… https://t.co/vXvc17wOKQ
It's a clear choice.
Exhibit A. Long time Hamas supporter and propagandist is not interested in ending the claimed "genocide" because it means Hamas surrendering. The only care is to destroy Israel, nothing else matters. pic.twitter.com/nvtHjSwC1G
— Aizenberg (@Aizenberg55) September 30, 2025
The brilliance of Trump's plan is that it makes clear that either a) this isn't genocide or b) Hamas wants genocide.
For people who are supposedly trying to end a genocide, you sure are picky about how the genocide ends. https://t.co/uwjU32ZVQj
— Mike Coté (@ratlpolicy) September 30, 2025
It's all on Hamas now to decide.
Israel accepted the deal within the hour.
— Yoni Michanie (@YoniMichanie) September 30, 2025
Hamas has yet to respond.
It seems they aren't in a rush to end the supposed genocide you've been denouncing for nearly two years. https://t.co/OOHoDG9sP9
Their top talking point just got blown to pieces.
You know Gaza is a real genocide because all of Gaza’s supporters are begging Hamas to continue the fight instead of taking the peace deal that ends the genocide.
— Rabbi Linda Goldstein (🇵🇸🍉I/P Commentary) (@realrabbilinda) September 30, 2025
NEVER SURRENDER 🙏🏼🥰🇵🇸
We'll have to wait and see what happens but given President Trump's deadline we won't have to wait much longer.
