US President Donald Trump has given Hamas until Sunday evening to accept a 20-point peace proposal for Gaza, warning that failure to do so would result in “all hell” breaking out against the group.
In a post on his Truth Social platform on Friday, Trump said an agreement must be reached by 18:00 Washington time (22:00 GMT) on Sunday. The plan calls for an immediate halt to fighting, with Hamas releasing within 72 hours 20 living Israeli hostages, along with the remains of others believed to have died, in exchange for the release of hundreds of Palestinians detained by Israel.
Arab and Turkish mediators are pressing Hamas to agree, though a senior figure from the group has indicated it is likely to reject the proposal. Hamas’s military leadership in Gaza is reportedly opposed to the terms, while some political leaders based in Qatar are more open but have limited influence as they do not control the hostages.
A key sticking point is the requirement for Hamas to hand over all hostages during the initial 72-hour truce, a move seen as giving up their strongest leverage. There are believed to be 48 hostages still held in Gaza, of whom only 20 are thought to be alive.
The plan, announced jointly by Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House on Monday, also states that Hamas will be excluded from Gaza’s governance. Instead, a temporary technocratic Palestinian committee would oversee the territory under the supervision of an international transitional body called the Board of Peace, to be led by Trump. The proposal also leaves the possibility of a future Palestinian state, though Netanyahu later restated his opposition to such an outcome.
European and Middle Eastern leaders have welcomed the initiative. In a joint statement, the foreign ministers of the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Egypt, Jordan, Turkey, Indonesia, and Pakistan expressed readiness to work with Washington to implement the plan, which they said should pave the way for a two-state solution integrating Gaza with the West Bank.
The Palestinian Authority described Trump’s efforts as “sincere and determined.”
Trump has said that if Hamas rejects the plan, Israel would have US support to destroy the group. Netanyahu has echoed this, saying Israel “will finish the job” if Hamas refuses or fails to comply.
The latest US push follows Israel’s military campaign launched after Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack on southern Israel, which killed about 1,200 people and saw 251 others taken hostage. Since then, at least 66,288 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli strikes, according to Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry.
