US President Donald Trump Gives Sunday Time Limit for the Militant Group to Accept Gaza Peace Plan
The US leader Donald Trump has issued a deadline to the Hamas organization, calling for them to accept a American settlement for Gaza otherwise face extreme consequences.
In a post on his online account on Friday, Trump declared that an agreement must be reached by 18:00 Washington time (22:00 GMT) on the coming Sunday.
This suggested plan includes an swift halt to fighting and the return within 72 hours of twenty surviving Israeli detainees kept by the group—along with the bodies of individuals believed to be dead—in exchange for many of arrested Gazans.
Arab and Turkish mediators are believed to be urging the organization for a favorable reply to the offer, but a high-ranking Hamas official has stated that the militant faction is likely to decline it.
"If this FINAL deal is not achieved, extreme consequences, similar to nobody has ever experienced, will erupt against the group. WE WILL ENSURE STABILITY IN THE MIDDLE EAST ONE WAY OR THE OTHER," Trump posted in the social media update.
Negotiators have communicated with the chief of the group's combat unit in Gaza, who has suggested that he is opposed to the recent US ceasefire plan, as per sources.
It is thought that some of Hamas's leadership in Qatar are open to endorsing the plan with changes—however have discovered their leverage constrained as they are without control over the captives kept by the organization.
A further obstacle for a number of in the group is that the proposal requires them to surrender the entirety of the hostages over the initial 72 hours of the ceasefire—relinquishing their primary bargaining chip.
There are believed to be 48 captives currently being detained in the Gazan area by the militant faction, merely twenty of whom are thought to be living.
The Israeli military began a campaign in the Gaza Strip in response to the Hamas-initiated offensive on Israeli territory on October 7, 2023, in which approximately over a thousand people were lost their lives and hundreds others were taken hostage.
A minimum of sixty-six thousand two hundred eighty-eight residents have been fatally injured in Israel's attacks in the territory following the start, according to the territory's Hamas-controlled health authority.