US President Donald Trump said on Friday that Hamas must agree to a proposed peace deal for Gaza by Sunday evening, threatening an even greater military response nearly two years into the war in the Palestinian territory.
Trump appears keen to deliver on pledges to end the war and return dozens of hostages ahead of the second anniversary of the attack on Tuesday.
His 20-point peace plan has been accepted by Israel and welcomed internationally, but key mediators Egypt and Qatar, and at least one Hamas official, have said some elements need further negotiation, without elaborating.
“An Agreement must be reached with Hamas by Sunday Evening at SIX (6) P.M., Washington, D.C. time,” Trump wrote in a post on social media.
“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. THERE WILL BE PEACE IN THE MIDDLE EAST ONE WAY OR THE OTHER.”
Under the plan, which Trump unveiled earlier this week alongside Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Hamas would immediately release the remaining 48 hostages, around 20 of who are believed to still be alive.
The militant group would also give up power in Gaza and surrender its arms.
In return, Israel would halt its offensive and withdraw from much of the territory, release hundreds of Palestinian prisoners and allow an influx of humanitarian aid and eventual reconstruction.
Plans to relocate Gaza’s population to other countries would be shelved.
The territory of some 2 million Palestinians would be placed under international governance, with Trump himself and former British Prime Minister Tony Blair overseeing it.
The plan provides no path for eventual reunification with the Israeli-occupied West Bank in a future Palestinian state.
A Hamas official said earlier this week that some elements of the plan are unacceptable and need to be amended, without elaborating.
Palestinians long for an end to the war, but many view this and previous US proposals as strongly favouring Israel.
US and Israel seek to pressure Hamas
Israel has sought to ramp up pressure on Hamas since unilaterally ending an earlier ceasefire in March.
It sealed the territory off from food, medicine and other goods for more than two months and has seized, flattened and largely depopulated large areas of the coastal territory.
Experts determined that Gaza City had slid into famine shortly before Israel launched a major offensive aimed at occupying it.
An estimated 400,000 people have fled the city in recent weeks, but hundreds of thousands more have stayed behind.
Olga Cherevko, a spokesperson for the UN humanitarian office, said she saw several displaced families staying in the parking lot of Shifa Hospital during a visit on Thursday.
“They are not able to move south because they just cannot afford it,” Cherevko said.
“One of the families had three children and the woman was pregnant with her fourth. And there were many other vulnerable cases there, including elderly people and people with disabilities.”
Trump wrote that most of Hamas’ fighters are “surrounded and MILITARILY TRAPPED, just waiting for me to give the word, ‘GO,’ for their lives to be quickly extinguished. As for the rest, we know where and who you are, and you will be hunted down, and killed.”
Most of Hamas’ top leaders in Gaza and thousands of its fighters have already been killed, but it still has influence in areas not controlled by the Israeli military and launches sporadic attacks that have killed and wounded Israeli soldiers.
Hamas has held firm to its position that it will only release the remaining hostages, its sole bargaining chip, in exchange for a lasting ceasefire and a full Israeli military withdrawal.
Netanyahu has rejected those terms, saying Hamas must surrender and disarm.
Quoted from Euronews.
