Hamas Weighs Trump Gaza Plan, PIJ Rejects

By Staff, Agencies

Hamas negotiators told mediators they would study the plan “in good faith” and provide a formal response, a source familiar with the matter told Reuters.

Reuters reported that Egypt and Qatar briefed Hamas on United States President Donald Trump’s plan to end the war. Earlier, the White House confirmed that Trump had discussed the ceasefire proposal with "Israeli" so-called Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, describing it as a framework supported by “Arab and Islamic leaders.”

At a joint press conference with Netanyahu, Trump said he believed Hamas would eventually approve the proposal, adding that “Doha has taken it upon itself to convince the movement.”

The announcement drew sharp criticism from Palestinian Islamic Jihad [PIJ]. Its Secretary-General, Ziyad al-Nakhalah, dismissed the initiative outright, calling it “nothing but a full American-'Israeli' agreement.”

Al-Nakhalah stressed that the announcement reflected “the ‘Israeli’ position in its most precise details” and constituted “a recipe for the continuation of aggression against the Palestinian people.”

He warned that the proposal amounted to “an attempt to impose new realities through the US after the occupation failed to achieve them through successive wars.”

The Islamic Jihad leader further cautioned that the so-called agreement was “a ready-made recipe to ignite the entire region and fuel further conflicts.”

The White House had presented the proposal on Monday evening, saying that if both parties agree to this proposal, the war will end immediately.

Mediation efforts led by Qatar and Egypt remain ongoing, with Hamas yet to issue a formal stance, while the resistance maintains that any deal must address the root causes of the war, including the siege and occupation.