Hamas Signals Conditional Acceptance of Trump’s 20-Point Gaza Plan, Agrees in Principle to Hostage Release

In a major shift in rhetoric, Hamas has announced that it will accept the release of all Israeli hostages — both liv­ing and deceased — under the frame­work laid out in U.S. Pres­i­dent Don­ald Trump’s 20-point Gaza pro­pos­al, while also endors­ing the idea of trans­fer­ring Gaza’s admin­is­tra­tion to a tech­no­crat­ic Pales­tin­ian body with Arab and Islam­ic back­ing. Wikipedia+4Reuters+4Sky News+4

While Hamas voiced its will­ing­ness to move for­ward with medi­at­ed nego­ti­a­tions, it stopped short of ful­ly com­mit­ting to some of the plan’s more con­tentious con­di­tions, par­tic­u­lar­ly dis­ar­ma­ment. Reuters+2Sky News+2

Key Elements of Hamas’s Response

1. Hostage Release Under Trump’s For­mu­la
Hamas stat­ed it “approves the release of all occu­pa­tion pris­on­ers — liv­ing and remains — accord­ing to the exchange for­mu­la con­tained in Pres­i­dent Trump’s pro­pos­al, with the nec­es­sary field con­di­tions for imple­ment­ing the exchange.” Reuters

In oth­er words, Hamas is accept­ing one of the cen­tral pil­lars of Trump’s plan: a full prisoner/hostage exchange.

2. Readi­ness for Nego­ti­a­tions via Medi­a­tors
Hamas affirmed that it is “pre­pared to imme­di­ate­ly enter, through the medi­a­tors, into nego­ti­a­tions to dis­cuss the details” of how the plan would be car­ried out. Reuters

3. Trans­fer of Gaza Admin­is­tra­tion to Tech­nocrats
The group also expressed will­ing­ness to hand over admin­is­tra­tive con­trol of Gaza to a Pales­tin­ian body of inde­pen­dent tech­nocrats, “based on Pales­tin­ian nation­al con­sen­sus and sup­port­ed by Arab and Islam­ic back­ing.” Reuters+2Wikipedia+2

This aligns with one of Trump’s pro­pos­als, which envi­sions Gaza being gov­erned tem­porar­i­ly by a tech­no­crat­ic Pales­tin­ian enti­ty rather than direct­ly by Hamas. Wikipedia+2opb+2

Areas of Reservation & Unresolved Issues

Although Hamas accept­ed some parts of the plan, its state­ment left con­sid­er­able ambi­gu­i­ty on sev­er­al core issues:

• Dis­ar­ma­ment: Hamas did not com­mit to dis­arm itself, a major demand from Trump, Israel, and oth­er stake­hold­ers. Reuters+2Sky News+2
• Phased With­draw­al vs. Imme­di­ate With­draw­al: The plan’s spec­i­fi­ca­tion of a phased Israeli with­draw­al was not explic­it­ly endorsed by Hamas; ear­li­er state­ments indi­cate that Hamas insists on a full with­draw­al as a pre­con­di­tion. Wikipedia+3Reuters+3opb+3
• “Field con­di­tions” qual­i­fi­ca­tion: The state­ment qual­i­fies the hostages’ release as con­tin­gent upon “nec­es­sary field con­di­tions,” which leaves room for Hamas to nego­ti­ate or delay based on secu­ri­ty or logis­ti­cal cri­te­ria. opb+1

These caveats are sig­nif­i­cant and sug­gest that Hamas regards the accep­tance as con­di­tion­al, rather than uncon­di­tion­al.

Reactions & Context

• Israel & Netanyahu
  Israel—via Prime Min­is­ter Ben­jamin Netanyahu—has already endorsed the Trump plan, though with con­di­tions and reser­va­tions of its own.
  Netanyahu report­ed­ly accepts a ver­sion of the plan but insists on secu­ri­ty guar­an­tees, demil­i­ta­riza­tion, and over­sight.
• Inter­na­tion­al & Region­al Actors
  Many Arab states, espe­cial­ly medi­a­tors such as Egypt and Qatar, have been press­ing Hamas to accept the plan. Wikipedia+3The Wash­ing­ton Post+3Financial Times+3
  Some observers and aid groups see the plan as a diplo­mat­ic opening—a “win­dow of oppor­tu­ni­ty” to end a dev­as­tat­ing con­flict. Reuters+2Wikipedia+2
• Skep­ti­cism and Chal­lenges
  Ana­lysts warn that pre­vi­ous cease­fire or peace pro­pos­als have foundered on sim­i­lar issues—trust, imple­men­ta­tion, ver­i­fi­ca­tion, time­lines, and the sequenc­ing of oblig­a­tions.
  More­over, Israel and the U.S. may reject Hamas’s use of ambigu­ous terms or con­di­tion any agree­ment on stricter guar­an­tees.

What Comes Next

If Hamas is sin­cere, the next phase is cru­cial:

1. Medi­at­ed Nego­ti­a­tions
   Hamas, Israel, U.S. offi­cials, and Arab medi­a­tors will have to meet to trans­late the broad strokes into a bind­ing agree­ment. Key stick­ing points will like­ly include the time­line and sequenc­ing of with­drawals and dis­ar­ma­ment, ver­i­fi­ca­tion mech­a­nisms, and secu­ri­ty assur­ances.
2. Cease­fire & Hostage Exchange Imple­men­ta­tion
   The plan pro­pos­es an imme­di­ate cease­fire, fol­lowed by the simul­ta­ne­ous or staged release of all hostages (alive and deceased). The details of how this is done—and under what conditions—will decide whether the plan suc­ceeds.
3. Tran­si­tion­al Gov­er­nance in Gaza
   Once hostages are exchanged, admin­is­tra­tive con­trol of Gaza would shift to the tech­no­crat­ic Pales­tin­ian body, under the super­vi­sion of Arab and Islam­ic states. The tran­si­tion­al gov­er­nance struc­ture will like­ly need robust inter­na­tion­al mon­i­tor­ing and legit­i­ma­cy among Pales­tini­ans.
4. Long-term Secu­ri­ty & Pol­i­tics
   A last­ing peace would require deal­ing with deep­er polit­i­cal ques­tions: the sta­tus of Hamas, rec­on­cil­i­a­tion with the Pales­tin­ian Author­i­ty, future elec­tions, demil­i­ta­riza­tion, recon­struc­tion, and how to pre­vent a return to con­flict.