Hamas signals partial acceptance of Gaza peace plan amid US pressure

Hamas said Friday that it has accepted some elements of US President Donald Trumps plan to end the war in the Gaza Strip including giving up power and releasing all remaining hostages but that others require further consultations among PalestiniansThe statement came hours after Trump said that Hamas must agree to the deal by Sunday evening threatening an even greater military onslaught nearly two years into the war sparked by the October 7 attack into Israel It was unclear how the US and Israel would respond to partial acceptanceHamas said it was willing to release hostages according to the plans formula likely referring to the release of Palestinian prisoners It also reiterated its longstanding openness to handing power over to a politically independent Palestinian bodyBut it said aspects of the proposal touching on the future of the Gaza Strip and Palestinian rights should be decided on the basis of a unanimous Palestinian stance reached with other factions and based on international law The statement also made no mention of Hamas disarming a key Israeli demand included in Trumps proposalTrumps plan would end the fighting and return hostagesTrump 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 peace plan has been accepted by Israel and welcomed internationally but key mediators Egypt and Qatar have also said some elements need further negotiation without elaboratingAn Agreement must be reached with Hamas by Sunday Evening at SIX 6 PM Washington DC time Trump wrote Friday 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 OTHERUnder the plan which Trump unveiled earlier this week alongside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu Hamas would immediately release the remaining 48 hostages around 20 of them believed to be alive It would also give up power and disarmIn 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 much of Gazas population to other countries would be shelvedThe 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 Israelioccupied West Bank in a future Palestinian stateA Hamas official told The Associated Press 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 IsraelUS and Israel seek to pressure HamasIsrael has sought to ramp up pressure on Hamas since ending an earlier ceasefire in March It sealed the territory off from food medicine and other goods for 2 12 months and has seized flattened and largely depopulated large areas of the territoryExperts determined that Gaza City had slid into famine shortly before Israel launched a major offensive aimed at occupying it An estimated 400000 people have fled the city in recent weeks but hundreds of thousands more have stayed behindOlga 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 ThursdayThey are not able to move south because they just cannot afford it Cherevko told The Associated Press 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 disabilitiesTrump 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 killedMost 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 soldiersHamas has held firm to its position that it will only release the remaining hostages its sole bargaining chip and potential human shields in exchange for a lasting ceasefire and an Israeli withdrawal Netanyahu has rejected those terms saying Hamas must surrender and disarmSecond anniversary approachesThousands of Hamasled militants stormed into Israel on October 7 2023 attacking army bases farming communities and an outdoor music festival killing some 1200 people mostly civilians They abducted 251 others most of them since released in ceasefires or other dealsIsraels retaliatory offensive has killed more than 66000 Palestinians according to Gazas Health Ministry which does not say how many were civilians or combatants It says women and children make up around half the dead The ministry is part of the Hamasrun government and the UN and many independent experts consider its figures to be the most reliable estimate of wartime casualtiesThe offensive has displaced around 90 per cent of Gazas population often multiple times and left much of the territory uninhabitable Both the Biden and Trump administrations have tried to end the fighting and bring back the hostages while providing extensive military and diplomatic support to IsraelThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever