Hamas agrees to release hostages, seeks further negotiations, as Trump tells Israel to stop bombing Gazav
Hamas has agreed to release all remaining Israeli hostages while seeking further negotiations on the US’ peace plan for Gaza.
Meanwhile Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel is ready to begin the implementation of the first phase of Donald Trump’s plan.
The development is coming just hours after the US President gave Hamas Sunday as deadline to accept the peace plan or face severe consequences.
Trump said in a broadcast, in respect to Hamas’ recent response to the peace deal, that he looked forward to the hostages returning home to their loved ones while thanking countries that facilitated the development.
“I want to thank the countries that help me put this together, Qatar, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan and so many others. So many people fought so hard. This is a big day. We’ll see how it all turns out.
“Very importantly, I look forward to having the hostages come home to their parents, and having some of the hostages, unfortunately, you know the condition they are in (referring to the dead hostages) come home likewise to their parents. Because their parents wanted them just as much, as though that young man or young woman were alive.
“So I just want to let you know that this is a very special day, maybe unprecedented in many ways.
“Thank you all to those great countries that helped. We were given a tremendous amount of help. Everybody was unified in wanting this war to end and seeing peace in the Middle East and we’re very close to achieving that. Thank you all, and everybody will be treated fairly.”
Donald Trump also said in a social media post that he believed Hamas was now “ready for a lasting peace” while instructing Israel to “stop the bombing of Gaza”.
Reports say hundreds of Gazans have reached out to news sources in disbelief, in the wake of the development, as they look forward in optimism to see an end to the war.
Though Hamas is yet to specify other demands of the plan that it has agreed to, like disarmament and having no role in the future governance of Gaza, many consider the development as a first step in Trump’s plan towards lasting peace.
