Hamas deftly sidesteps Trump-Netanyahu trap over the Gaza ‘peace plan’

Crescent International

Rabi' al-Thani 12, 1447 2025-10-04

Daily News Analysis

by Crescent International

By announcing its acceptance of Donald Trump’s so-called peace plan for Gaza, Hamas has avoided being blamed for rejecting peace.

Its carefully worded acceptance, starting with the immediate release of Israeli prisoners provided that ground conditions are met, has thrown the zionist regime into panic.

The indicted war criminal Netanyahu was hoping that given the one-sided conditions, Hamas would reject it outright.

Instead, the Islamic resistance group showed great political acumen.

Operating under very difficult conditions—it was unable to easily hold discussions with other Palestinian groups—it managed to respond to Trump two days earlier than the deadline he had set for the group: Sunday October 5.

He had threatened on his Truth Social platform that “all hell would break LOOSE” if Hamas rejected his plan.

The Islamic resistance group pre-empted that by stating that it had agreed “to release all occupation captives—both living and the remains—according to the exchange formula outlined in President Trump’s proposal, with the provision of field conditions necessary for the exchange.”

It also expressed readiness to “immediately enter into negotiations through mediators to discuss the details” of the exchange.

Trump’s 20-point plan included the zionist demand that Hamas disarm, and should have no role in the administration of Gaza.

The Islamic resistance movement has a different take on these demands.

Let us be clear: zionist Israel has not defeated the Islamic resistance despite the massive disparity in weapons.

Hamas’s principal demands were an immediate ceasefire and the withdrawal of zionist occupation forces from all of Gaza.

This would lead to the stablishment of a Palestinian state as well as uninterrupted flow of humanitarian aid into the besieged enclave.

The Islamic resistance movement said it was ready to “hand over the administration of the Gaza Strip to a Palestinian body of independents [technocrats] based on Palestinian national consensus and with Arab and Islamic support”.

It rejected handing over power to the so-called Peace Board announced by Trump which he would head and would also include the other war criminal Tony Blair, as “viceroy”.

Senior Hamas official Mousa Abu Marzouk was quoted by Al Jazeera as saying: “We will never accept anyone who is not Palestinian to control the Palestinians.”

He added that the appointment of Blair was particularly unwelcome because of his past involvement in the invasion of Iraq by telling scandalous lies about weapons of mass destruction.

The US-British invasion led to the death of millions of Iraqis.

Hamas also deftly sidestepped the issue of disarmament.

Following Hamas’s response of October 3, communicated to the US through mediators Qatar and Egypt, Trump told Israel early today (October 4) that it must “immediately stop bombing Gaza”.

The war criminals in Tel Aviv did not completely halt the bombing of Gaza but reports from Gaza say that there has been fewer military strikes today.

Even so, 20 Palestinians were reported killed in Gaza, far less than the nearly 70 killed on Friday October 3.

Trump’s demand that Israel stop bombing Gaza did not go down well in Tel Aviv.

Netanyahu, however, said in a speech on Saturday night (Tel Aviv time) that Israel was “on the brink of a great achievement”.

He said he hoped to announce soon that the remaining Israeli hostages (sic) will be coming home from the Gaza Strip.

While accepting Trump’s overall proposal, Hamas said some elements required further negotiations.

Trump seemed to agree saying that American negotiators Steve Witkoff and son-in-law Jared Kushner, will be heading to Cairo on October 6 to discuss the details.

Netanyahu also announced that an Israeli delegation led by his close aide Ron Dermer will be heading to Egypt to “finalize the technical deals to release our hostages (sic).”

There are still many grey areas in the plan and it may fall apart given Netanyahu’s ass-like stubbornness.

In Israel, however, families of the prisoners are exerting pressure on the zionist regime to accept the ceasefire deal and return their loved one.

There is also no guarantee that once Hamas has released the Israeli captives, that Netanyahu will not resume bombing of Gaza.

Once a war criminal, always a war criminal.