The Gaza Strip-based Palestinian resistance movement Hamas has responded to a 20-point proposal forwarded by Donald Trump, which the US president says is aimed at ending the Israeli regime’s ongoing war of genocide on the coastal sliver.
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The movement provided its response through a statement on Friday after “extensively studying” the plan and conducting “in-depth consolations” with various Palestinian factions as well as “out of keenness to stop the aggression and the war of extermination.”
The group also said it had come up with the response “based on national responsibility and out of concern for the constants, rights, and supreme interests of our people.”
As part of the response and for the sake of enabling cessation of the warfare and realization of withdrawal of the invading Israeli forces, Hamas said it agrees to “release all Israeli captives, living and deceased.”
The group, however, asserted that the release would take place “provided that the field conditions for the exchange process are secured.”
Accordingly, the group said, it is ready to enter negotiation with mediators towards realizing the purpose.
Elsewhere in the statement, Hamas said it approves of “handing over the administration of the Gaza Strip to a Palestinian body of independents (technocrats) based on Palestinian national consensus and based on Arab and Islamic support.”
Nevertheless, the group stated that the rest of the provisions mentioned in Trump’s proposal had to be agreed upon “through a comprehensive Palestinian national framework of which Hamas will be a part and to which it will contribute with full responsibility.”
It attributed the latter part of its decision to those provisions being linked to a comprehensive national position and based on relevant international laws and resolutions.
Earlier, the movement had expressed skepticism concerning the proposal, asserting that due to the sensitive nature of the elements involved, its response would be a distinctively collective one integrating the opinions of various Palestinian factions.
It had identified the matters at stake as the future of the Palestinian issue, Palestinians’ rights, core principles, and political identity, saying it would provide a conclusive answer following additional consultations with Palestinian groups.
Also on Friday, Hamas leader Musa Abu Marzouk commented on the response in remarks to the Al Jazeera television network, saying that the movement had agreed to the plan “in its main headings as a principle,” and asserting that “its implementation requires negotiation.”
“The plan cannot be implemented without negotiation,” he said.
Hamas rejects ‘terror’ designation.
The official, meanwhile, took issue with the proposal’s repeatedly rehashing the US’s designation of the movement as a “terrorist organization.”
“Hamas is a national liberation movement, and the definition of terrorism in the plan cannot be applied to it.”
‘No foreign administration allowed to govern Gaza Strip’.
Osama Hamdan, another senior Hamas official, also addressed the situation at hand, affirming that the group would not brook foreign administration of the coastal sliver.
The remarks came after reports on the contents of the proposal said it had assigned supervision of “a temporary technocratic committee” tasked with governing Gaza with a “Board of Peace.”
According to the plan, the board is to be led by Trump himself, along with former British prime minister Tony Blair and “other members and heads of state.”
Upon emergence of the reports, Hamas clarified that the people of Palestine could manage their own affairs.
‘The devil’s brother cannot govern Gaza’: Hamas rejects new US role for Tony Blair.
Hamas has denounced the US plan to appoint Tony Blair as governor of Gaza, saying Palestinians are fully capable of governing themselves.
Trump had announced the proposal on Monday purportedly calling for an immediate ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, the exchange of Israeli captives held by Hamas for Palestinians incarcerated in Israeli jails, and a phased Israeli withdrawal from Gaza.
The US president came up with the plan amid Washington’s unprecedented military, intelligence, and political support for the genocide that has so far claimed the lives of nearly 66,300 Palestinians, mostly women and children.
The support has seen the United States ratchet up its arms support for the Israeli regime to record levels, besides invariably vetoing any United Nations measure aimed at bringing an end to the brutal military onslaught.
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