Health

Egypt pushing Hamas to accept Trump Gaza deal

By Harriet Barber

Copyright yahoo

Egypt pushing Hamas to accept Trump Gaza deal

Egypt has said it is working to convince Hamas to accept Donald Trump’s plan to end the war in Gaza.

The US president gave the Palestinian terror group “three or four days” to accept the proposal, which would see Hamas disband as a military organisation.

“We are meeting with them. We are co-ordinating with our brothers in Qatar and also our colleagues in Turkey, in order to, you know, convince Hamas to respond positively with this plan,” said Badr Abdelatty, the Egyptian foreign minister.

On Monday evening, Mr Trump, standing alongside Benjamin Netanyahu, unveiled a 20-point proposal that called for an immediate ceasefire, an exchange of hostages between Israel and Hamas, a staged Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, and a transitional government led by an international body.

Hamas has yet to officially respond.

The proposal contained elements that Hamas has previously said were unacceptable, such as a ban on the group exercising future power in Gaza and the establishment of a transitional government overseen by foreign officials.

The US president warned that if Hamas rejected the deal, he would give Israel the green light to “finish the job” of destroying the armed group.

Mr Abdelatty said that while he was broadly supportive of Mr Trump’s proposal for Gaza, further talks were needed. Egypt borders Gaza and has acted as a mediator in Israeli-Palestinian conflicts.

“There are a lot of holes that need to be filled, we need more discussions on how to implement it, especially on two important issues – governance and security arrangements,” said Mr Abdelatty.

He added that Egypt would not allow for the displacement of Gazans under any circumstances.

Vladimir Putin, the Russian president, also weighed in on Thursday, saying he was ready to support the plan, but only if it led to the creation of a Palestinian state alongside Israel.

Meanwhile, in interviews with the New York Times, Palestinians in Gaza expressed widespread public support for the plan.

“Hamas must say yes to this offer – we have been through hell already,” 43-year-old Mahmoud Bolbol told the newspaper.

Since the announcement, Mr Bolbol said, it had been all his neighbours had discussed. “Hamas needs to understand: Enough is enough. Most Gazans are not members of the group, so why drag us into this?”

At least 66,225 people have been killed in Israeli attacks in Gaza since Oct 7 2023, when Hamas attacked Israel, according to the territory’s Hamas-run health ministry.

Since Monday, Mr Netanyahu has also appeared to push back on several of the terms.

In a video shared on social media, he insisted that the Israeli military would be able to remain in parts of Gaza and that Israel said it would “forcibly resist” a Palestinian state.

The US plan, however, calls for Israel to withdraw completely except for an initial security perimeter presence, and suggests that once the plan is complete, there may be a “credible pathway to Palestinian self-determination and statehood”.