Hamas officials want amendments to clauses in US President Donald Trump’s Gaza peace plan including on disarmament, a Palestinian source close to the terror group’s leadership told AFP on Wednesday.
Hamas negotiators held discussions Tuesday with Turkish, Egyptian and Qatari officials in Doha, the source said, requesting anonymity to discuss sensitive matters and adding that the group needed “two or three days at most” to respond after Trump stated it had “three or four days” to agree “or pay in hell.”
Trump’s plan, which is backed by Israel and has received praise from a range of Arab states and other countries, calls for a ceasefire, the release of hostages by Hamas within 72 hours, the Islamist terrorist organization’s disarmament and a gradual Israeli withdrawal from Gaza.
But the Palestinian source said: “Hamas wants to amend some of the clauses, such as the one on disarmament and the expulsion of Hamas and faction cadres.”
Hamas leaders also want “international guarantees for a full Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip” and guarantees that no assassination attempts will be made inside or outside the territory.
The source said Hamas was also in touch with “other regional and Arab parties,” without giving details.
Another source familiar with the negotiations told AFP that Hamas was split over Trump’s plan.
“So far there are two views within Hamas: the first supports unconditional approval because the important thing is to have a ceasefire guaranteed by Trump, provided that the mediators guarantee Israel’s implementation of the plan,” the source said, also requesting anonymity.
But others have “great reservations on important clauses,” the source added. “They reject disarmament and for any Palestinian citizen to be taken away from Gaza.”
“They support a conditional agreement with clarifications that take into account demands by Hamas and the resistance factions so that the occupation of the Gaza Strip is not legitimized while the resistance is criminalized,” the source said.
“Some factions reject the plan, but discussions are ongoing and things will become clearer soon.”
According to a senior Hamas official who spoke with the BBC, the terror group will likely reject Trump’s proposal, as it “serves Israel’s interests” and “ignores those of the Palestinian people.”
The official added that Hamas opposes several key provisions of the plan, among them the entry of a so-called International Stabilization Force to take control of Gaza as Hamas leaves and the Israel Defense Forces withdraws.
Hamas is also presumed to oppose the requirement that it release all 48 hostages it is holding within the first 72 hours after the agreement is adopted, which along with the terror group’s disarmament is among Israel’s core conditions for ending the war triggered by the Hamas-led October 7, 2023, terror onslaught.
Hamas sources who spoke with the Saudi newspaper Asharq Al-Awsat similarly said that though the US plan “leans to one side and creates injustice,” serving Israeli rather than Palestinian interests, it would still be examined “positively.”
The sources said that while the points contained in the proposal are outlined at length and in detail, there were no real guarantees for implementing the terms of the agreement. They added that there may be a need for adjustments regarding the timeline for releasing hostages, including those who are dead, since time would be required to locate the burial sites of the slain captives within the Strip.
Hamas sources inside the Strip told the newspaper that, in conversation with the terror group’s leadership abroad, Hamas officials in Gaza stressed the importance of responding positively to the plan in order to bring an end to the war. According to them, the military wing of Hamas also agrees with this approach.
A Hamas source also told Saudi channel Al-Hadath that the terror group has requested clarifications from the mediators regarding several clauses in the plan, which he declared Hamas has the right to introduce changes to, including demanding a clear timetable for the withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza.
He added that Hamas was insisting on distinguishing between defensive and offensive weapons, referring to the clause in the agreement that calls for it to disarm. The source claimed that Hamas has a right to defensive weapons and that the terrorist organization rejected any international body administering the Gaza Strip.