WASHINGTON, Oct 04 (APP): US President Donald Trump has called on Israel to immediately stop bombing on war-devastated Gaza after Hamas said it accepted parts of the peace proposal and agreed to release all the remaining hostages taken during the October 7 attacks.
Hamas, in a statement, said it was ready to release the hostages and immediately enter into negotiations to discuss some key details of the peace plan.
“Based on the Statement just issued by Hamas, I believe they are ready for a lasting PEACE,” Trump wrote on social media on Friday night.
A statement released by the office of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel early Saturday morning said Israel was preparing to implement the first stage of Trump’s plan for the immediate release of all the hostages.
“We will continue to work in full cooperation with the President and his team in order to bring the war to an end in accordance with the principles set forth by Israel, which are consistent with President Trump’s vision,” the statement added.
In a video posted to Truth Social, Trump called Friday “a very special day” but said there were many details that still needed to be worked out.
“We’ll see how it all turns out,” he said, adding. “Very importantly, I look forward to having the hostages come home to their parents.”
But the Hamas statement, posted online on Friday night, was ambiguous in its language on hostage issue.
The group said it would release the hostages “according to the exchange formula contained in President Trump’s proposal, and as the field conditions for the exchange are met.” But it was not clear what exactly Hamas meant by field conditions or if it had a timetable for releasing the hostages.
The statement also said the group agreed “to hand over the administration of the Gaza Strip to a Palestinian body of independent technocrats, based on Palestinian national consensus and Arab and Islamic support.”
The statement did not address the elements of the American proposal that called on the group to give up its arms, a major demand of Israel.
Hamas’s statement was released hours after Trump used a 300-word post on social media in which he set a Sunday deadline for leaders of the group to agree to a cease-fire proposal he unveiled on Monday.
More than 66,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, have been killed by Israeli forces since the conflict began in October 2023. These figures are the most commonly cited by international news organizations and NGOs, and multiple studies have validated their reliability.