Middle East: Hamas says it's prepared to free Gaza hostages

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said his country is preparing to implement the "first stage" of US President Donald Trump's plan to end the war in Gaza.

"In light of Hamas's response, Israel is preparing for the immediate implementation of the first stage of the Trump plan for the release of all the hostages," Netanyahu's office said in a statement.

It added that Israel would work "in full cooperation" with the US president to end the war "in accordance with the principles set out by Israel, which align with President Trump's vision."

Trump on Friday told Israel to stop bombing the Gaza Strip after Hamas said it had accepted parts of his Gaza peace plan, including agreeing to release all remaining hostages. The Palestinian Islamist militant group, however, said some aspects of Trump's 20-point plan require further consultations among Palestinians.

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said that "peace in Gaza and the release of the hostages are within reach" after Hamas "agreed in principle" to US President Donald Trump's peace plan.

Merz added in posts on the X platform that the plan represented "the best chance for peace" in the conflict and that Germany "fully supports" Trump's "call upon both sides."

French President Emmanuel Macron said that "the release of all hostages and a ceasefire in
Gaza are within reach!"

"Hamas' commitment must be followed up without delay. We now have the opportunity to make decisive progress towards peace. France will play its full part in line with its efforts at the United Nations, alongside the United States, Israelis and Palestinians, and all of its international partners. I would like to thank President Donald Trump  and his team for their commitment to peace," Macron posted on social media.

Macron repeated the post in both Hebrew and Arabic having already posted in French and English.

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said that Hamas' acceptance of the peace deal was "a significant step forwards" in the effort to end the war in Gaza.

Trump's proposal has "brought us closer to peace than ever before," Starmer said in a statement, adding: "We call on all sides to implement the agreement without delay."

A spokesperson for the Qatari Foreign Ministry said early on Saturday morning that Doha "welcomes" Hamas' response to the latest Gaza peace plan proposed by US President Donald Trump.

A statement from Egypt's Foreign Ministry said Cairo also hopes for "positive development" and said it would "exert all effort with Arab states, the United States and European countries to reach a permanent ceasefire" in the war-torn enclave.

Both Qatar and Egypt are key mediators in negotiations between the US, Israel and Hamas.

US President Donald Trump said on Friday that he believes Hamas is "ready for a lasting peace" after the Palestinian militant group released a statement signaling a readiness to release Israeli hostages and negotiate on other aspects of Trump's Gaza peace proposal.

In a statement posted on social media, Trump also called on Israel to "immediately stop the bombing of Gaza so that we can get the hostages out safely and quickly."

In Washington, the White House has said that US President Donald Trump will soon comment on Hamas' response to the Gaza peace proposal, with press secretary Karoline Leavitt posting a photo of Trump speaking to television cameras in the Oval Office.

We'll bring you that as soon as we have it.

In the meantime, Hamas officials have also been hitting the airwaves in a series of interviews with Middle Eastern broadcasters.

Mousa Abu Marzouk, a senior Hamas official based outside of Gaza, told Qatar's Al Jazeera network that Trump's proposal "cannot be implemented without negotiations" and pointed to the practicalities of releasing the hostages within the president's 72-hour timeframe.

He also said the Islamist group would be willing to hand over its weapons to a future Palestinian body in charge of Gaza, although there was no mention of this in the official statement.

Another Hamas official, Osama Hamdan, told Al Araby television, also based in Qatar, that Hamas would refuse foreign administration of the Gaza Strip and that the entry of foreign forces into the enclave would be "unacceptable."

Meanwhile, the Saudi-based Al Arabiya broadcaster showed pictures of people celebrating in Gaza.

In addition to expressing a readiness to release all remaining Israeli hostages, Hamas also said on Friday evening that it was prepared to "hand over the administration of the Gaza Strip to a Palestinian body of independents (technocrats), based on national consensus and with Arab and Islamic support."

In a statement shared on Telegram, the Islamist group insisted that it be part of negotiations concerning the future of Gaza and the rights of the Palestinian people.

"These remain tied to a collective national position, rooted in international laws and resolutions, to be addressed within a unified Palestinian framework," the group wrote. "In which Hamas will take part and contribute with full responsibility."

While one senior Hamas official told Qatari broadcaster Al Jazeera that the group would enter into negotiations on all issues related to the group and its weapons, another told the Reuters news agency that the group would not disarm before the Israeli "occupation" ends.

Reuters also reported that Qatari mediators had officially received Hamas' response to US President Donald Trump's proposal, but it was initially unclear how the United States and Israel would respond to the partial acceptance.

The Islamist militant group Hamas said on Friday that it accepted some elements of the Gaza peace plan proposed by US President Donald Trump and that it was prepared to release all Israeli hostages, dead or alive.

The group also said it was prepared to enter into immediate negotiations to clarify the precise details.

After unveiling his 20-point peace plan alongside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu earlier this week, President Trump took to social media earlier on Friday to demand that "an agreement must be reached with Hamas by Sunday evening" and threatened to eliminate Hamas if the group did not agree to the proposal.

Hamas is still believed to be holding 48 Israelis hostage in the Gaza Strip, around 20 of whom are believed to still be alive.

Dozens of UN experts have criticized key elements of US President Donald Trump's 20-point Gaza peace plan.

"Imposing an immediate peace at any price, regardless of or brazenly against law and justice, is a recipe for further injustice, future violence and instability,"35 independent experts said in a statement released on Friday.

The experts, who are mandated by the UN Human Rights Council but who do not speak on behalf of the United Nations, said they "welcome part of the peace plan" — including the demand for a permanent ceasefire, the rapid release of unlawfully detained people, and an influx of aid into the devastated enclave.

They voiced serious concerns over other aspects of the plan that they said were "deeply inconsistent with fundamental rules of international law" and risked furthering the oppression of Palestinians.

They slammed in particular the plan's call for a transitional "Board of Peace" in Gaza that would be chaired by Trump himself, saying it was "regrettably reminiscent of colonial practices and must be rejected."

They also decried that "de-radicalization is imposed on Gaza only," despite the fact that "anti-Palestinian and anti-Arab sentiments, radicalization and public incitement to genocide have been hallmarks of dominant rhetoric in Israel over the past two years."

"The future of Palestine must be in the hands of the Palestinian people," the experts said. "Not imposed by outsiders under extreme conditions of duress in yet another scheme to control their destiny."

Hundreds of thousands of people in Italy went on strike on Friday, taking to the streets of Rome, Milan, Florence, Turin, Bologna and other cities to protest against the interception of an international flotilla carrying aid to the Gaza Strip and the continuing Israeli offensive in the Palestinian territory.

The strike caused major disruption across the country, with public transport affected in Rome and Milan and access to the ports of Naples and Genoa blocked.

According to the General Confederation of Labor (CGIL), Italy's biggest trade union and one of those that called for the spontaneous general strike, more than 2 million people took part in about 100 protests, including at least 80,000 demonstrators in Rome alone.

CGIL leader Maurizio Landini said the nationwide actions showed the "humanity and determination of decent people who want to stop a genocide and do what governments and states turn a blind eye to or are even complicit in."

According to the Italian Foreign Ministry, 40 Italians, including four parliamentarians, were among the 400 people taken into custody by Israeli authorities after naval forces intercepted the Global Sumud Flotilla earlier this week.

The CGIL has accused the Italian government of "abandoning Italian workers in open international waters."

US President Donald Trump said the Hamas militant group had been "a ruthless and violent threat, for many years, in the Middle East!"

"They have killed (and made lives unbearably miserable), culminating with the October 7th MASSACRE, in Israel," Trump wrote. 

The Hamas-led attacks in southern Israel of October 7, 2023, killed nearly 1,200 people and saw 251 more taken hostage. 

"As retribution for the October 7th attack on civilization, more than 25,000 Hamas 'soldiers' have already been killed," Trump said, adding that those that remained "are surrounded and MILITARILY TRAPPED."

Trump said that he only needed to give the word "'GO' for their lives to be extinguished."

The US president said members "will be hunted down, and killed" if the group did not agree to his peace proposal.

Trump also reiterated that the plan includes the release of all remaining hostages. There are 48 hostages still in captivity — Israeli officials believe that about 20 are alive.

The UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) reports that mothers and newborn babies are facing dire conditions in Gaza, as the Nasser hospital in the south is becoming increasingly overwhelmed by patients who fled from northern Gaza.

"The situation for mothers and newborns in Gaza has never been worse. In Nasser hospital, we're seeing hospital corridors lined with women who've just given birth," UNICEF spokesperson James Elder told reporters in Geneva via video link from Gaza.

Elder described new mothers and newborn babies lying on the hospital floor and reported seeing three premature babies sharing a single supply of oxygen.

"They shared 20 minutes each. The other two children cry while the third child gets that oxygen for 20 minutes," Elder said.

Elder said there was no safe space in the south of the Gaza Strip, and that designated safe zones were "places of death."

"The notion of a safe zone in the south is farcical," Elder.

Palestinians have been repeatedly urged by Israel to move to a "humanitarian area" in Al-Mawasi, where aid is provided.

Elder said Al-Mawasi "is now one of the most densely populated places on Earth. It's grotesquely overcrowded and has been stripped of the most basic essentials of survival."

Organizers of the Global Sumud Flotilla said the Israeli military had intercepted the last boat that had been attempting to reach Gaza on Friday.

This comes a day after most of the vessels were stopped with Israeli security forces detaining about 450 activists, including Swedish campaigner Greta Thunberg.

In a statement, the Global Sumud Flotilla said Israeli naval forces had "illegally intercepted all 42 of our vessels — each carrying humanitarian aid, volunteers, and the determination to break Israel’s illegal siege on Gaza."

The Israeli Foreign Ministry said it was making arrangements to deport the activists, journalists, lawmakers and lawyers who made up the convoy.

"Procedures are under way to wrap up the Hamas-Sumud provocation and to finalize the deportation of the participants in this sham," Israel's Foreign Ministry said.

"Attached are photos of Greta Thunberg and other members of this provocation while arriving to Israel. All are safe and in good health," the ministry said in a post on X.

US President Donald Trump has set Sunday, 6 p.m. Washington time (2200 UTC/GMT), as the deadline for the militant group Hamas to accept a deal to end the war in Gaza or face "all hell."

"An Agreement must be reached with Hamas by Sunday Evening at SIX (6) P.M., Washington, D.C. time," Trump wrote on his Truth Media platform.

"Every Country has signed on! If this LAST CHANCE agreement is not reached, all HELL, like no one has ever seen before, will break out against Hamas. THERE WILL BE PEACE IN THE MIDDLE EAST ONE WAY OR THE OTHER," Trump wrote.

The US president unveiled the plan alongside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu earlier this week.

Welcome to DW's coverage of Gaza, Israel and the broader Middle East.

US President Donald Trump issued a Sunday deadline to the Hamas militant group to accept his proposal for peace or risk being "hunted down and killed."

UNICEF reports that the situation for women and newborns in Gaza has "never been worse," with a spokesman describing desperate scenes in hospital corridors.

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