Will Hamas accept the US-Israel plan to end the Gaza war? Not right away, at least.
Arab and Muslim states have endorsed the plan, which would require Hamas to disarm
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech is seen on a podium following a joint press conference between him and U.S. President Donald Trump at the White House, Sept. 29, 2025. Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images
(JTA) — President Donald Trump’s announcement of a peace plan in the Israel-Hamas war on Monday was missing one crucial element, he said: “Now we just have to get Hamas.”
Now, observers of the region – including families of the 48 hostages who remain in Gaza and would be freed swiftly under the plan — are holding their breath to see whether Hamas will sign on.
The group that governs Gaza and orchestrated the Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel faces strong pressure to do so. A number of Arab and Muslim states — including Hamas backers Qatar and Turkey — have endorsed the 21-point plan.
So far, Hamas has said only that it is reviewing the plan, which it said was formally presented to its negotiators only after Trump’s joint press conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and that a response could take several days. The group is reviewing the proposal “responsibly,” the Arab news organization al-Jazeera reported on Tuesday.
If Hamas accepts the plan, the group will be agreeing to disarm and cede control of Gaza — but its leaders will be allowed to leave the enclave and hundreds of its most sought-after members will be freed from Israeli prisons.
If it rejects the deal, Israel would have Trump’s backing to continue its offensive in Gaza City and elsewhere in the enclave. Israel would also have politically isolated Hamas and have wound up on the same side of an issue as a vast array of world leaders who have recently sought to pressure the country to abandon the war.
Netanyahu’s White House visit included a phone call among him, Trump and Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed Al Thani in which he apologized for striking Doha earlier this month in an unsuccessful bid to kill Hamas’ leaders and pledged not to strike in Qatar again.
Netanyahu reportedly achieved multiple changes to the plan in days of talks with White House negotiators, including scaling back the requirements around Israel’s withdrawal from Gaza; strengthening the terms around Hamas’ disarmament; and removing the Palestinian Authority as a possible administrator of postwar governance in the enclave. He also said he had vowed to block the creation of a Palestinian state, though the Trump plan calls for working toward a “credible pathway” to an independent state.
In a video that he posted online after leaving the White House, Netanyahu said the new plan represented Israel’s vision — and a turnaround from when the White House was pressuring it to accept Hamas’ terms to end the war. “Who would have believed it?” he said.
