Trump gives Hamas an ultimatum to respond to his Gaza ceasefire plan
INTERNATIONAL – ASIA
1 OCTOBER 2025
- U.S. President Donald Trump gave Hamas an ultimatum of “three or four days” to respond to his 20-point peace plan for Gaza, as the militant group reviewed the proposal backed by Israel.
- The plan calls for a ceasefire, release of hostages by Hamas within 72 hours, disarmament of Hamas and gradual Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, followed by a post-war transitional authority headed by Mr. Trump himself.
- Regarding Hamas, the Trump plan says the group will have no role in the post-war administration of Gaza.
- It wants Hamas to decommission itself and Hamas’s offensive capabilities to be destroyed.
- If Hamas leaders agree to the terms, they will be provided amnesty and safe passage out of Gaza if they wish to leave the enclave.
- The plan also seeks to establish a temporary transitional governance committee to run day-to-day affairs of Gaza.
- The oversight of the committee will rest with a ‘Board of Peace’, an international body which will be chaired by Mr. Trump and will have members, including former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, one of the authors of the Gaza plan.
- The U.S. will work with Arab and other “international partners” to develop a temporary International Stabilisation Force (ISF) to immediately deploy in Gaza.
- The ISF will provide security and train Palestinian police officers, in consultation with Jordan and Egypt.
- It says Palestinians will not be forced to leave Gaza and that Israel will not occupy or annex Gaza.
- While the proposal does not provide any time line, Gaza will remain under the control of the Board of Peace until the Palestinian Authority’s “reform programme is faithfully carried out”— it does not say who will implement reforms and who will oversee them.
- World powers, including Arab and Muslim nations, welcomed the proposal, but Hamas had yet to issue its response on the ceasefire plan.
- Mr. Trump announced the deal at the White House on 29th September, 2025 after meeting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
- Prime Minister Netanyahu said the military would stay in most of Gaza, and also that he did not agree to a Palestinian state during his talks in Washington.
- “We will recover all our hostages, alive and well, while the (Israeli military) will remain in most of the Gaza Strip,” he said.
- Qatar, which hosts Hamas’s exiled leadership, said the group had promised to study the proposal “responsibly”, and also said it would hold a meeting with Hamas and Turkiye later.
- Israeli air strikes and shelling continued across Gaza.
- The Gaza war was triggered by Hamas’s October 7, 2023, attack on Israel that killed 1,219 people, mostly civilians.
Israel’s offensive has reduced much of Gaza to rubble and killed 66,055 Palestinians, also mostly civilians, according to health ministry figures in the Hamas-run territory that the United Nations considers
