0:33President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu take part in a news conference in the State Dining Room at the White House in Washington, September 29, 2025.Jim Watson/AFP via Getty Images
Hamas is running out of time to accept a proposition with 20 points for bringing an end to the conflict in Gaza, or it will encounter serious repercussions, based on an ultimatum from President Donald Trump – who is the chief originator of the plan.
"An Agreement with Hamas must be secured by Sunday Evening at SIX (6) P.M., Washington, D.C. time. All Nations are in agreement! If this FINAL OPPORTUNITY deal is not secured, all CHAOS, unlike anything ever witnessed, will be unleashed against Hamas," Trump stated on Truth Social this past Friday.
"THERE WILL BE PEACE IN THE MIDDLE EAST ONE WAY OR ANOTHER," he declared.
The new cutoff is a slight extension from the timeframe he established on Tuesday, after putting the plan forward on Monday, when he indicated he would grant the militant faction “about three or four days.”
President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu participate in a press conference in the State Dining Room of the White House in Washington, September 29, 2025.Jim Watson/AFP via Getty Images
Despite the warning, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt informed reporters this past Thursday that the Trump administration has not yet been provided with a response from Hamas.
"The president has articulated very plainly that he wishes to receive a response from them very promptly," Leavitt expressed.
"We are anticipating and we are hopeful that Hamas will give their acceptance to the proposed framework," she further stated. "It’s a positive framework, and as you are aware, it has been praised by leadership around the globe."
External pressure, internal concerns
In spite of certain global leaders possessing reservations regarding some particular elements of the plan, like uncertainty pertaining to the prospect of a sovereign Palestinian state in the future, Leavitt’s assertion is valid that the proposal has found extensive acceptance, including from Arab countries that could be key to the implementation of the plan.
"The Trump proposal has secured endorsement from nearly all dominant regional governments and the leading Islamic nations globally, excluding Iran. The EU [European Union] and its respective members are also giving their support," stated Marc Weller, chair of International Law and International Constitutional Studies at the University of Cambridge and a senior research fellow at Chatham House.
"There even appear to be Arab nations ready to offer armed forces for stabilization – a potentially hazardous duty that previously didn’t attract many individuals willing to partake," Weller, who formerly acted as a senior mediation expert at the United Nations, went on to say.
Smoke rises during an Israeli military operation in Gaza City, as seen from the central Gaza Strip, on Oct. 2, 2025.Dawoud Abu Alkas/Reuters
The cumulative effect of the pieces falling into place has placed a substantial amount of pressure on Hamas to accept the proposal or run the risk of lowering its standing with Middle Eastern nations, such as Qatar, who are host to its political leadership and enable the group to engage in negotiations with the global community.
However, to give their acceptance of the deal’s terms also suggests taking on substantial existential threats that pertain to the future of the group, according to Weller.
"The framework calls for Hamas to consent to its own disintegration, both as a military organization and as a civil administration," he detailed. "In other circumstances, demobilizing, retrieving weapons and absorbing fighters back into society would be a venture lasting multiple years. In this scenario, reasonably swift action is anticipated, with no infrastructure delineated other than an alluded ‘independent monitors’."
While Hamas is seeing pressure from world leaders that are giving their support to the plan, the group is similarly feeling the effects of Israel’s armed assault on Gaza City, which has grown in intensity in the days coming after the unveiling of Trump’s peace framework.
A firm deadline?
In the past, Trump has regularly altered his cutoffs with relation to worldwide negotiations, permitting nations added time to achieve a trade arrangement or opting to enable Moscow with some leeway for discussions directed at bringing a conclusion to the war taking place in Ukraine.
Alternatively, the president has also seemed to accelerate cutoffs in certain cases. In June, he declared that he would allocate two weeks to come to a decision on whether to strike Iran. Only days following that, he ordered U.S. B-2 stealth bombers to strike the country’s crucial nuclear locations.
However, in the present instance, U.S. functionaries expressed to ABC News this past Thursday that they had an anticipation that Trump would mostly adhere to the timeline he has specified.
A key reason, they indicated, was that it didn’t lie solely within the president’s power — negotiators must similarly keep Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on the same page to continue with the process.
It required a considerable amount of pressure to prompt Netanyahu — who is currently battling backlash coming from the far-right participants in his coalition in Israel — to give his agreement to the terms contained in the proposal, and any added delay would threaten the loss of necessary momentum, the functionaries revealed.
Mediators have been pushing Hamas to accept, or — if not — provide a favorable reply to the framework, according to one functionary aware of the negotiations.
However, the functionary included that one intermediary — Qatar — has made clear to the Trump administration that Hamas may have a need for some extra time.
Aaron Goren, who is an analyst and an editor at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, contends that it is vital for Trump to maintain a solid stance on the timeline that has been set.
"The United States should not enable Hamas to shift the parameters, pursuing extra concessions that should be made by Israel,” he expressed. “Furthermore, Qatari, Turkish, and Egyptian mediators should convey to Hamas that it is unlikely that there will be a more opportune diplomatic escape route, particularly one that provides the group’s leadership amnesty while residing abroad, like this framework is proposing."
Trump has already declared that if Hamas rejects the framework, Netanyahu will receive his unfettered support to carry on with his military operation located in Gaza.
"Israel would have my complete backing to complete the undertaking of eradicating the threat posed by Hamas," Trump mentioned, while standing next to the prime minister this past Monday.
Sourse: abcnews.go.com
