Hamas: Our response to Trump’s plan will not be delayed and we reject threats

Mohammed Nazzal, a member of the political bureau of the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas), said the group will announce its position on the U.S. plan publicly “very soon,” stressing its seriousness about reaching understandings aimed at stopping the war and what he called the genocide in the Gaza Strip.

Speaking in a telephone appearance with Al Jazeera, Nazzal said Hamas’s response “will not be delayed” and will take into account the interests of the Palestinian people, core strategic principles and political considerations, affirming that it will not allow the continuation of the genocide.

He stressed the movement does not operate from nihilistic premises, but “does not accept the logic of threats, diktats and pressures that are applied like the sword of time.”

Nazzal reiterated Hamas’s commitment to reach understandings based on what he called “time measured in blood,” and out of concern to stop the massacres and the collective slaughter before they enter their third year.

According to Nazzal, Hamas received on Monday evening last week the plan “attributed to President Donald Trump,” and he said the group has many comments but is looking for gray areas to halt the genocide in Gaza.

He said the outcome cannot involve abandoning the rights of the Palestinian people after all these sacrifices, noting Hamas has the right to make observations that serve Palestinian interests and that it accepts the logic of dialogue and discussion.

Nazzal revealed that Hamas began internal and external consultations on the second day after receiving the plan, and that it is communicating with mediators and Arab and Islamic parties in this context.

Earlier on Thursday, the White House said President Trump is awaiting Hamas’s response to his plan to halt the war in Gaza, while a White House official told Fox News that the ceasefire plan is acceptable “and we expect Hamas to accept it so we can move forward toward a more peaceful Middle East.”

The White House issued on 29 September 2025 a detailed plan calling for an immediate ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, followed by a comprehensive program for reconstruction and the reorganization of the political and security situation in the territory.

The plan seeks to turn Gaza into a “weapons-free zone,” providing a transitional mechanism of governance with international and regional guarantees, under the direct oversight of the U.S. president through a new international body charged with monitoring implementation.

It includes the release of all Israeli captives held by Hamas within 72 hours of approval, in exchange for the release of hundreds of Palestinian prisoners from Israeli jails.

It also calls for a halt to the fighting, the disarming of Palestinian resistance groups and a gradual Israeli withdrawal from the Strip, to be governed by a technocratic authority under the supervision of an international body led by the U.S. president.

Since 7 October 2023, Israel, with U.S. support, has continued a war in Gaza that has, according to Palestinian health authorities, killed more than 66,000 Palestinians and wounded about 169,000, most of them children and women, alongside a famine that has claimed 455 lives, including 151 children.