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<a class="gmail-domain gmail-reader-domain" href="https://www.presstv.ir/Detail/2025/10/04/756259/explainer-how-hamas-stumped-trump-outwitted-netanyahu-response-gaza-plan">presstv.ir</a>
<div class="gmail-domain-border"></div><h1 class="gmail-reader-title">Explainer: How Hamas stumped Trump, outwitted Netanyahu with its Gaza 'plan' response</h1>October 4, 2025</div>
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<strong>By Press TV Website Staff</strong></p>
<p><strong>In a move that surprised many astute political pundits, the
Gaza-based resistance movement Hamas released a very strategic and
diplomatic response on Friday to US President Donald Trump\u2019s 20-point
\u201cGaza plan.\u201d</strong></p>
<p>The group agreed, in principle, to release all remaining Israeli
captives and to transfer administrative authority to a transitional body
as part of a framework to end the year-long genocidal war on Gaza.</p>
<p>However, Hamas underscored that any decision concerning Gaza\u2019s future
governance must be rooted in national consensus and determined by the
Palestinian people themselves, not by external actors.</p>
<p>Political analysts described Hamas\u2019s response as a diplomatic
masterstroke that caught Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu off
guard and exposed his plans to again derail the process.</p>
<p>Trump welcomed the response, going so far as to publish Hamas\u2019s full
statement on social media, noting the group is \u201cready for lasting peace\u201d
and calling on Israel to \u201cimmediately stop the bombing of Gaza.\u201d</p>
<p><strong>What did Trump\u2019s 20-point plan include?</strong></p>
<p>Trump\u2019s much-advertised 20-point \u201cproposal\u201d claimed to offer Gaza a
pathway to peace \u2013 a \u201cderadicalised, terror-free zone\u201d rebuilt under
international supervision and led by Trump himself.</p>
<p>Marketed as a plan for peace and reconstruction, observers see it as
an attempt to reshape Gaza\u2019s future while reasserting Israeli and
American control over its affairs \u2013 both political and economic.</p>
<p>The proposal\u2019s promise is deceptively simple: if both sides agree,
the war ends immediately. Israel would halt its genocidal bombardments
and withdraw to the agreed-upon lines, freezing the front until
conditions are met for a staged withdrawal.</p>
<p>Within 72 hours of Israel\u2019s acceptance, all captives would be
returned \u2014 alive or deceased. In exchange, Israel would release a
limited number of Palestinian prisoners, including 250 serving life
sentences and 1,700 others detained since October 7, 2023.</p>
<p>Beyond that, the deal sketches out a political order that amounts to
external administration of Gaza \u2014 with local governance subordinated to a
so-called \u201cBoard of Peace\u201d chaired by Trump and including controversial
pro-war figures such as former British Prime Minister Tony Blair.</p>
<p>The board would oversee Gaza\u2019s redevelopment, economic planning, and
even its political transition for five years, until a reformed
Palestinian Authority is deemed \u201cready\u201d to take over.</p>
<p>Many say it looks alarmingly like a twenty-first-century protectorate
\u2014 a zone stripped of sovereignty and rebuilt according to the
priorities of foreign hegemonic powers and private investors.</p>
<p>Under the plan, Gaza\u2019s reconstruction would be driven by what is
being called the Trump Economic Development Plan, inspired by the
gleaming modernist cities of the Persian Gulf</p>
<p>A special economic zone would offer preferential tariffs and
investment incentives, while a panel of experts would design a \u201cmodern,
efficient governance\u201d model intended to attract capital.</p>
<p>In theory, jobs, infrastructure, and opportunity would replace
despair and radicalization. In practice, the plan seeks to entrench
dependency on foreign money and influence, sidelining local political
agency, in line with the blueprint Americans applied in Afghanistan for
nearly two decades.</p>
<p>Even the proposal\u2019s humanitarian provisions carry conditions. The
influx of aid would be controlled entirely by international institutions
such as the UN and the Red Crescent, excluding Palestinians. The Rafah
crossing would reopen only under the same mechanism as the January 2025
humanitarian agreement, reinforcing Gaza\u2019s isolation from its own
borders and neighbors.</p>
<p>Security, too, would no longer be in Palestinian hands. A new
so-called International Stabilisation Force (ISF), organized by the US
and its partners, would assume responsibility for internal order and
border control. The ISF would train vetted Palestinian police,
coordinate with Israel and Egypt.</p>
<p>Israeli occupation forces would gradually withdraw, retaining a
\u201csecurity perimeter\u201d until Gaza is deemed fully stable, a vague
condition that effectively leaves Israel in control for an undefined
period.</p>
<p>The demilitarization process, while presented as essential for peace,
reads like total disarmament under occupation. All tunnels, weapons,
and production facilities would be destroyed, with independent monitors
verifying compliance.</p>
<p>While the plan insists that no one will be forced to leave Gaza, it
also signals that Hamas members would have to leave. The language of
\u201cderadicalisation\u201d raises further concerns about how dissent,
resistance, or even political expression would be defined or suppressed
under the Trump-led regime.</p>
<p><strong>What did Hamas say in its response to Trump\u2019s plan?</strong></p>
<p>In its response, which came following Trump\u2019s theatrical threat of
\u201call hell breaking loose,\u201d Hamas made it categorically clear that it
seeks peace and order without any compromises.</p>
<p>\u201cOut of keenness to stop the aggression and the war of extermination
to which our steadfast people in the Gaza Strip are being subjected, and
based on national responsibility, and out of concern for the constants,
rights, and supreme interests of our people, the Islamic Resistance
Movement "Hamas" conducted in-depth consultations within its leadership
institutions, wide-ranging consultations with Palestinian factions and
forces, and consultations with brother mediators and friends, to reach a
responsible position in dealing with the plan of American President
Donald Trump,\u201d read the statement.</p>
<p>The movement appreciated the Arab, Islamic, and international
efforts, as well as Trump, for seeking an end to the genocidal war, the
exchange of captives, the entry of aid, the rejection of the occupation
of the strip, and the rejection of the displacement of Palestinian
people from it.</p>
<p>In this context, Hamas announced its approval to release all Israeli
captives, living and deceased, according to the exchange formula
mentioned in Trump's proposal, provided that the field conditions for it
are secured, affirming its readiness to immediately enter into
negotiations through the mediators to discuss the details.</p>
<p>Hamas also agreed to hand over the administration of Gaza to a
Palestinian body of technocrats \u201cbased on Palestinian national
consensus\u201d and based on Arab and Islamic support.</p>
<p>\u201cAs for the other issues mentioned in President Trump's proposal
concerning the future of the Gaza Strip and the authentic rights of the
Palestinian people, this is linked to a comprehensive national position
and based on relevant international laws and resolutions, and it will be
discussed through a comprehensive Palestinian national framework of
which Hamas will be a part and to which it will contribute with full
responsibility,\u201d the statement noted.</p>
<p>Essentially, Hamas\u2019s response was divided into two parts. In the
first, the group addressed issues within its mandate to negotiate \u2014 the
release of captives in exchange for ending the war, the withdrawal of
Israeli forces from Gaza, and the delivery of aid and reconstruction
efforts.</p>
<p>The second part dealt with the question of Gaza\u2019s future. Here, Hamas
called for a national consensus, asserting that it is the Palestinian
people and their institutions \u2014 not external powers \u2014 who must determine
their own political and administrative destiny.</p>
<p><strong>How did resistance movements react to Hamas' response?</strong></p>
<p>In a series of statements that point to both pragmatism and firm red
lines, Hamas leaders expressed readiness to enter direct negotiations
over a potential ceasefire and captive exchange \u2014 while emphatically
rejecting any proposal that would place Gaza under foreign
administration.</p>
<p>Speaking to Al-Araby, senior Hamas official Osama Hamdan said the
movement is prepared to begin \u201cimmediate direct negotiations\u201d to arrange
the exchange of Israeli captives and Palestinian prisoners and set the
necessary conditions for implementing such a deal.</p>
<p>\u201cThis matter requires entering into direct negotiations for its
arrangements,\u201d Hamdan said in the interview. \u201cWe believe that once we
enter into the details, more time will be needed than the 72 hours
mentioned in the proposal.\u201d</p>
<p>Hamdan stressed that Hamas is willing to engage on all issues within
its mandate, including the release of captives, ending the genocidal
war, and the reconstruction of Gaza, but drew a sharp line at the idea
of non-Palestinian governance of the territory.</p>
<p>\u201cWe do not accept that the affairs of Gaza, as a part of Palestine,
be managed by any non-Palestinian party. The entry of foreign forces or a
foreign administration into the Gaza Strip is an issue that is not
acceptable to Palestinians,\u201d he asserted.</p>
<p>Instead, Hamas reaffirmed its support for handing over Gaza\u2019s
administration to a Palestinian technocratic body, composed of
professionals and linked to the Palestinian Authority.</p>
<p>\u201cThere is a Palestinian national agreement,\u201d Hamdan said, \u201cthat a
national Palestinian body, connected to the Palestinian Authority, will
manage the Gaza Strip.\u201d</p>
<p>He emphasized that the question of Gaza\u2019s political future \u2014 and,
more broadly, the future of the Palestinian state \u2014 must be resolved
within a \u201cbroad national framework.\u201d</p>
<p>Hamas, he said, does not claim the exclusive right to make such
decisions. \u201cFuture issues related to the Palestinian state must be
answered within a broad national framework... Hamas does not monopolize
the right to answer them alone.\u201d</p>
<p>At the same time, Hamdan dismissed attempts to marginalize Hamas
politically. \u201cAttempts to exclude Hamas from the Palestinian political
process will not succeed,\u201d he warned.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, Hamas political bureau member Musa Abu Marzouk, speaking
to Al-Jazeera, also said that the movement is ready to negotiate not
only the exchange deal but all aspects of the proposed plan, including
sensitive issues related to governance and weapons.</p>
<p>He also addressed the proposed deployment of a multinational
peacekeeping force \u2014 one of the most controversial elements of the plan.
\u201cAll details related to the peacekeeping force require understanding
and clarification,\u201d he asserted.</p>
<p>Marzouk insisted that Hamas remains a national liberation movement,
rejecting the label of terrorism contained in the plan. \u201cThe definition
of terrorism in the plan cannot be applied to Hamas,\u201d he said</p>
<p>Palestinian Islamic Jihad movement also released a statement supporting Hamas\u2019s position.</p>
<p>It described Hamas\u2019s response to the Trump plan as \u201can expression of
the position of the Palestinian resistance forces,\u201d confirming that
Islamic Jihad \u201cparticipated responsibly in the consultations that led to
this decision.\u201d</p>
<p><strong>How did Israel react to Hamas\u2019 response?</strong></p>
<p>Following the announcement of Hamas\u2019 response to Trump\u2019s proposal,
the Israeli occupation forces intensified their bombing campaign in the
northern Gaza Strip.</p>
<p>According to reports, intense aerial bombardment and shelling were witnessed across Gaza City.</p>
<p>More than ten Israeli airstrikes struck the Al-Sabra neighborhood in
Gaza City on Saturday, igniting fires and leaving large parts of the
area in ruins.</p>
<p>Witnesses reported that three armored vehicles were also detonated
amid the ongoing bombardment, which has intensified across several
fronts of the city.</p>
<p>Two of the strikes hit near the Al-Nour Center for the Blind, sending
plumes of smoke over nearby residential blocks. Continuous shelling and
bursts of gunfire from Israeli ground vehicles and aircraft echoed
across Gaza\u2019s northern, eastern, and southern axes, trapping residents
in a tightening circle of violence.</p>
<p>As explosions took place through the night, large numbers of
displaced civilians were seen moving through the streets of Al-Sabra,
families carrying what little they could salvage, searching for shelter
in a city where safe spaces have all but disappeared.</p>
<p>Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has, meanwhile, rejected
Trump\u2019s proposed plan. According to a report by Axios, Netanyahu
instructed his team to adhere to their existing strategy rather than the
framework outlined by the US president.</p>
<p>Netanyahu was surprised by Trump\u2019s announcement and wanted to make
sure it did not become established that Hamas had given a positive
answer to Trump\u2019s plan, Axios reported.</p>
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