Hamas’ response is significant – but there are key omissions

Hamas accepting to release the remaining hostages, although subject to negotiations and certain conditions fulfilled, will give real hope to family members in Israel who have desperately need this kind of news for a very long time.

In its declaration responding to the American peace proposal, the group agreed to “release all Israeli prisoners, both alive and dead, according to the exchange formula contained in the proposal of President Donald Trump, provided that the conditions on the field of exchange are met”.

This formula, described by Trump in the White House earlier this week, offers an immediate end to fighting and liberation within 72 hours of all the living Israeli hostages held by Hamas – as well as the left hostages considered to be dead – in exchange for hundreds of detained Palestinians.

It is believed that there would be 48 hostages still detained on Palestinian territory by the armed group, of which only 20 are considered alive.

The acceptance of Hamas of another key element of the American peace plan, the idea of ​​giving Gaza governance to Palestinian technocrats, is also clearly significant.

But there are many other elements of the long proposal of 20 points which are blatant by their absence.

The most notable of these is the requirement that Hamas made his arms.

The Israeli government will now result in the wording of the declaration to glean the real intention.

He will have to decide whether it considers this as a real acceptance of good faith of some of the key points of the agreement, or simply an attempt to buy time and to reopen the negotiations for a long time.

They will certainly not like the last paragraph of Hamas’ declaration suggesting that the group would retain a role in the long -term future negotiations of Gaza.

Since Hamas’ declaration occurred just a few hours after President Donald Trump published his final ultimatum for the group to agree on Sunday evening or face “All Hell”, some members of the cabinet of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are probably deeply skeptical.

This is particularly true now that the American president called on Israel to immediately stop the bombing of Gaza.

“Based on the declaration that has just published by Hamas, I think they are ready for lasting peace,” Trump said shortly after the publication of Hamas press release.

“Israel must immediately stop the bombing of Gaza, so that we can take out the hostages safely and quickly,” he said. “Right now, it’s far too dangerous to do it.”

In a video message published Friday later, Trump said that it was a “big day” and thanked a series of countries which, according to him, had helped him bring the proposal.

But there are still a lot of details to cross before peace in the region became something like a reality. And the president seemed to recognize that it was not a concluded agreement.

“We will see how it all turns out,” he said. “We have to lower the last word and concrete.”