A U.S.-sponsored ceasefire proposal for Gaza on Tuesday (September 30, 2025) was hanging on Hamas’s response to the 20-point plan which President Donald Trump has said was “beyond very close” to ending the two-year-old conflict in the enclave.

Mediators Qatar and Egypt shared the document with Hamas late on Monday (September 29, 2025) after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stood alongside Trump at the White House and pledged his support for the proposal because he said it met Israel’s war aims.

Hamas was not involved in the negotiations that led to Mr. Trump’s plan, which calls on the Islamist militant group to disarm, a demand it has previously rejected.

A source close to Hamas told Reuters the plan was “completely biased to Israel” and imposed “impossible conditions” that aimed to eliminate the group.

However, an official briefed on the talks told Reuters early on Tuesday (September 30, 2025) that Hamas negotiators “would review it in good faith and provide a response”.

Hamas faces pressure from Muslim nations

Mr. Trump warned Hamas that if it rejected his offer, Israel would have full U.S. support to take whatever action it deemed necessary.

The plan specifies an immediate ceasefire, an exchange of all hostages held by Hamas for Palestinian prisoners held by Israel, a staged Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, the disarmament of Hamas and the introduction of a transitional government led by an international body.

Many elements of the 20 points have been included in numerous ceasefire deals proposed over the last two years, including those accepted and then subsequently rejected at various stages by both Israel and Hamas.

One of Hamas’s main conditions since the outset of the war has been a full Israeli withdrawal from Gaza in return for the release of the remaining hostages. And while the group has indicated its readiness to relinquish administrative authority, it has consistently ruled out disarming.

“What Trump has proposed is the full adoption of all Israeli conditions, which do not grant the Palestinian people or the residents of the Gaza Strip any legitimate rights,” a Palestinian official, who asked not to be named, told Reuters.

However, Hamas faces considerable pressure to accept the plan, with the Foreign Ministers of Saudi Arabia, Jordan, United Arab Emirates, Qatar and Egypt all welcoming the initiative.

Turkey’s head of intelligence will join Qatari and Egyptian mediators in Doha to discuss the peace proposal later on Tuesday (September 30, 2025), a spokesperson for Qatar’s Foreign Ministry said. Turkey has not previously been involved as a key mediator during efforts over the last two years to bring peace to Gaza.

It was unclear if Hamas officials would join Tuesday’s (September 30, 2025) meeting. The last time Hamas leaders gathered to discuss a U.S. peace plan in Qatar, Israel tried, and failed, to kill them with a missile strike.

Mr. Netanyahu apologised on Monday (September 29, 2025)) to his Qatari counterpart for the September 9 attack, the White House said.

Although he initially backed the Trump plan, Mr. Netanyahu later expressed doubts about elements of the proposal, including the prospects for eventual Palestinian Statehood — something he has repeatedly ruled out.

Mr. Netanyahu is under mounting pressure from a war-weary Israeli public to end the conflict. But he also risks the collapse of his governing coalition if far-right Ministers believe he has made too many concessions for a peace deal.

Israeli forces push further into Gaza city

In Gaza itself, some Palestinians hailed Mr. Trump’s peace plan, saying it could end the bombardment and deaths, but they wondered whether it would end Israel’s control of the enclave.

“We want the war to end, but we want the occupation army that killed tens of thousands of us to get out and leave us alone,” said Salah Abu Amr, 60, a father of six from Gaza City.

“We hope the plan will end the war, but we are not sure it will. Neither Mr. Trump nor Mr. Netanyahu can be trusted,” he told Reuters via a chat app.

Israel began its Gaza offensive after the October 7, 2023, Hamas-led assault on Israel in which some 1,200 people were killed and 251 taken as hostages back to Gaza. The offensive has killed over 66,000 people in Gaza, Gaza health authorities say.

Israeli forces pushed deeper into Gaza City on Tuesday (September 30, 2025), reaching the centre of the territory, which Mr. Netanyahu has described as the last Hamas bastion.

Israeli planes also dropped new leaflets over the city ordering Palestinians to immediately leave and head south.

“The battle against Hamas is decisive and will not end until it is defeated,” the leaflet said in red writing.

Published – October 01, 2025 11:04 am IST

Donald Trump has floated the possibility of cutting off aid to longstanding allies Jordan and Egypt should they refuse his plan. File
| Photo Credit: AP

Saudi Arabia will host the leaders of four Arab countries at a summit on February 20 to discuss President Donald Trump’s proposal for a U.S. takeover of Gaza, a source with knowledge of the preparations said on Friday (February 14, 2025).

“The leaders of Egypt, Jordan, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates will attend the summit, to take place ahead of an Arab League meeting in Cairo one week later on the same issue,” the source said.

Speaking on condition of anonymity, another source said Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas would also attend.

Mr. Trump sparked a global outcry with his proposal for the United States to “take over” the Gaza Strip and to move more than two million Palestinians out of the war-devastated territory, citing Egypt or Jordan as possible destinations.

Mr. Trump made the proposal during a visit by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to Washington.

Arab countries have come together in a rare, united front, outraged by the idea of displacing the Palestinians en masse.

For Palestinians, any forced displacement evokes memories of the “Nakba”, or catastrophe – the mass displacement of their ancestors during Israel’s creation in 1948.

But Mr. Trump has floated the possibility of cutting off aid to longstanding allies Jordan and Egypt should they refuse his plan.

Jordan is already home to more than two million Palestinian refugees. More than half of the country’s population of 11 million is of Palestinian origin.

Egypt put forward its own proposal for the reconstruction of Gaza under a framework that would allow for the Palestinians to remain in the territory.

‘The only plan’

Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Thursday (February 14, 2025) the United States was eager to hear new proposals on Gaza from Arab governments but that, “right now the only plan – they don’t like it – but the only plan is the Trump plan”.

In January, Rubio’s predecessor Antony Blinken outlined a roadmap for post-war Gaza and warned it required Israel’s acceptance of a path to a Palestinian state – something the Israeli government strongly opposes.

Regional states including Saudi Arabia have repeatedly called for a Palestinian state, existing alongside Israel.

Rubio was on his way to Europe on Friday (February 14, 2025).

He was set to join Vice President J.D. Vance in a meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, after Mr. Trump spoke by phone with his counterpart Vladimir Putin and said he would pursue talks to end the war in Ukraine, which Russia invaded in 2022.

Afterwards Rubio is set to fly on to Israel, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates to discuss the fragile Gaza ceasefire in effect since January 19.

Following his surprise call with Mr. Putin, Mr. Trump said the two leaders were “going to meet probably in Saudi Arabia the first time”.

Riyadh, which has been increasingly prominent on the international diplomatic stage, on Friday (February 14, 2025) expressed “its welcome to hosting the summit in Saudi Arabia”, without confirming whether or when the meeting would go ahead.

Mutlaq al-Mutairi, of King Saud University, said Saudi Arabia is seeking to emphasise the importance of its role in any solution to the Israel-Palestinian conflict.

It wants “to emphasise that it stands behind Egypt and Jordan, the Arab countries threatened with displacement”, he said, adding that would include economic backing should the United States withdraw support.

Saudi analyst Suleiman al-Aqili said the meeting will seek to “lay out the rules of engagement and the foundations of an Arab alternative solution to the issue of displacement”.

Two of the governments invited, Qatar and Egypt, are mediators in the Gaza war.