Trump gives Hamas ‘three or four days’ to respond to Gaza peace plan or face ‘a very sad end’ – as it happened | Gaza

• Donald Trump has said Hamas has “three or four days” to respond to his Gaza plan or face the consequences. Speaking to reporters as he left the White House on Tuesday, Trump said Israeli and Arab leaders had accepted the proposal and “we’re just waiting for Hamas”.

• The United Nations secretary general, António Guterres, called on Tuesday for “all parties” to commit to the peace plan for Gaza presented by the US president, Donald Trump, a spokesperson said. “It is now crucial that all parties commit to an agreement and its implementation … he once again reiterates his call for an immediate and permanent ceasefire,” Farhan Haq, a spokesperson for Guterres, said in a statement.

• Hamas has said it will review the outline of the Gaza peace plan presented by Donald Trump in Washington yesterday, as leaders across the Middle East and elsewhere voiced support for the proposal, which comes after almost two years of relentless violence. In Israel, media and politicians broadly welcomed Benjamin Netanyahu’s announcement, made at a joint press conference with Trump, that he supported the 20-point plan, which meets many of Israel’s principal demands.

• If Palestinian militants Hamas reject US president Donald Trump’s Gaza peace plan Israel will “finish the job” and bring home all the remaining hostages, Israel’s UN ambassador Danny Danon said on Tuesday. “If they reject the plan, Israel will finish the job, either the easy way or the hard way. Their return cannot wait. This is not only a road map to bring them back. It is also a plan to end the tyranny of terror that was unleashed on 7 October,” Danon told an event at the UN.

• The Palestinian health ministry in Gaza said on Telegram that the death toll from Israel’s military campaign has risen to 66,097 deaths and 168,536 injuries since 7 October 2023. It said 42 deaths and 190 injuries were recorded in the past 24 hours, though victims remain under rubble and in streets that emergency crews have been unable to reach.

• Qatar has said it had received clear security assurances from the US and a commitment from Israel not to attack it again, after a call a day earlier between Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu. Foreign ministry spokesperson Majed al-Ansari told a press conference the pledges came “under the guarantee of the US president” and that Doha was “content with the security assurances” it had been given after attacks by Israel on Qatar, according to AFP.

• Armed militia and gangs supported by Israel are seizing control of parts of Gaza, exacerbating its humanitarian crisis and potentially threatening any efforts to bring order if US president Donald Trump’s plan for Gaza takes hold. The Israeli military and security services have for several months been arming and training groups in Gaza as local auxiliary forces and as an alternative to Hamas, but the strategy appears to have gathered momentum in recent weeks.

• The Spanish government, which has been one of the most vociferous European critics of Israel’s Gaza offensive, has welcomed the plan and urged both sides to commit to ending the violence. “Spain calls for every negotiating effort to end the war and reiterates its demand for a permanent ceasefire, the release of all hostages, and the massive entry of humanitarian aid to halt the suffering that has already lasted too long,” the foreign ministry said in a statement on Tuesday morning.

• But Spain’s leftwing labour minister and deputy prime minister, Yolanda Díaz, has blasted Trump’s plan in a video posted on Bluesky. “Trump and Netanyahu’s plan for Palestine isn’t a peace plan; it’s an imposition. It’s an ultimatum, dressed up as an agreement, which comes without any guarantees and without any timeframe for a Palestinian state,” she said.

• The Kremlin has said it supported Donald Trump’s 20-point plan to end the war in Gaza. “Russia always supports and welcomes any efforts by President Trump aimed at ending this ongoing tragedy,” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters, including AFP, on a daily briefing call.

Peter Beaumont

The emergence of Tony Blair as a potential Gaza interim consul and member of Donald Trump’s “board of peace” marks his latest reinvention as a would-be power broker in the Middle East.

As a key architect of the disastrous invasion of Iraq, a promoter of a simplistic interpretation of Islamist extremism as the world’s main security challenge and a figure who has been accused of intertwining his own business interests with his political advocacy, he is in some ways a perfect fit for the new Trump era.

What is less clear is what the former UK prime minister can meaningfully bring to one of the world’s most intractable problems, outside overarching self-belief.

Blair’s role as an architect of the Good Friday agreement ending the Troubles in Northern Ireland is much mentioned, but his track record in the Middle East is far more controversial.

His years in Jerusalem working for the Quartet on the Middle East – representing the UN, EU, US and Russia – were viewed at best as a moderate success by diplomats while Palestinians saw him as an impediment to their efforts to advance statehood.

He was appointed with the backing of the then US president, George Bush, and the former UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon, but the EU and Russia were less enthusiastic. Blair’s role from the beginning was somewhat toothless, focused largely on economic development, and Palestinian officials complained he was more sympathetic to Israel.

The United Nations secretary general, António Guterres, called on Tuesday for “all parties” to commit to the peace plan for Gaza presented by the US president, Donald Trump, a spokesperson said.

“It is now crucial that all parties commit to an agreement and its implementation … he once again reiterates his call for an immediate and permanent ceasefire,” Farhan Haq, a spokesperson for Guterres, said in a statement.

Armed militia and gangs supported by Israel are seizing control of parts of Gaza, exacerbating its humanitarian crisis and potentially threatening any efforts to bring order if US president Donald Trump’s plan for Gaza takes hold.

The Israeli military and security services have for several months been arming and training groups in Gaza as local auxiliary forces and as an alternative to Hamas, but the strategy appears to have gathered momentum in recent weeks.

The so-called Popular Forces, under a commander called Yasser abu Shabab, have been operating in the south of the territory for several months, coordinating closely with Israeli forces around controversial aid distributions sites run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, an opaque US- and Israel-backed private organisation.

Now up to a dozen new militia have now emerged across much of Gaza, in addition to the Popular Forces.

“People fear Hamas here, and Hamas was always betting that there won’t be any alternative to replace them in Gaza, but now I’m telling you, today, there is an alternative force to Hamas. It could be me or Abu Shabab or anyone else, but alternatives today exist,” said Hossam al-Astal, the leader of one newly formed force that is operating in the area of Khan Younis, the southern Gaza City.

“I’m sorry, I will work with the devil himself if it helps me to protect my city. [Hamas] must leave Gaza,” Al-Astal told the Guardian last week.

The proliferation of armed militia in Gaza is causing further problems for aid organisations already struggling with Israeli restrictions and massive logistic obstacles.

Starmer welcomes Donald Trump’s peace proposal in Gaza

Andrew Sparrow

Giving the keynote speech at the Labour party conference in Liverpool, UK prime minster Keir Starmer said he welcomes the “US initiative to bring peace” to the Middle East:

I strongly support efforts to end the fighting, release every hostage and urgently scale up aid into Gaza.

All sides must now come together to bring this initiative into reality, because we must restart the hope of a two-state solution, a safe and secure Israel alongside the long promised Palestinian state, a state that this country now recognises.

Donald Trump has said Hamas has “three or four days” to respond to his Gaza plan or face the consequences.

Speaking to reporters as he left the White House on Tuesday, Trump said Israeli and Arab leaders had accepted the proposal and “we’re just waiting for Hamas”.

Hamas is either going to be doing it or not, and if it’s not, it’s going to be a very sad end.

Asked if there was room for negotiations, Trump replied: “Not much.”

Jason Burke

Hamas has said it will review the outline of the Gaza peace plan presented by Donald Trump in Washington yesterday, as leaders across the Middle East and elsewhere voiced support for the proposal, which comes after almost two years of relentless violence.

In Israel, media and politicians broadly welcomed Benjamin Netanyahu’s announcement, made at a joint press conference with Trump, that he supported the 20-point plan, which meets many of Israel’s principal demands.

Hamas officials said they would discuss the proposal internally and with other Palestinian factions before responding.

A Hamas source told AFP news agency that the group had “begun a series of consultations within its political and military leaderships, both inside Palestine and abroad”, which would “take several days due to the complexities of communication among leadership members and movements”.

The 20-point plan calls for the disarmament of Hamas and bans it from any future political role in Gaza. It requires the militant Islamist organisation to release the 48 Israeli hostages it still holds – of whom fewer than half are thought still to be alive – within 72 hours of a ceasefire coming into effect, but offers the gradual withdrawal of Israeli military forces to a buffer zone along the perimeter and a surge in humanitarian aid, desperately needed by the 2.3 million inhabitants of the devastated territory.

It also requires Israel to release more than 1,000 Palestinian prisoners, including many serving life sentences.