Breaking News from Pod Save America - BREAKING: Hamas Responds to Trump's Gaza Peace Plan

Episode Date: October 3, 2025

Tommy hops on with Matt Duss of the Center for International Policy to break down Hamas’s positive–if conditional–response to Trump’s 20-point peace plan for ending the war in Gaza, and Trump���s response to their response. What might next steps look like? And how will Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu react? Get 50% off your new system. Visit https://simplisafe.com/crooked. There’s no safe like SimpliSafe®. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Okay, we got some breaking news here. Hamas just responded to the peace plan put forward by President Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu earlier this week. The headline is that Hamas has agreed to release all of the Israeli hostages in Gaza if the hostage release leads to an end to the war and to a full Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip. Hamas says they want to negotiate the details. Hamas also says they're willing to, quote, hand over the administration of the Gaza Strip to a Palestinian body composed of independent technocrats based on Palestinian National Conspirates. census and supported by Arab and Islamic backing. So that seems to broadly respond to Trump proposal of this transitional government led by technocrats, although he is the chairman of the board,

along with Tony Blair, and that's really weird. And then basically Hamas refers to the rest of the plan as matters that, quote, shall be discussed within a unified Palestinian national framework in which Hamas will participate and contribute with full responsibility, which just sort of ignores the remainder of the Trump and Netanyahu plan and says, yeah, yeah, yeah, we'll talk. about it. So this Hamas statement was released. Moments later, President Trump released a statement about it on Truth Social, which I'll read verbatim. Based on the statement just issued by Hamas, I believe they are ready for lasting peace. Israel must immediately stop the bombing of Gaza so that we can get the hostages out safely and quickly. Right now, it's far too dangerous to do that. We are already

in discussions on details to be worked out. This is not about Gaza alone. This is about long-sought peace in the Middle East. Wow. I'm here with my friend Matt Duss. Matt, you tweeted this response was a yes, but I had a similar reaction. It seems like Hamas is trying to buy some time, maybe look reasonable, flattered Trump, and then maybe in success, see if they can divide Trump in Netanyahu in terms of how they respond to this proposal because they know Trump wants a Nobel Peace Prize. Netanyahu wants to prolong the war. This Trump statement, though, kind of threw me for a loop.

I'm shocked that he was quite so unequivocally positive, but what's your initial reaction? Thanks, Tommy. Yeah, like you, I'm not in the practice of rejoicing at statements from President Donald Trump. I'm rejoicing at this statement. I mean, if he is welcoming this and ready to move forward on a ceasefire as it clearly seems he is, this is a great thing. We desperately need this ceasefire. So if he is ready to accept Hamas's yes, but as a yes, and go forward and talk about the details,

that is fantastic. As I said in the tweet you referenced, yes, I mean, both sides have responded. to Trump's plan with yes but. This is kind of something we've seen consistently in U.S. brokered negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians going back many years. But as is usually the case, the Israelis are much better at getting their butts incorporated

into the actual proposal before they are presented to the Palestinian side. That is what we saw here. There was reporting about this that Trump presented a plan. Netanyahu had a lot of caveats. And because obviously the Israeli government has much closer relations with the U.S. government than the Palestinians, especially with Hamas. He was able to get his concerns and his priorities incorporated into the text that was eventually presented to Hamas. To the great outrage, I would add, of a number of Arab states who had seen the previous version and were upset that Netanyahu was successfully doing that.

However, that's in the past. What we have now is Trump recognizing that Hamas has accepted the basic premise of the proposal. releasing the hostages and ready to move forward to talk about the details. The details are important. But I think what's important right now is to say, yes, Trump has accepted this as a yes. Yeah, I mean, look, to really fully negotiate the details of all 20 points of that proposal would take months, if not years. I mean, anyone who worked on, you know, sort of peace talks in Northern Ireland or in the Balkans knows how important those details are. because in part those details speak to things like assurances so that both sides have assurances or someone to guarantee that their mortal enemy will follow through with what they agreed to do.

But I'm with you. Like I saw a Trump statement come out and I was like, overjoyed because I want nothing more than a ceasefire in Gaza for eight trucks to flow in, for some relief for these people who have just been barreded for two years now. And as you noted, I mean, I was worried because this thing was fully negotiated by these Israelis and to Palestinians and then sent to Hamas who were initially given 72 hours to respond. And I think earlier today, Trump told them that Hamas that they had until Sunday at 6 p.m. And until he would once again, what, like unleash hell and fury. I forget what the exact phrasing was, but it was something very ominous. Yeah.

And he's shown, you know, with Iran, whether or not that was his intention. I think he was, you know, he was dragged into that. Netanyahu, I think, exploited that ultimatum to take advantage. And I think, frankly, Hamas probably understood that here. But they have, you know, they have, I think, quite rightly responded positively. They understand that Donald Trump wants an achievement here. So they have said yes. And they said, you know, yes, we want to end the war.

Which, by the way, as you know, Hamas has been willing to negotiate an end to the war since very early on after October 7th. It is Netanyahu who has wanted to prolong the war. He undermined President Biden's efforts to get a real ceasefire. But here we are. So the question is, what will Donald Trump do now? Having responded positively to Hamas' response, we're in a moment where we could really see an end to this war, a return of the hostages, a stop to the bombing, a massive influx of humanitarian aid. And I think that's a great thing. And one thing I will add here is one thing that I noted and you did as well from Trump's plan is that he has walked back from this ridiculous proposal to remove Gazans from Gaza.

And, you know, we shouldn't have to recognize this as a positive thing. It should have never had been proposed in the first place. But here we are, that the people of Gaza will stay in Gaza. It will be rebuilt. They will receive aid. And even, you know, proposed in at least in Trump's version, an idea that we need to get. get back and provide, you know, a path to a Palestinian state. This is, this is a big deal. Now, we shouldn't pretend that Netanyahu accepts any of this. Of course he doesn't. Part of his caveats

were kind of slowing the timeline for Israeli withdrawal, kind of creating lots of traps along the way that Netanyahu could withdraw from the agreement, as he has in previous agreements, most recently the January ceasefire, which he abrogated and returned to war, you know, violating his own commitments. But this is a positive moment, and we don't get those a lot in this situation. So let's pause on that. Amen to that.

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provisions to free all the remaining Israeli hostages, both alive and dead in exchange for the release of Palestinian prisoners being held by Israel. It had provisions to withdraw the idea. have troops to certain predetermined lines in the Gaza Strip. Under the full terms of this deal, Hamas basically has to disarm, de-radicalize, have no future role in the government or governance of Hamas. It basically ceased to exist. So that, to me, seems like a bit of a non-starter for them. We'll see.

Israel also agreed, as you said, not to ethically cleanse the Gaza Strip, which is a war crime. We should not have. We agree not to war crimes. Thank you very much. You've already agreed to that, by the way, when you signed on to those conventions. Yeah. But also they agreed not to occupy or annex Gaza as part of this deal. Longer term, Gaza is supposed to be governed by a temporary transitional governance structure

that's chaired by Donald Trump. And again, Tony Blair for some strange reason. As you mentioned, points 19 and 20 of the 20-point plan kind of allude to the possible creation of a Palestinian state if and only if the Palestinians jump through an endless series of hurdles to get there. So, Matt, I think both of us laid it on the, this is a yes-but response from both sides. What does it look like now, do you think, with both sides agree, yes, but does this just launch us back into talks without actually getting the hostages out in the near term? How do you see this going?

Well, I think in the immediate term, the release of the hostages, I believe there are 48, 20 believed to be alive. There's the issue that Hamas may not know where all of them are. Yes. So there's complications there. And we should explain that. It could be because Hamas lost track of people during. the conflict during bombardment, whatnot, people are dead that the Israelis are not aware of being dead, or that other groups like Palestinian Islamic jihad or local gangs in Gaza are holding

hostages and are unwilling to be a party to this deal. Right. So there's complications there. And hopefully, you know, Trump and his administration will acknowledge that. I mean, I feel like they do have some smart people working on this. But it really comes down to, does Trump want a win here? here. And I think that is, it seems that Hamas has understood that. And Qatar clearly, who is in, you know, has a good relationship with Trump, given the commitment that the Trump administration made, we can, you know, you guys talked about that. But like, there are, there are players here beyond Israel, you know, Netanyahu wants what he wants. We know what Netanyahu wants. He wants the war to continue. But there are others who are, who apparently have gotten to Trump to say, no, it's actually

better for you. It's better for the United States to end this war. So that's where he's going. But yes, there's a lot of details here to be worked out just on the hostages before we even get to the broader governance and reconstruction of Gaza. And these are important. But yeah, I think there's a few things. I mean, Hamas, as far as I can tell, has wanted to stop governing Gaza for a long time. This is not a huge, like, sacrifice for Hamas. I think the key question here was who would govern in their place. And Netanyahu has constantly opposed the idea of the Palestinian authority coming back because he opposes Palestinian self-determination. He opposes a Palestinian state, as he has said repeatedly. He would much prefer, you know, others take control of Gaza who are not the

Palestinians. But clearly in at least Trump's version of the proposal, eventually the Palestinian Authority will return. Hamas, having, you know, agreed that we will not play a role officially in the governance of Gaza. There will be unaffiliated technocrats. This reflects plans that have been proposed for Gaza even before October 7. But, you know, this idea that we're just going to erase Hamas, were going to completely get rid of them was always unrealistic. Hamas is a political movement. That's not to defend their terrorism or their violence, certainly not their violence in October 7, which was atrocious.

But the key thing here is that Hamas is a part of Palestinian politics. So even if they are not part of the government, they are going to continue to be part of the kind of larger Palestinian politics. The question is, are we able to develop a situation in which that politics is nonviolent? And the way you do that is to offer an actual horizon for Palestinian liberation, for Palestinian self-determination. And I did see some possible, you know, some possible lights at the end of the tunnel in the Trump proposal on that. Yeah, look, the light is that he desperately wants a Nobel Peace Prize. And if he gets this deal done, I will nominate him myself.

I will fly to Norway and I will present those five technocratic nerds over there with whatever paperwork you need to do. I mean, look, you're right. In BB Netanyahu's vision, right, the Gaza will be maybe governed by Tony Blair, maybe Risi Sunak can get in there. We'll grab Nick Clegg. You know, it's like, anyone but a Palestinian will be running the show. I guess my brain is sort of spinning as we talk. Like the rock in the hard place, of course, now for Netanyahu is Donald Trump wants a deal,

but his right-wing ministers, the Itimar Ben-Gavirs, well, frankly, a big chunk of of them, Smotrich will collapse the government potentially if he goes through with this deal. And so what to do if you're Bibi Netanyahu? I mean, his move to date has been to string out the talks and buy time. Do we worry that that's what happened here? I mean, clearly that's part of his goal. I mean, yes, Netanyahu's priority is, of course, staying out of jail. But it's also his own political career, his own political legacy, staying in power. He very much sees the security of the state of Israel as completely inseparable from his own political, you know, success. That's a problem in and of itself. I think the question here is, you know, do his right-wing,

you know, partners really bolt the government and collapse it? But also, as I've heard from, you know, when I was in Israel earlier this year, if he's ready to go for a deal, are there others who could step in and help him form a coalition to stay in power and avoid jail to continue to go forward. Listen, Benjamin Netanyahu continuing in power as prime minister is certainly not my ideal situation. It's not the ideal situation, I think, for many, many Israelis. But it is potentially something that could help, you know, move this deal forward. Yeah, I mean, look, maybe Netanyahu decides, okay, well, I need Trump more than I need to be in this government, and if the government collapses, he runs again and he has Trump's full backing because he

endorses this plan. And we know that the majority of Israelis want a deal to get the hostages back and end the war. It was this extreme right wing of his coalition that was preventing this from happening. That's right. Wow, pretty momentous day, Matt. Anything else you think is worth talking about of this deal or the Trump statement? No, I think we just, you know, we've seen the response from Hamas. We've seen Trump's positive response to their response. We have not. We have not. yet seeing Netanyahu's response. So we're kind of waiting on that. And of course, you know, we'll wait and see, you know, what provocations Netanyahu might, might undertake to kind of...

Bombing around again, baby. Yeah, you know, yeah, any number of things. I mean, there's a whole bunch of countries he hasn't bombed here. Yeah. So... It's shrinking list, but yeah. Yes. But that's what we'll be watching. But yes, as you noted, we don't get positive news all that much on this, on this issue. So let's just pause on this from a minute. Yeah, celebrate it for a second. Matt does. Vice President at the Center for International Policy.

Matt, where can people find your work? Well, they can see me at CIP's website. They can track me on Twitter at Matt Duss, at Matt Duss, and just, you know, I don't know, Google me. I'm also a co-host of the undiplomatic podcast with my good friend Van Jackson. So thanks a lot. Excellent podcast. Well, listen, thank you for jumping on last minute. I literally texted Matt.

I was like, can you talk in 10 minutes about this thing? And we haven't even seen Trump's response. But wow, momentous news today. Five o'clock on a Friday. I'm here for you, I love it, baby. All right, time to grab a cocktail. I appreciate it, buddy.

Talk to you, Sid. All right, thanks for. Thank you for watching this breaking news episode of Pod Save the World here on YouTube. Please subscribe to Pod Save the World here on YouTube. We're making lots of content like this. Also, we are trying to build a progressive media company here, C crooked media. If you haven't noticed when you search for political news or foreign policy news on YouTube, you find lots of right-wing garbage.

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