There's breaking news out of the Middle East on Friday afternoon. There are reports that Hamas has agreed to release all hostages (both the living and deceased) under the Gaza plan announced earlier this week by President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
This comes on the heels of President Trump giving the terrorist organization an ultimatum — underscoring this as an offer they really couldn't refuse.
READ MORE: President Trump to Hamas: Your Time is Up, Surrender - Now
As Ward Clark notes in the above piece, President Trump announced a 6:00 PM Sunday deadline for Hamas to agree to the terms of the proposed deal.
— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) October 3, 2025
Now, reportedly, Hamas has "agreed to release all Israeli hostages, alive or dead, under the terms of U.S. President Donald Trump's Gaza proposal, and signalled readiness to immediately enter mediated negotiations to discuss the details."
That "readiness to negotiate" bit at the end there is likely the catch.
BREAKING 🚨 🚨
— Yashar Ali 🐘 (@yashar) October 3, 2025
Hamas has released a new statement on the negotiations:
“…..Within this framework, and in order to achieve an end to the war and a complete withdrawal from the Strip, the movement declares its approval to release all occupation prisoners — both living and…
Here's more from the statement purportedly released by Hamas:
“…..Within this framework, and in order to achieve an end to the war and a complete withdrawal from the Strip, the movement declares its approval to release all occupation prisoners — both living and remains — according to the exchange formula included in President Trump’s proposal, provided that conditions on the ground are secured for the exchange process.
In this context, the movement affirms its readiness to immediately enter, through the mediators, into negotiations to discuss the details.
The movement also renews its approval to hand over the administration of the Gaza Strip to a Palestinian body of independents (technocrats) based on Palestinian national consensus and backed by Arab and Islamic support…..”
Place me firmly in the "believe it when I see it" camp, but if the hostages are indeed returned "according to the exchange formula included in President Trump's proposal," that will be a significant step in the right direction.
Update:
Following publication of this article, Yashar Ali removed the tweet citing the Hamas statement, as he explained, for fear people were reading more into it than warranted. The statement remains quoted above, but here is his tweet explaining the removal of his earlier tweet:
I have deleted this tweet because people are reading into it as definite good news and the beginning of the end and I don’t want my post leading to people getting their hopes up.
— Yashar Ali 🐘 (@yashar) October 3, 2025
Hamas has not agreed to some of the most critical parts of President Trump’s proposal.
Also a… pic.twitter.com/LcLMNIZx6i
Additional Update:
President Trump has now shared a copy of the Hamas statement to his Truth Social account:
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