Reactions began to pour in as reports surfaced that Hamas had responded to the demands outlined by President Donald Trump in an effort to establish peace.
Hamas said Friday it would release all Israeli hostages, alive or dead, under the terms outlined in the Gaza proposal. They have not signed onto the plan, but it's a significant first step in the direction of ending the war.
Social media users reacted to the news.
"Hamas accepts Trump’s peace plan, offering to free all hostages and hand over power to an independent, technocratic Palestinian authority, but it opposes disarmament. Hardly surprising that they refuse the latter. It will be interesting to see how Trump responds," writer Pouyan K. Jan wrote on X.
"Take the deal and get the hostages home," Joel Braunold, Managing Director at Abraham Center and contributor to Lawfare, wrote on X.
"Following pressure and threats from President Trump, Hamas says it will agree to release all remaining Israeli hostages, both dead and alive. However, it wants to negotiate further on what the ceasefire will entail. In exchange for the hostages, Hamas would receive back hundreds of captured Gazan militants," right-wing journalist Andy Ngo wrote via X.
"Terrific news. Hamas has agreed to the peace deal and is going to be releasing the hostages! I think there is almost no chance Israel will abide by the deal. But I'd still rather have hostages back, Hamas not running Gaza and Israel having no excuse for continuing the genocide," Cenk Uygur, host of The Young Turks, wrote on X.
"Releasing the Hostages is the most import element of the Trump Peace Agreement," Phil Bryant, former Mississippi governor, wrote on X.
