News - Middle East: World leaders have welcomed Hamas’s preliminary agreement to participate in US-proposed talks aimed at ending Israel’s two-year genocidal war on Gaza.

The reactions poured in after Hamas submitted on Friday its response to the 20-point proposal forwarded by US President Donald Trump that claims to terminate the Israeli aggression.

The Gaza-based resistance group said it agrees to “release all Israeli captives, living and deceased,” and that it approves of “handing over the administration of the Gaza Strip to a Palestinian body of independents (technocrats) based on Palestinian national consensus and based on Arab and Islamic support.”

Hamas noted that it had come up with the response “based on national responsibility and out of concern for the constants, rights, and supreme interests of our people.”

Trump said Hamas’s response showed the resistance group was “ready for lasting peace,” and demanded that “Israel must immediately stop the bombing of Gaza.”

The US president later pledged in a brief video that all sides would be treated fairly in Gaza talks, hailing the movement’s agreement to free captives as a “special day.”

UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres welcomed Hamas’s statement, with spokesperson Stephane Dujarric saying the UN chief “urges all parties to seize the opportunity to bring the tragic conflict in Gaza to an end.”

UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer said Hamas’s “acceptance of the US peace plan is a significant step forward.”

He said the UK, alongside its partners, “stands ready to support further negotiations and to work towards sustainable peace for Israelis and Palestinians alike.”

Starmer urged all sides “to implement the agreement without delay.”

President Emmanuel Macron said France “will play its full part in line with its efforts at the United Nations, alongside the United States, Israelis and Palestinians, and all of its international partners.”

He underlined the need for an immediate ceasefire and humanitarian access, adding that Paris was closely monitoring developments.

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said peace in Gaza was “within reach” after the Palestinian resistance movement “agreed in principle” to Trump’s plan.

Merz claimed that the plan represented “the best chance for peace” in the longtime war and Germany “fully supports” Trump’s “call upon both sides.”

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni reaffirmed her “full support” for a proposed ceasefire plan in Gaza after Hamas issued a positive response.

“I follow with great attention the developments in Gaza and renew my full support for President Trump’s efforts to bring peace to the Middle East,” she wrote on X.

Meloni said the priority should be securing a ceasefire in Gaza, adding, “Italy remains ready to do its part.”

Ireland’s Prime Minister Micheal Martin said that Hamas’s response to the Gaza peace plan could lead to lasting peace.

“There is an opportunity now to create the circumstances for a lasting peace, and I urge all parties to take it,” Martin said in a statement on X.

Qatar’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Majed al Ansari said Doha “welcomes Hamas’s announcement of its approval in principle of President Trump’s proposal” and confirmed coordination with Egypt and Washington to continue mediation.

The spokesman praised the group’s willingness to release captives under the plan.

Egypt’s Foreign Ministry called Hamas’s response a “positive development” that reflected “the keenness of all Palestinian factions to spare the blood of the Palestinian people.”

The ministry said Cairo would work with Arab states, the US and European countries to achieve a permanent ceasefire.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan described Hamas’s response to the US president’s plan as “constructive and a significant step toward achieving lasting peace,” pressing Israel to end the genocide in Gaza.

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said Canberra “welcomes progress on President Trump’s plan to bring peace to Gaza,” urging Hamas to agree to the plan and release remaining captives “without delay.”

Colombian President Gustavo Petro said he agrees with Trump “this time,” as he demanded the “cessation of the genocide.”

Petro added that if Trump “moves his army to stop the oppression over Palestine, that army will be accompanied by the army of Colombia.”

Trump’s plan comes amid Washington’s unbridled military, intelligence, and political support for the Israeli genocide that has so far claimed the lives of more than 66,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, in the Gaza Strip.

The United States has also vetoed several United Nations resolutions aimed at bringing an end to the brutal military onslaught in Gaza.

According to a report by Axios, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has rejected what Trump had proposed, telling his team to stick to the plan they had before the US president made his Friday statement.

According to the report, Netanyahu instructed his team that Hamas’s reply should be treated as a rejection of the Trump so-called peace plan.

Source: Press TV