Hamas was surprised by Trump’s embrace of its response, annoyed by his subsequent threat

Hamas is seeking clarity regarding the terms of Israel’s withdrawal from Gaza in the talks slated to take place in Egypt over the coming days, an Arab diplomat tells The Times of Israel.

While the White House published a map demarcating the three phases of Israel’s withdrawal from Gaza, the Arab mediators understand the image to be illustrative and are looking to get more clarity regarding the redeployment of Israeli troops in order to bring Hamas on board, the diplomat says.

Hamas was surprised by the extent to which US President Donald Trump embraced the group’s response to his proposal for ending the war, the Arab diplomat says.

However, the group’s abroad leadership was also “annoyed” by Trump’s latest threat earlier today to blow up the deal if Hamas didn’t move quickly to release the hostages, with the Arab diplomat maintaining that Hamas has already demonstrated goodwill by expressing willingness to release all remaining hostages without securing a more significant withdrawal of Israeli troops beforehand.

The map released with the Trump plan envisions an initial Israeli withdrawal in parallel to the hostage releases that keep Israel in control of the majority of the Strip.

The Arab diplomat explained that while Hamas will be able to deliver all living hostages within a short period, releasing the bodies of slain hostages will take more time, as the group doesn’t know where all of them are located. In some cases, those who knew the location of the bodies were killed in Israeli strikes. In some circumstances, the bodies are located in parts of Gaza that are currently under Israel’s control, so Hamas won’t be able to retrieve them, the Arab diplomat says.

Still, the Arab diplomat is optimistic about the chances for a hostage release in the coming days, as Hamas is no longer seeking a full withdrawal of Israeli troops, rather only assurances from the US that the war will permanently end and that there will eventually be a completion of Israel’s pull-out from Gaza.

Hamas is also hoping to secure a timeline for that withdrawal, given that the US plan states that the pull-out will be performance-based.

The Arab diplomat says that Trump’s ability to coax Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu into apologizing to Qatar for Israel’s botched strike targeting Hamas leaders in Doha, and then the White House’s subsequent publication of photographs of that apology call in the Oval Office, were critical in Washington being able to demonstrate that it could deliver the Israeli premier.