Trump threatens Hamas with "total annihilation" if it insists on ruling Gaza
Pressure on the Islamist group intensifies as negotiating delegations arrive in Egypt to resume talks.
BarcelonaRepresentatives from Israel, Hamas, the United States, and Qatar are scheduled to travel to Egypt between Sunday and Monday to try to approve and sign the twenty-point peace plan proposed by US President Donald Trump. Negotiations will resume in Sharm el-Sheikh tomorrow, Monday, the very day before the second anniversary of the war in Gaza and while they Israeli bombings in the Strip continue, despite Israel's announcement yesterday of a halt in the offensive. This Sunday alone, at least nineteen Palestinians died in Israeli attacks on Gaza, and the total number of Palestinian victims in these two years now amounts to 67,139 dead and 169,583 wounded.
Hamas, which has shown itself open to releasing all the hostages and discussing the details of Trump's plan, comes to this meeting under more pressure than ever. Not only for the support that Trump's plan has received from almost all the world's governments, but because of the forceful threats the US president launched this Sunday. In a text message interview on CNN, a journalist asked Trump "what would happen if Hamas insists on holding on to power in Gaza," and the president responded forcefully: "Total annihilation."
The new threat follows the warning he made yesterday, Saturday. Trump when he told Hamas that he was not willing to "tolerate any delay" and that it was necessary to "move quickly" to free the hostages and move forward with his peace plan "or all will be lost." This Sunday, Netanyahu also warned Hamas that it "cannot partially accept" the peace plan promoted by Trump but "must accept it completely." Some of the plan's points are difficult for Hamas to swallow due to their vagueness, such as the one that provides for the withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza, not when all the hostages are released, but in an undetermined future, when Gaza "is adequately protected from any reactivation of the terrorist threat." But for Netanyahu himself, the document also has some points that will be difficult for his far-right government partners to accept, such as the one that opens the door to a future Palestinian state.
"Do not feed the crocodile because it will come looking for you," Netanyahu told the European leaders and again criticized the movement of many countries to recognize the Palestinian state, whom he accused of "giving in to Hamas terrorism." In an interview with Euronews, he stressed that it is now "Hamas's responsibility" to accept the agreement proposed by the United States.
Merz speaks with Trump and Netanyahu
Some of these European leaders, in turn, have also intensified their diplomatic efforts to ensure Trump's plan is successful. Specifically, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz spoke by phone this Sunday with both Netanyahu and Trump. He asked Netanyahu to ensure that the talks, which begin tomorrow in Egypt, "quickly achieve an agreement" that would allow for the establishment of a ceasefire, the release of hostages, and the re-entry of humanitarian aid to Gaza, in addition to the disarmament of Hamas. Merz fully supports Trump's plan, and his administration says it is fully committed. German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul traveled to Qatar this Sunday to hold talks with one of the most important mediators in the conflict between Israel and Hamas. Qatar was the only government that requested "negotiation" of some of the points of Trump's plan before signing it. After speaking with Netanyahu, Merz also called Donald Trump. "They agreed that a quick agreement is needed in the negotiations in Egypt," his spokesperson said of the call.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio wanted to make it clear that the negotiations that begin tomorrow in Sharm el-Sheikh "cannot take weeks, or even several days." "We want to see how [the approval of Trump's plan] happens very quickly," he said in an interview on NBC News. This same Friday, October 10, the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize will be announced., a factor that many analysts believe is also behind Trump's rush to reach an agreement on Gaza. "We will know very quickly if Hamas is serious or not by how these technical talks go in terms of logistics," Rubio warned.
Meanwhile, on the ground, the war continues unabated. Although yesterday, Saturday, the Israeli army said it had given the order to push forward with the first phase of the US plan and to halt the offensive on Gaza City, seventy deaths were recorded that same day, forty-seven in Gaza City, and this Sunday at least another nineteen deaths were added across Gaza, five of them in the capital. In one of Saturday's attacks on the suburb of Tuffah, seventeen people were killed, including Ameer, a six-year-old boy. The child's father, Shadi Mansour, showed his body to a Reuters journalist and asked: "Is he a member of the resistance? Is he a fighter? The Israeli army's targets are children."
Ahmed Asad, a Palestinian displaced in central Gaza, says he was hopeful when he heard the news of Trump's plan, but that "unfortunately, there's no translation of anything on the ground, no change in the situation."
