Residents of Gaza have reacted with surprise after U.S. President Donald Trump said he welcomed Hamas’s response to his peace plan for the territory.
Hundreds of Palestinians have written to me on social media and messaging apps with questions such as: “Has the war ended?” and “Is this a dream or reality?”
The pace of developments overnight has left many people confused about what might happen next.
Hamas’s statement, believed to have been prepared with the help of mediators, did not reject the plan outright but offered a cautious “yes.”
Hamas accepted Trump’s conditions for the release of Israeli hostages and the idea that Gaza’s governance be handed over to Palestinian technocrats, but gave no clear response to many other elements of the 20-point plan.
According to many Palestinians, it was a calculated response that shifted the pressure back onto Israel. Shortly after its publication, Trump wrote on social media that he believed Hamas was ready for peace and urged Israel to stop its bombardments in Gaza.
Reactions among Palestinians in the territory ranged from hope to deep skepticism.
Some fear that Hamas may have fallen into a trap and that Israel will release the hostages only to resume the war later.
Others believe that a historic opportunity has opened to finally end two years of conflict.
“I advise patience,” Ibrahim Fares told the BBC. “Don’t let yourselves get carried away by optimism. There will be rounds of negotiations over the details. The devil always hides in the details,” he added. “Look at Lebanon — even today there are displaced people and bombings there.”
Mahmoud Daher noted on Facebook that Hamas’s response was unusually direct.
“This time it was a ‘yes’ without the usual ‘but’ immediately after it,” he wrote. “Yes to the release of prisoners according to Trump’s formula, yes to ending the war and the withdrawal, yes to handing over power to a Palestinian authority. The ‘buts’ came only later. Hamas even flattered Trump’s ego with words of praise.”
But not everyone is convinced.
Gaza activist and longtime Hamas critic Khalil Abu Shammala said the decision was about the movement’s survival.
“They’ll call it wisdom or putting the people first. But the truth is, it’s about Hamas staying in power. I even doubt they wrote the statement themselves — it was too clever.”
For now, Palestinians remain uncertain, waiting to see whether the words on paper will truly be enough to bring the war to an end.
