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** How Hamas Is Planning to Deceive the Trump Administration ([link removed])
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by Khaled Abu Toameh • November 13, 2025 at 5:30 am
* According to these [Hamas] officials, Hamas only agreed to the first phase of the Trump plan, which calls for Israel to suspend military operations and release Palestinian prisoners, and for Hamas to return all Israeli hostages, dead and alive, within 72 hours. It has been weeks, and Hamas has not yet fulfilled that phase-one obligation.
* What about the part in the Trump plan that talks about the demilitarization of the Gaza Strip and the deployment of an "International Stabilization Force" as a "long-term security solution?"
* Hamas insists that these issues are "up for negotiation" but that it never agreed to demilitarization or the presence of international experts and security forces in the Gaza Strip.
* Hamas official Osama Hamdan affirmed on November 10 that his group did not accept all the 20 points of Trump's plan.
* By November 12, the terror group had not yet returned the remains of four hostages, although Israel suspended its military activities and released hundreds of Palestinian prisoners.
* By stating that it needs to launch "negotiations and discussions" about the implementation of the rest of Trump's plan, Hamas is clearly seeking to win as much time as ever to enable it to maintain a grip on the Gaza Strip. As far as Hamas is concerned, the longer the negotiations continue, the better.
* The Hamas official dismissed outright the deployment of international forces in the Gaza Strip.
* Hamdan also repeated Hamas's refusal to lay down its weapons in accordance with the Trump plan. The weapons of the Palestinian terror groups, he emphasized, will be handed only to the government of a future Palestinian state after its establishment: "When there's a Palestinian state capable of protecting its people, it's natural that the weapons would be handed over to that state. Until then, resistance is a right that we cannot give up. This issue has not been discussed until now with the mediators or with the Americans."
* This statement by the Hamas official contradicts what Witkoff recently said: "Hamas has always indicated they would disarm. They've said so – they said it to us directly during that famous meeting that Jared [Kushner] had with them."
* It is crucial to pay attention to what Hamas leaders are telling their people in Arabic.... For Hamas, the Trump plan is nothing but a temporary ceasefire that would enable it to wait out the Trump administration, get back on its feet to rule Gaza again, and resume its Jihad (holy war) to destroy Israel.

Hamas official Osama Hamdan affirmed on November 10 that his group did not accept all the 20 points of Trump's plan. In a podcast interview, Hamdan said that Hamas had accepted only the first phase of Trump's plan, which calls for Israel to suspend military operations and release Palestinian prisoners, and for Hamas to return all Israeli hostages, dead and alive, within 72 hours. It has been weeks, and Hamas has not yet fulfilled that phase-one obligation. Pictured: Senior Hamas official Osama Hamdan on the podcast, on November 10, 2025. (Image source: MEMRI)

Did Hamas lie to US President Donald J. Trump when it said that it had accepted his 20-point plan for ending its war against Israel in the Gaza Strip? Or is the terror group simply trying to buy time to reassert control over the Gaza Strip and prepare for more terror attacks against Israel? Yes and yes. Hamas lied. Hamas is trying to gain time by arguing that it needs to engage in negotiations and discussions about the implementation of most parts of the Trump plan.

Since the ceasefire in the Gaza Strip went into effect in early October, Hamas officials have repeatedly emphasized that they did not accept all the points mentioned in the Trump plan.

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