DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Hamas announced on Friday that it has agreed to certain aspects of U.S. President Donald Trump’s initiative to conclude the conflict in the Gaza Strip. This includes surrendering governing control and freeing all remaining hostages. However, Hamas stated that additional discussions among Palestinians are necessary for other components.

The announcement followed Trump’s ultimatum that Hamas must finalize an agreement by Sunday evening, or face intensified military action nearly two years following the Oct. 7 incursion into Israel. It remains uncertain how the U.S. and Israel will react to Hamas’s partial agreement.

Trump is eager to fulfill his commitment to terminate the war and facilitate the return of hostages before the second anniversary of the attack on Tuesday. While his peace proposal has gained acceptance from Israel and received global approval, influential mediators Egypt and Qatar have indicated that certain parts require further negotiation, without specifying which parts.

“An Agreement must be reached with Hamas by Sunday Evening at SIX (6) P.M., Washington, D.C. time,” Trump declared on social media Friday. “Every Country has signed on! If this LAST CHANCE agreement is not reached, all HELL, like no one has ever seen before, will break out against Hamas. THERE WILL BE PEACE IN THE MIDDLE EAST ONE WAY OR THE OTHER.”

Trump’s plan would end the fighting and return hostages

According to the plan, which Trump revealed earlier this week with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Hamas would release the remaining 48 hostages, over 20 of whom are believed alive, and relinquish power. Additionally, they would disarm.

In exchange, Israel would pause its military action, withdraw from extensive areas, release numerous Palestinian prisoners, and permit humanitarian aid, along with future reconstruction efforts. Plans to relocate the majority of Gaza’s population to other countries would also be abandoned.

The territory of some 2 million Palestinians would be placed under international governance, with Trump himself and former British Prime Minister Tony Blair overseeing it. The plan provides no path for eventual reunification with the Israeli-occupied West Bank in a future Palestinian state.

A Hamas official told The Associated Press this week that some elements of the plan are unacceptable and need to be amended, without elaborating. Palestinians long for an end to the war, but many view this and previous U.S. proposals as strongly favoring Israel.

US and Israel seek to pressure Hamas

Israel has sought to ramp up pressure on Hamas since ending an earlier ceasefire in March. It sealed the territory off from food, medicine and other goods for 2 1/2 months and has seized, flattened and largely depopulated large areas of the territory.

Experts determined that Gaza City had slid into famine shortly before Israel launched a major offensive aimed at occupying it. An estimated 400,000 people have fled the city in recent weeks, but hundreds of thousands more have stayed behind.

Olga Cherevko, a spokesperson for the U.N. humanitarian office, said she saw several displaced families staying in the parking lot of Shifa Hospital during a visit on Thursday.

“They are not able to move south because they just cannot afford it,” Cherevko told The Associated Press. “One of the families had three children and the woman was pregnant with her fourth. And there were many other vulnerable cases there, including elderly people and people with disabilities.”

Trump wrote that most of Hamas’ fighters are “surrounded and MILITARILY TRAPPED, just waiting for me to give the word, ‘GO,’ for their lives to be quickly extinguished. As for the rest, we know where and who you are, and you will be hunted down, and killed.”

Most of Hamas’ top leaders in Gaza and thousands of its fighters have already been killed, but it still has influence in areas not controlled by the Israeli military and launches sporadic attacks that have killed and wounded Israeli soldiers.

Hamas has held firm to its position that it will only release the remaining hostages — its sole bargaining chip and potential human shields — in exchange for a lasting ceasefire and an Israeli withdrawal. Netanyahu has rejected those terms, saying Hamas must surrender and disarm.

Second anniversary approaches

Thousands of Hamas-led militants stormed into Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, attacking army bases, farming communities and an outdoor music festival, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians. They abducted 251 others, most of them since released in ceasefires or other deals.

Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed more than 66,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which does not say how many were civilians or combatants. It says women and children make up around half the dead.

The ministry is part of the Hamas-run government, and the U.N. and many independent experts consider its figures to be the most reliable estimate of wartime casualties.

The offensive has displaced around 90% of Gaza’s population, often multiple times, and left much of the territory uninhabitable.

Both the Biden and Trump administrations have tried to end the fighting and bring back the hostages while providing extensive military and diplomatic support to Israel.