Consortium News
Volume 30, Number 275 — Saturday, October 4, 2025
Trump Orders Israel to Stop Bombing Gaza
In a surprise move, Hamas has formally agreed to Trump’s peace plan and is prepared to release all hostages. In response, the U.S. president ordered Israel to cease fire. Will it listen?
Donald Trump. (Gage Skidmore, Flickr, CC BY-ND 2.0)
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By Joe Lauria
Special to Consortium News
U.S. President Donald Trump ordered Israel to “immediately” cease bombing Gaza on Friday after Hamas said it would agree to Trump’s peace plan and would release the Israeli hostages it still holds.
Trump wrote on social media:
“Based on the Statement just issued by Hamas, I believe they are ready for a lasting PEACE. Israel must immediately stop the bombing of Gaza, so that we can get the Hostages out safely and quickly! Right now, it’s far too dangerous to do that. We are already in discussions on details to be worked out. This is not about Gaza alone, this is about long sought PEACE in the Middle East.”
The ball has now passed from Hamas’ court to Israel’s. Giving up now would dash the plans of Benjamin Netanyahu’s extremist government to complete the Greater Israel vision of the country’s founders, which in the current instance is to drive the Palestinian people from Gaza and seize total control of the enclave.
Netanyahu can expect strong resistance from his cabinet to agree to Trump’s demand that it end military operations there.
Netanyahu’s office issued a statement early Saturday saying Israel was ready to put into effect the first stage of Trump’s plan regarding the hostages’ release. But it made no mention of negotiating the details with Hamas.
“We will continue to work in full cooperation with the President and his team in order to bring the war to an end in accordance with the principles set forth by Israel, which are consistent with President Trump’s vision,” the statement said.
On Saturday night, Netanyahu said Israel was “on the brink of a great achievement” to get the hostages released because of the pressure Israel and the U.S. had put on Hamas.
However, Trump’s plan seemed to be designed to fail to blame Hamas for rejecting it and allowing Israel to “finish the job” of genocide and ethnic cleansing. There is still a good chance that that will happen.
Despite Trump later saying Israel had halted the bombing, Al Jazeera reported that 70 Palestinians had been killed in the past 24 hours. Al Jazeera also reported that hardline Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir said he told Netanyahu he and his Otzma Yehudit Party they would leave the government if Hamas “remains in existence.”
Hamas said it was willing to enter into indirect talks to get the deal done. The militant group said it would agree to give up power to a new Palestinian governing body in which it wanted to play a part, specifically saying it was prepared “to hand over the administration of the Gaza Strip to a Palestinian body of independent technocrats, based on Palestinian national consensus and Arab and Islamic support.”
Hamas said it would give up its weapons if Israel ended its occupation and would release the 20 remaining hostages in exchange for 250 Palestinians serving life sentences in Israel and 1,750 who had been detained since the current hostilities began in October 2023.
Hamas has submitted the following response to mediators regarding a ceasefire deal.Qatar’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said it is working with the U.S. and Egypt to “complete discussions on the plan to ensure an end to the war.”
That there so many details yet to be worked out, especially the coordination of Hamas yielding authority and weapons with Israel’s withdrawal from Gaza, that there should be sufficient room for Israel’s hardliners to scotch the deal.
Where would that leave Trump and his demand that Israel stop bombing? It is a moment of high drama in the relationship of power between Israel and the United States.
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