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The US leader Donald Trump has set a ultimatum to Hamas, demanding them to agree to a proposed ceasefire agreement for the Gaza region otherwise confront severe repercussions.

Through a post on his Truth Social account on Friday, the President declared that an understanding must be reached by Sunday evening (10 PM GMT) on Sunday.

The proposed plan calls for an immediate halt to fighting and the release within a short period of 20 living Israel captives captured by the group—as well as the bodies of hostages presumed to be deceased—for a large number of imprisoned Palestinians.

Regional intermediaries are understood to be urging Hamas for a favorable answer to the offer, but a prominent Hamas figure has indicated that the militant group is probable to refuse it.

"If this FINAL settlement is not secured, severe retaliation, as nobody has ever seen, will break out against Hamas. THERE WILL BE PEACE IN THE AREA ONE WAY OR THE OTHER," Trump stated in the social media update.

Mediators have made contact with the head of the group's combat unit in Gaza, who has suggested that he is opposed to the latest US ceasefire proposal, based on reports.

It is thought that a portion of the group's political wing in the Gulf state are open to agreeing to the agreement with adjustments—however have realized their leverage restricted as they lack authority over the detainees held by the organization.

An additional obstacle for a number of in Hamas is that the plan demands them to surrender each and every the captives over the first short window of the truce—surrendering their only bargaining chip.

There are believed to be forty-eight hostages currently being detained in the Palestinian territory by the militant faction, just 20 of whom are estimated to be surviving.

Israel's defense forces began a operation in Gaza in reaction to the Hamas-led attack on the region on 7 October 2023, in which approximately 1,200 people were slain and hundreds others were captured.

A minimum of sixty-six thousand two hundred eighty-eight residents have been killed in Israel's operations in the territory since then, according to the territory's Hamas-controlled medical office.