Hamas warns second phase of Trump Gaza plan will be complex

Negotiations over the second phase of US President Donald Trump’s Gaza peace plan are expected to be highly challenging, a senior Hamas official said on Saturday.

“The second phase of the Trump plan, as it is clear from the points themselves, contains many complexities and difficulties,” Hossam Badran, a member of Hamas’s political bureau, told Agence France-Presse (AFP) in an interview.

Badran also dismissed proposals suggesting that Hamas members might leave the Gaza Strip under the plan. “Talk about expelling Palestinians, whether they're Hamas members or not, from their land is absurd and nonsense,” he said.

The Hamas official clarified that the group will not participate in the formal signing of the peace deal in Egypt. “The matter of the official signing -- we will not be involved,” Badran stated, noting that the organization “acted principally through... Qatari and Egyptian mediators” during ceasefire negotiations.

While expressing hope that the agreement holds, Badran warned that Hamas is prepared to resume hostilities if the deal collapses. “We hope that we will not return to (war), but our Palestinian people and the resistance force will undoubtedly confront and use all their capabilities to repel this aggression if this battle is imposed,” he said.