Palestinians in Gaza have spent almost two years longing for an end to the war that has destroyed their communities and killed tens of thousands of their neighbours. Many say their best hope yet is the latest cease-fire plan proposed by the US — if only Hamas would accept it.

"Hamas must say yes to this offer — we have been through hell already,” said Mahmoud Bolbol, 43, a construction worker who has remained in Gaza City with his six children in the battered shell of their home throughout the war.

President Trump unveiled the proposal while meeting with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel at the White House on Monday. Trump said that if Hamas did not accept its terms, he would give Israel the green light to “finish the job” of destroying the armed group.

Hamas has not yet given its response to the proposal, but interviews with Palestinians in Gaza on Wednesday suggested widespread public support for the plan. It calls for an immediate end to a war that has brought immense civilian suffering.

For the past two days, Bolbol said, his neighbours have talked about almost nothing but the cease-fire proposal. If Hamas rejects it, he said, his family would finally leave Gaza City and head for what he hoped would be the relative safety of the enclave’s south.

“Hamas needs to understand: Enough is enough,” Bolbol said. Most Gazans are not members of the group, he added, “so why drag us into this?”

The plan requires Hamas to release all of the remaining hostages it seized during the October 7, 2023, attack on southern Israel within 72 hours of the proposal going into effect. That includes an estimated 20 abductees believed to be still alive and the bodies of about 25 others.

In exchange, Israel would release about 250 Palestinian prisoners serving life sentences in Israel, an additional 1,700 Gazans detained during the war and the remains of 15 dead Gazan prisoners for each Israeli hostage whose body is returned.

But the proposal contains several elements that Hamas has said are unacceptable.

Those include a ban on the group exercising future power in Gaza, a requirement that it disarm and the establishment of a transitional government overseen by foreign officials, including Trump and Tony Blair, the former British Prime Minister.

The proposal unveiled on Monday sent a rare flash of hope through Gaza, people said in interviews. But others are less hopeful.

Some people said the terms of the proposal made them doubt that Hamas would agree. Others said their doubts grew from something more basic and bitter: They simply did not believe that Hamas would put the interests of the Palestinian people above the interests of the organisation.

“We are dying for nothing, and no one cares about us,” said Nasayem Muqat, 30, who fled Israel’s expanding military campaign in Gaza City for the territory’s south on Monday with her young daughter, Selene. “Hamas needs to think more of us and what we have been through.”

Abdelhalim Awad, 57, who manages a bakery in Deir al Balah, in central Gaza, said he would accept almost “any price” to end the war. But he said he did not believe that Hamas could say the same thing.

“They don’t care about what people think or public opinion,” Awad said. “If they cared about that, we wouldn’t be in this situation.”

New York Times News Service