Hamas agrees to release all Israeli hostages and seeks negotiations on Trump peace plan

 Hamas has formally announced that it accepts some of the main parts of the US sponsored peace plan for Gaza, including freeing all the remaining Israeli hostages, but it is seeking to make some changes. President Trump had given Hamas until 6 p.m. Washington time on Sunday to reach an agreement. Let's speak now to Tom Baitman, who's in Washington, and to John Sudworth in Jerusalem. John, is this a yes to the deal or not? Well, it's certainly a significant statement, Rita. I think first and foremost, the agreement to hand over the hostages, albeit subject to certain conditions and further negotiations, will bring real hope to their families who've been hoping for this for a long time. And it's also significant that Hamas appears to agree to hand over the governance of Gaza in the future to Palestinian tech technocrats as laid out in President Trump's peace plan. You can be certain the Israeli government will be pouring over the detail. This statement comes just a few hours after President Trump issued a very stern ultimatum suggesting if it didn't agree all hell would have to be paid. And I think the Israeli government will be trying to work out whether this does look like at least a good faith attempt to engage on some of the broad principles or whether it is in fact an attempt to buy time. And you can be certain that uh the ultraist farright members of the government will be looking very carefully perhaps concerned over the fact there is no mention in this at all of Hamas giving up its weapons. >> John Sudworth in Jerusalem. Thank you. And Tom Baitman in Washington. This has just come out. How is the Trump administration likely to respond? >> Well, I mean the statement itself, Rita, gives, I think, a yes to the thing that Donald Trump wants most, and that is uh the release of the hostages held by Hamas in exchange for Palestinian prisoners within this very short time frame. Uh that's what he's always sought. As for the rest of his 20point plan, quite a lot of that it appears, is being rejected uh by Hamas or at least being subjected to further uh the issue of further negotiations. So the crucial point now is what is the Trump administration going to say? My sense strongly tonight is that the administration is viewing Hamas's response as positive and at the very least the basis for more negotiations. President Trump has been recording a message in the Oval Office. His spokesman has described that message as a response to Hamas's acceptance of his peace plan.