Hamas leader Ezzat al-Rashq responded to US President Donald Trump’s call for the movement to release 20 Israeli hostages in exchange for a ceasefire in Gaza.

The Hamas website quoted al-Rashq saying: “US President Donald Trump said: I tell Hamas to immediately return all twenty hostages, not 2 or 5 or 7, and things will change quickly.”

He added: “We tell President Trump that Hamas agreed on August 18 to the mediators’ proposal, which is originally based on the proposal of Witkoff, and Netanyahu has not responded to it yet. We also expressed readiness for a comprehensive deal in which all prisoners are released in exchange for a number agreed upon of our prisoners in the occupation’s prisons, achieving a ceasefire and withdrawal of the occupation.”

He continued: “We affirm that Netanyahu is the real obstacle to exchange deals and ceasefire… and he wants a war without end.”

In a related context, the office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stated on Wednesday that Hamas is playing a new media trick regarding the prisoner exchange deal, stressing that the response carries no change.

The office added that “the war can end immediately if the conditions set by the small ministerial cabinet (the ‘kabinett’) are met.”

Netanyahu’s office emphasized that the conditions are “the release of all abductees, complete disarmament of Hamas, stripping Gaza of weapons, Israeli security control over the sector, and establishing an alternative civilian administration that does not incite terrorism and does not pose a threat to Israel.”

The office concluded by saying: “Only these conditions can prevent Hamas from rearming and repeating the October 7 massacre again and again as it threatens.”

Meanwhile, the Palestinian Islamic Resistance Movement “Hamas” announced on Wednesday that it is still awaiting Israel’s response to the mediators’ proposal, which the movement and Palestinian factions agreed upon on August 18, aiming to reach a comprehensive agreement to end the war on Gaza.

The movement confirmed in a statement its readiness to proceed with a comprehensive deal that includes releasing all Israeli prisoners it holds, in exchange for releasing an agreed number of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails, stopping the war on Gaza, full withdrawal of Israeli forces from the sector, opening crossings to meet the sector’s needs, and starting reconstruction.

US President Donald Trump demanded on Wednesday that Hamas immediately hand over the twenty Israeli hostages and prisoners.

Trump said: “Tell Hamas to immediately return all twenty hostages (not 2 or 5 or 7), and everything will change quickly,” adding, “The war will end.”