Hamas calls for an “immediate” end to the war after Trump’s election victory

A senior Hamas official called for an immediate end to Israel's war against the group in Gaza and a plan to achieve a Palestinian state in his divided remarks Newsweek in the wake of former President Donald Trump's election victory.

“The election of Trump as the 47th president of the United States is a private matter for Americans,” said Basem Naim, a member and spokesman for Hamas’ political bureau Newsweek“But the Palestinians look forward to an immediate end to the aggression against our people, particularly in Gaza, and expect support in the realization of their legitimate rights to freedom, independence and the establishment of their independent, self-sovereign state with Jerusalem as its capital.”

“The blind support for the Zionist entity 'Israel' and its fascist government at the expense of the future of our people and the security and stability of the region must stop immediately,” he added.

During his previous administration, Trump forged a close relationship with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is now waging a multi-front war against the Iran-aligned Axis of Resistance that began with a large-scale attack by Hamas against Israel in October 2023. However, Trump also criticized Netanyahu's leadership during the war and called for an early end to the conflict.

I asked for comment, an Israeli official said Newsweek that “maintaining and expanding the special relationship between the United States and Israel has been a bipartisan feature of American politics since the founding of the Jewish state.”

“We have no doubt that this will continue to be the case,” the Israeli official said. “Going forward, we look forward to working closely with his administration to create a more peaceful, secure and prosperous Middle East.”

Amid continued signs of disagreement between President Joe Biden and Netanyahu over the course of the war despite significant U.S. military aid, the Israeli prime minister was the first to congratulate Trump on what has been called the “greatest comeback in history.”

“Your historic return to the White House represents a new beginning for America and a powerful recommitment to the great alliance between Israel and America,” Netanyahu said in his statement on Wednesday.

Netanyahu later spoke to Trump. The conversation was described by the Israeli side as a “warm and cordial” exchange in which the two “agreed to cooperate for Israel's security and also discussed the Iranian threat.”

Newsweek has reached out to Hezbollah and the Iranian Permanent Mission to the United Nations for comment.

The war between Israel and Hamas, which has since expanded to include an Israeli air and land offensive against the Hezbollah movement in Lebanon, attacks by other Axis of Resistance factions in Iraq, Syria and Yemen, and even direct exchanges between Israel and Iran has contributed to this has proven to be a polarizing foreign policy issue in the United States

While Biden continued to provide military aid to Israel and called for stronger security to reduce harm to civilians, he was accused by Israeli supporters of not doing enough to help the US ally and by pro-Palestinian factions that he had failed to sufficiently contain Netanyahu.

Vice President Kamala Harris' campaign largely mirrored the Biden administration's position, calling for peace and expressing sympathy for the plight of civilians caught in the conflict, while rejecting any calls to hold back arms sales to Israel.

In a statement released Wednesday, Hamas also called for an end to Israel's campaign in Lebanon and called on the U.S. to “end military support and political cover for the Zionist entity and recognize the legitimate rights of our people.”

“The American president-elect must listen to the voices that have been raised in American society itself for more than a year regarding the Zionist aggression in the Gaza Strip,” the statement said, “rejecting and objecting to the occupation and genocide against it.” Support and bias against the Zionist entity.

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, who leads the West Bank-based government that rivals Gaza-based Hamas, also congratulated Trump on his election victory on Wednesday.

Abbas “expressed his intention to work with President Trump for peace and security in the region” and emphasized “our people's obligation to pursue freedom, self-determination and statehood in accordance with international law,” according to a statement released by the government Palestine News and Information Agency (WAFA).

“We will remain steadfast in our commitment to peace,” Abbas was quoted as saying, “and we are confident that under your leadership, the United States will support the legitimate aspirations of the Palestinian people.”

Both Hamas and Abbas had frequently condemned Trump's Middle East actions during his time in office, including his 2018 decision to move the US embassy from Tel Aviv to the disputed city of Jerusalem and his 2020 plan to move Israel's decades-long plan -to end the Palestinian conflict.

The proposal, widely branded as the “deal of the century,” would have given Israel control of internationally unrecognized Jewish settlements in the West Bank and occupied areas along the Jordanian border. Hamas and other Palestinian factions would be disarmed, Palestinians would recognize Israel as a Jewish state, refrain from participating in international organizations without Israeli consent, and gain some desert areas along the Israeli-Egyptian border and access to international investment.

In one of its most ambitious moves, the proposal also called for the construction of a tunnel connecting the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.

While the plan failed to gain traction in the Arab world, Trump later that year successfully oversaw the Abraham Accords, which led to the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Sudan and Morocco establishing diplomatic relations with Israel.

Trump also caused a sharp rise in tensions between Washington and Tehran, particularly with the US withdrawal from a multilateral nuclear deal in 2018 and the assassination of the head of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps' Quds Force, Major General Qassem Soleimani, in Iraq in 2020.

The Republican leader has since accused Biden and Harris of being too soft on Iran and has repeatedly claimed that the war on Hamas did not happen under his presidency. At the same time, Trump has accused his Democratic rivals of wanting to start a major war in the Middle East, something he has vowed to avoid.

“We want a strong and powerful military and ideally we don’t have to use it,” Trump said during his victory speech on election night. “You know, we haven't had any wars for four years. We didn't have any wars. Aside from defeating ISIS, we defeated ISIS in record time.”

“They said, 'He's going to start a war.' “I will not start a war,” Trump said early Wednesday. “I will stop wars.”