Cairo: Israeli forces killed at least 31 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip on Tuesday, local hospitals said, as questions churned about US President Donald
Cairo: Israeli forces killed at least 31 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip on Tuesday, local hospitals said, as questions churned about US President Donald Trump’s peace plan aimed at ending the nearly two-year war in Gaza.
Hamas announced it would review the proposal with group members and other Palestinian factions before reaching a decision.
While the proposal offers an end to the fighting, guarantees the flow of humanitarian aid and promises reconstruction, the Palestinian militant group will have to disarm, something it has rejected in the past. Also, Gaza and its more than 2 million Palestinians would be put under international control for the foreseeable future.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu backs the plan, and several leaders of Arab countries have applauded it.
Many Palestinians in the decimated coastal enclave are wary of the proposal. Notably, the plan sets no path to Palestinian statehood and brings a so-called “Board of Peace,” headed by Trump and former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, to supervise the administration of Gaza.
To some, that smacked of the colonial British Mandate over Palestine from 1920 to 1948, when the British ran the area.
“They want to impose their own peace,” Umm Mohammed, a history teacher who sheltered with her family in Gaza City, told The Associated Press. “In fact, this is not a peace plan. It’s a surrender plan. It returns us to times of colonialism.”
Mahmoud Abu Baker, a displaced Palestinian from Rafah, said the proposal favours Israel and implements all its demands without giving concessions.
