Hamas is reviewing a Gaza peace plan announced by Donald Trump in the White House on Monday, the BBC reports.
The 20-point plan includes an end to fighting; the return of Israeli hostages; and an international “Board of Peace” to help run Gaza, which would include former Prime Minister Tony Blair.
Some of the key proposals are:
- An immediate cessation of military operations
- The release within 72 hours of 20 living Israeli hostages held by Hamas and the remains of more than two dozen believed to be dead
- Hundreds of detained Palestinians, and the remains of other Gazans, to be released by Israel
- Hamas to lay down its arms and to have no role in governing Gaza
- Once sides agree to the proposal, “full aid” to be “immediately sent into the Gaza Strip”
- Future governance of the Strip by a “technocratic, apolitical Palestinian committee” with oversight by an international “Board of Peace” headed by Trump and including former UK PM Tony Blair and other leaders
- The plan leaves the door open for a future Palestinian state – although Netanyahu again ruled this out on Monday
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu insists the plan will not mean Palestinian statehood.
In a video posted on his Telegram, Netanyahu is asked whether he has “agreed to a Palestinian state”, to which he replied: “No, absolutely not.”
He says there is no such clause in the 20-point plan Trump has tabled, adding that Israel will “forcibly resist” statehood.
Trump – who announced the plan alongside Netanyahu – says if Hamas doesn’t accept, he gives Israel “full backing to do what you would have to do.”
