Hamas’ review of US President Donald Trump's Gaza plan stretched into a third day on Wednesday, a source close to the militant group said, as other Palestinian factions rejected the proposal and as Israel again bombed Gaza City.
Trump on Tuesday gave Hamas ‘three or four days’ to respond to the plan he outlined this week with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has backed the proposal to end Israel’s almost two-year war with the Palestinian militant group.
“Accepting the plan is a disaster, rejecting it is another, there are only bitter choices here, but the plan is a Netanyahu plan articulated by Trump,” a Palestinian official, familiar with Hamas’ deliberations with other factions, told Reuters. “Hamas is keen to end the war and end the genocide and it will respond in the way that serves the higher interests of the Palestinian people,” he said, without elaborating.
Israeli planes and tanks pounded residential neighbourhoods throughout the night, residents in Gaza City said. Local health authorities said that at least 35 people across Gaza had been killed by the military on Wednesday, most of them in Gaza City. A strike on the old city in northwestern Gaza City killed seven people, while six people sheltering in a school in another part of the city were killed in a separate strike, medics said.
Meanwhile, the Israeli military issued new orders for people to leave for the south and said it would no longer allow those to return to the north, as Gaza City came under heavy bombing.
Defence Minister Israel Katz described the move as “tightening the encirclement around Gaza on the way to defeating Hamas,” saying Palestinians willing to leave to the south would have to go through army vetting. “This is the last opportunity for Gaza residents who wish to do so to move south and leave Hamas operatives isolated in Gaza City itself in the face of the IDF’s continuing full-scale operations,” Katz said.
The Israeli military also said that starting on Wednesday it would no longer allow people to use a coastal road to move from the south to communities in the north.
It would remain open for those fleeing south, it said. Witnesses said Israeli tanks began moving towards the coastal road coming from the east, but were not yet there. In recent weeks, few people have moved from the south to the north as the military has intensified its siege on Gaza City. However, the decision will put pressure on those who are yet to leave Gaza City and also prevent hundreds of thousands of residents who have fled south from returning to their homes, likely deepening fears in Gaza of permanent displacement.
Reuters
