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 Israel again bombed Gaza City.
Mr Trump on Tuesday gave Hamas “three or four days” to respond to the plan he outlined this week with Israeli prime minister Binyamin 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, said.
“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.
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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,” Mr 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.
The military took similar measures in the early months of the war, completely separating north and south, before later easing those measures in January during a temporary ceasefire.
Two more Palestinians, including a child, have died of malnutrition and starvation in Gaza in the past 24 hours, the territory’s health ministry said on Wednesday, raising deaths from such causes to at least 455 people, including 151 children, since the war started.
Gaza City and surrounding areas are suffering from famine that will likely spread, afflicting more than half a million Palestinians, according to an August report by the IPC global hunger monitor. Israel, which blocked all food from entering Gaza for almost three months this year, eased restrictions in July by allowing in more aid.
The UN says far more aid is needed and says it is unable to reliably distribute supplies in Gaza, blaming Israeli military restrictions on movements and a breakdown of law and order.
Israel says there is no quantitative limit on food aid entering Gaza and accuses Hamas of stealing aid, accusations the Palestinian militant group denies.
Hamas is yet to publicly comment on Mr Trump’s plan, which demands that the militant group release the remaining hostages, surrender its weapons and have no future role in running Gaza.
The plan means Israel would make few concessions in the near term and does not lay out a clear path to a Palestinian state, one of the key demands of not only Hamas but the Arab and Muslim world.
The plan states that Israel would eventually withdraw from Gaza, but does not define a time frame. Hamas has long demanded that Israel fully withdraw from Gaza for the war to end.
Three smaller Palestinian militant factions in Gaza have rejected the plan, including two that are allies of Hamas, arguing that it would destroy the “Palestinian cause” and would grant Israel’s control of Gaza international legitimacy.
Many world leaders have publicly supported Mr Trump’s plan.
A source who is close to Hamas said on Tuesday that the plan was too heavily weighted towards Israel’s interests and did not take significant account of the militant group’s demands.
Many elements of the 20-point proposal have been included in numerous ceasefire proposals previously backed by the US, including some that have been accepted and then subsequently rejected at various stages by both Israel and Hamas. – Reuters
