By Andrew Mills and Nidal al-Mughrabi
DUBAI/CAIRO (Reuters) -A U.S.-sponsored ceasefire proposal for Gaza on Tuesday was hinging on Hamas’s response to the 20-point plan which President Donald Trump has said was “beyond very close” to ending the two-year-old conflict in the enclave.
Mediators Qatar and Egypt shared the document with Hamas late on Monday after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stood alongside Trump at the White House and pledged his support for the proposal because he said it met Israel’s war aims.
It was not clear what had allayed Netanyahu’s earlier misgivings about elements of the proposal.
Hamas was not involved in the rounds of negotiations in the lead-up to Trump’s plan, which calls on the Islamist militant group to disarm, a demand they have previously rejected.
SOURCE CLOSE TO HAMAS VOICES DOUBTS ABOUT PLAN
“The Hamas negotiators said they would review it in good faith and provide a response,” an official briefed on the talks told Reuters early on Tuesday.
Trump warned Hamas that if it rejects what he has offered, Israel would have full U.S. support to take whatever action it deemed necessary.
The plan specifies an immediate ceasefire, an exchange of all hostages held by Hamas for Palestinian prisoners held by Israel, a staged Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, the disarmament of Hamas and the introduction of a transitional government led by an international body.
Hamas had not on Tuesday officially responded to Trump’s proposal, and it was not immediately clear what was new about it, beyond the wide backing for the initiative expressed by Arab and Muslim countries.
Many elements of the 20 points have been included in numerous ceasefire deals proposed over the last two years, including those accepted and then subsequently rejected at various stages by both Israel and Hamas.
A source close to Hamas told Reuters the plan was “completely biased to Israel” and imposed “impossible conditions” that aimed to eliminate the group.
“What Trump has proposed is the full adoption of all Israeli conditions, which do not grant the Palestinian people or the residents of the Gaza Strip any legitimate rights,” the Palestinian official, who asked not to be named, told Reuters.
It was unclear how Hamas would word its response, as an absolute rejection may put it in collision with a group of Arab and Muslim countries which welcomed the plan.
The foreign ministers of Qatar, Jordan, the United Arab Emirates, Indonesia, Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Egypt issued a joint statement on Monday welcoming Trump’s proposal and underscoring what they said were the president’s “sincere efforts to end the war in Gaza.”
ISRAELI FORCES PUSH FURTHER INTO GAZA CITY
Some Palestinians hailed the plan, saying it could end the bombardment and deaths, but they wondered whether it would really end Israel’s control of the Gaza Strip.
“We want the war to end but we want the occupation army that killed tens of thousands of us to get out and leave us alone,” said Salah Abu Amr, 60, a father of six from Gaza City.
“We hope the plan will end the war, but we are not sure it will, neither Trump nor Netanyahu can be trusted,” he told Reuters via a chat app.
In Gaza, Israeli forces pushed deeper into Gaza City, reaching to the centre of the territory, which Netanyahu described as the last Hamas bastion. Israel also ramped up its bombardment of residential districts, forcing more families to leave, witnesses and medics said.
At least two people were killed when the Israeli army blew up an explosive-laden vehicle in Beach camp in western Gaza City, medics said, while nine people, including a mother and five of her children, were killed in two separate attacks in Deir Al-Balah and Khan Younis in the south.
(Reporting by Andrew Mills, Editing by William Maclean)
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