Gazans reject Trump's peace plan, call it a 'farce'

Gaza City, Palestinian Territories: Islamic Jihad, a Palestinian group fighting alongside Hamas in Gaza, on Tuesday slammed US President Donald Trump’s plan to end the war, saying it would fuel further aggression against Palestinians.

“It is a recipe for continued aggression against the Palestinian people. Through this, Israel is attempting — via the United States — to impose what it could not achieve through war,” the group said in a statement. “Therefore, we consider the American-Israeli declaration a formula for igniting the region.”

Residents of war-torn Gaza also expressed scepticism over the latest plan unveiled Monday by US President Donald Trump, dismissing it as a farce that fails to end the war.

“It’s clear that this plan is unrealistic”, 39-year-old Ibrahim Joudeh told AFP from his shelter in the so-called humanitarian zone of Al-Mawasi in south Gaza.

“It’s drafted with conditions that the US and Israel know Hamas will never accept. For us, that means the war and the suffering will continue”, said the computer programmer, originally from the southern city of Rafah, devastated by a military offensive that began in May.

The residents spoke shortly after Trump unveiled his 20-point plan aimed at ending the war and to which Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu offered his backing after the two held talks at the White House.

The plan calls for a ceasefire, release of hostages by Hamas, disarmament of Hamas and gradual Israeli withdrawal from Gaza.

Other key points include deployment of a “temporary international stabilisation force” and creation of a transitional authority headed by Trump himself and featuring other foreign leaders.

The plan also stipulates that Hamas and other factions would not have any role in the governance of Gaza, directly, indirectly, or in any form.

Abu Mazen Nassar, 52, was equally pessimistic, and feared that the plan aimed to trick Palestinian factions into releasing hostages held in Gaza and no peace in return.

“This is all manipulation. What does it mean to hand over all the prisoners without official guarantees to end the war?” said Nassar, displaced from his home in north Gaza in central Gaza’s Deir el-Balah.

“We as a people will not accept this farce,” he said, adding: “Whatever Hamas decides now about the deal, it’s too late.”

“Hamas has lost us and drowned us in the flood it created.”

– Lingering hope and lost faith –

Some, like Anas Sorour, a 31-year-old street vendor from the south Gaza city of Khan Yunis, also displaced to Al-Mawasi, dared to hope.

“Despite everything we’ve lived through and lost in this war… I still have hope,” Sorour told AFP.

“No war lasts forever. This time I am very optimistic, and God willing it will be a moment of joy that makes us forget our pain and our anguish,” he added.

But others like 29-year-old homemaker Najwa Muslim, could no longer imagine anything changing.

“I haven’t only lost faith in the deal; I’ve lost faith in life,” Muslim told AFP from central Gaza, where she sought refuge after being displaced from Gaza City, currently under a massive Israeli military offensive.

“If there was a real intention to stop the war, they wouldn’t have waited this long. That’s why I don’t believe any of their words.”

On Monday, at least 30 people were killed across Gaza in Israeli strikes, according to Gaza’s civil defence agency.

After almost two years of war and countless attempts at ceasefire deals for Gaza, every new announcement is met with suspicion, even when Trump publicly presented a deal Monday alongside a cautious Netanyahu in an unprecedented move.

Mohammed al-Beltaji, a 47-year-old from Gaza City, summarised his view of negotiations to AFP.

Earlier Monday, a large plume of black smoke billowed over the hundreds of tents that made up a camp for the displaced in Khan Yunis.