CAIRO (AP) — At least 27 Palestinians were killed in the Gaza Strip on Tuesday, local hospitals said, as questions churned about U.S. President Donald Trump’s peace plan that could pause the nearly two-year war in Gaza.
Hamas announced it would review the proposal with group members and other Palestinian factions before reaching a decision.
While the proposal offers an end to the fighting in the strip and guarantees flow of humanitarian aid and promises reconstruction, the Palestinian militant group will have to disarm while Gaza, and its more than 2 million Palestinians, would be put under international control, for the foreseeable future.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu backs the plan and several leaders of Arab countries have applauded it.
Palestinians are skeptical of the peace plan
Many Palestinians in the war-torn coastal enclave are wary of the proposal.
“They want to impose their own peace,” Umm Mohammed, a history teacher who sheltered with her family in Gaza City, told The Associated Press. “In fact, this is not a peace plan. It’s a surrender plan. It returns us to times of colonialism.”
Mahmoud Abu Baker, a displaced Palestinian from Rafah, said the proposal is favoring Israel and implementing all its demands without giving concessions.
“(The proposal) tells that we, as Palestinians, as Arabs, are not qualified to rule ourselves and that they, the white people, will rule us," he said.
In the Israeli-occupied West Bank, some Palestinians accused Netanyahu and Trump of attempting to solve the issue without any input from people on the ground in Gaza.
“It turned into a joke. They acted like they own the whole world, deciding, analyzing and dividing things however they want,” said Mohammad Shahin, a Nablus resident.
Israelis bank on Trump despite doubt
Israelis visiting a memorial for the music festival where 364 people were killed during the Hamas attack on Oct. 7, 2023, expressed skepticism that the proposal may pause the war.
Amit Zander, whose daughter, Noa Zander, was killed at the festival, noted that Trump was the only one with enough power to make a deal happen. “Everyone pins their hopes on (Trump) ... it’s up to Hamas. Israel wants it, and beyond that, it’s no longer in our hands,” he said.
“It’s definitely an effort to change something, but there have been efforts the whole time during this whole war and change hasn’t really happened, so I think it’s all up in the air,” said Adi Nissim, who was also visiting the memorial on Tuesday.
More than two dozen Palestinians killed
At least 27 Palestinians were killed on Tuesday morning, according to local hospitals.
In Netzarim, the Israeli-controlled corridor that bisects northern and southern Gaza, 17 Palestinians were killed and 33 wounded while attempting to access humanitarian aid, al-Awda hospital said.
Separately, at least two Israeli strikes on tents in the region of Muwasi, previously deemed a safe zone by the Israeli military, killed 10 people. Seven of whom had fled Gaza City earlier this month, to escape Israel’s widening offensive, were killed near Deir al-Balah in central Gaza, Al Aqsa hospital said. The three others were members of the same family, a man, his seven-month pregnant wife, and their child, killed when an airstrike hit their tent west of Khan Younis, according to Nasser Hospital.
The Israeli military did not immediately comment on the shooting or strikes, saying its troops had killed several armed militants and struck more than 160 targets of Hamas infrastructure in the past 24 hours, including weapons storage facilities and observation posts.
Hamas is believed to be holding 48 hostages, 20 of whom are believed by Israel to be alive. The militant group has previously demanded that Israel agree to end the war and withdraw from all of Gaza as part of any permanent ceasefire.
Gaza’s Health Ministry said in its daily report the death toll has surpassed 66,000, with almost 170,000 wounded since the war began.
The ministry, part of the Hamas-run administration, does not differentiate between civilians and militants in its toll, but has said women and children make up around half the dead. Its figures are seen as a reliable estimate by the U.N. and many independent experts. Israel accuses Hamas of hiding its military infrastructure in civilian areas.
Israel’s offensive has destroyed vast areas of Gaza, displacing around 90% of the population amid a catastrophic humanitarian crisis, with experts saying Gaza City is experiencing famine. __
Lidman reported from Jerusalem.
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