President Donald Trump announced Wednesday that both Israel and Hamas had “signed off” on the first phase of a peace plan in Gaza following negotiations in the Egyptian Red Sea city of Sharm el-Sheikh, but insisted that Palestinians will not be forced to leave Gaza.
The Israeli government is expected to ratify the deal on Thursday, after which a ceasefire is expected to come into effect.
Phase one of the deal will see all remaining hostages returned from Gaza, a number of Palestinian prisoners released from Israeli jails and the partial withdrawal of the Israel Defense Forces inside the strip.
Trump said the agreement represented “the first steps toward a Strong, Durable, and Everlasting Peace.”
Intense and deadly Israeli attacks on Gaza City — the largest urban area in the Gaza Strip — and elsewhere in the devastated Palestinian territory continued into Thursday.
nobody is going to be forced to leave” Gaza, clarifying disconnect between the 20-point peace plan and what he told reporters on Thursday.
“It’s just the opposite. This is a great plan. This is a great peace plan. This is a plan that was supported by everybody,” Trump said.
Earlier Thursday, he said, “you can’t live right now in Gaza.”
When asked about the possibility of a Palestinian state, Trump said “we’re going to see how it all goes” but that they might consider options that may be “a little bit different.”
“We’re going to see how it all goes. And there’s a point at which we may do something that would be a little bit different and may be very positive for everybody,” Trump said.