Reuters
[Photo Credit: Reuters]
U.S. President Donald Trump hopes to finalise a Gaza peace plan proposal in a meeting on Monday with Israel’s Prime Minister, Trump told Reuters on Sunday, as Israeli tanks pushed deeper into Gaza City and the military wing of Hamas said it had lost contact with two hostages held there.
The fate of the two hostages, which has strong domestic resonance in Israel, could cast a shadow over a meeting between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Trump on Monday.
The Hamas military wing, Al-Qassam Brigades, called on Israel on Sunday to pull troops back and suspend air strikes on Gaza City for 24 hours so fighters could retrieve the captives.
Trump told Reuters in a phone interview he had received a “very good response” from Israel and Arab leaders to the Gaza peace plan proposal and that “everybody wants to make a deal.”
Hamas said the group had not yet received any proposal from Trump nor from mediators.
Israel has launched a massive ground assault on Gaza City, flattening whole districts and ordering hundreds of thousands of Palestinians to flee to tented camps, in what Netanyahu says is a bid to destroy Hamas.
Nevertheless, the past few days have seen increasing talk of a diplomatic resolution to the nearly two-year-old Gaza war.
Trump’s 21-point Middle East peace plan to end the Gaza war calls for the return of all Israeli hostages, living and dead, no further Israeli attacks on Qatar and a new dialogue between Israel and Palestinians for “peaceful coexistence.”
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