Will Gaza ‘eternal peace’ plan hold up?

Though some Arab nations have welcomed Trump's proposal, Hamas stays silent as details remain vague

- BY NABIH BULOS

A VICTIM of an Israeli attack is carried to a funeral in Gaza. Observers call Trump's optimism unwarranted.

(NurPhoto via Getty Images)

When President Trump presented his 20-point peace plan for the Gaza Strip, he deployed his trademark hyperbolic speaking style to trumpet it as a “big, big day, a beautiful day, potentially one of the great days ever in civilization,” which would end the war and deliver “eternal peace in the Middle East.”

Yet many of the plan's details are unknown, and though Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he “supports” it and a bevy of Arab and Muslim nations welcomed it as a sign of U.S. commitment to ending the war, observers — both supporters and critics — warn that Trump’s optimism is unwarranted in a deal where so much remains ambiguous.

“It’s so vague that a million things still need to be negotiated,” said Mouin Rabbani, a nonresident fellow at the Qatar-based Center for Conflict and Humanitarian Studies.

“And for both Israel and Hamas, accepting terms and implementing them are different things,” he said.

The proposal, which Hamas negotiators received late Monday night and are still studying, would immediately end the war and allow aid to flood Gaza, where Israel’s months-long blockade has triggered famine.

The U.N., rights and aid groups and governments, including Western allies of the U.S. and Israel, accuse Israel of committing genocide in the enclave. Israel denies the charge.

Even as Trump said on Tuesday he was “waiting for Hamas” for its response, the Israeli military continued pummeling Gaza, with at least 42 Palestinians killed and 190 injured in Israeli attacks across the Strip in the past 24 hours, according to Palestinian health authorities.

Some 66,097 Palestinians have been killed and a further 168,536 wounded in the two years since Israel began its campaign on Gaza after Hamas’ attacks.