Arab allies join Trump in calling for Israel to drop opposition to US-backed Gaza peace plan
Four major Arab nations and three other Muslim-majority powers are joining with President Trump to push for a US-backed Gaza peace deal — even as Israel rejected the plan and carried on with airstrikes in the Palestinian enclave.Special envoy Steve Witkoff and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner met with Hamas officials and mediators in the latest talks to salvage the deal, a Middle East diplomat told Reuters.Kushner and Trump’s Board of Peace envoy for Gaza, Nickolay Mladenov, are scheduled to meet with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday in an attempt to get the Jewish state on board after it rejected the president’s plan as “unacceptable.”Egypt, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and UAE joined Turkey, Pakistan and Indonesia — three major Muslim-majority nations — on Sunday to condemn Israel’s opposition to Trump’s peace plan, warning that it could sink the deal and reignite the conflict in war-torn Gaza.Netanyahu said last week that Israel fully rejects the 15-point peace plan and said his forces would not withdraw from Gaza until Hamas no longer poses a threat to his country.According to Trump, the plan involves terror group Hamas laying down its weapons in exchange for Israel withdrawing from the Gaza Strip.
Since then, Israel has resumed its regular airstrikes in Gaza to take out Hamas military targets, with a recent attack hitting an apartment building in the Nuseirat refugee camp, wounding several people, medics said.Hamas, meanwhile, has said it would only disarm once Israel ends all strikes on the enclave and withdraws its forces, which currently occupy more than half of the Gaza Strip.
The disagreement left Trump’s initial 20-point peace plan in limbo since it was announced last year, with the president putting forth a 15-point plan last month to try and secure a breakthrough.As Israel continues its attacks in Gaza, Hamas officials have called on the US to pressure Netanyahu to follow Trump’s roadmap and end the war, which is ap...