Nothing changes on the ground for Palestinians who need ‘food, shelter, security’, who find Trump’s plan ‘distant, abstract’.
Israeli strikes have killed at least three Palestinians in the latest violation of a ceasefire with Hamas in Gaza, a day after the United States announced the start of the second phase. President Donald Trump’s plan To end Israel’s genocidal war against the Palestinian people in the Occupied Territories.
An Israeli attack on Friday killed a 10-year-old girl, a 16-year-old boy and an elderly woman, as members of the planned Palestinian Technocratic Committee sat down for the first time in Cairo to prepare for the rollout. Second stage of the peace plan.
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Palestinian news agency Wafa reported that Israeli forces shot and killed 16-year-old Mohammed Raid al-Barawi in Beit Lahiya, northern Gaza. The boy died “instantly” after being shot in the head by Israeli forces, the agency said.
Earlier, the agency reported the death of 62-year-old Sabah Ahmed Ali Abu Jama, who was killed by army gunfire west of Khan Younis as the army carried out a “wide demolition operation” south of the enclave.
Al-Jazeera also understands that a 10-year-old girl was killed by a bomb dropped by an Israeli drone in Beit Lahiya, dying shortly after arriving at Al-Shifa Hospital in critical condition.
In the 24 hours leading up to Friday afternoon, at least 15 Palestinians were killed, six of them in a bombing that hit two homes of the Al-Hawli and Al-Jaro families in the central city of Deir al-Balah on Thursday evening. A 16-year-old boy was among the dead.
Israel announced that day that it had killed Muhammad al-Hawli, a commander in the Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas. It said it had killed “several terrorists … across the Gaza Strip.”
On Friday, Hamas spokesman Hazem Qassem said the group believed Israel had committed a “new violation” of the ceasefire with attacks in Gaza.
At least 463 Palestinians have been killed since the ceasefire took effect on October 10, according to Gaza authorities.
Israel has reported three soldiers killed during the same period.
Seven years to clear the debris
As the killing continues in Gaza, the Palestinian Technocratic Committee is set to govern Gaza as part of President Trump’s multi-phase. peace plan First met in Cairo.
“Palestinians have been waiting for this committee, its establishment and the task of rescuing them,” leader Ali Shaath, an engineer and former deputy minister in the Palestinian Authority (PA), told Egypt’s state-owned Al-Qahira News.
The National Committee for Gaza Governance will run day-to-day affairs under the supervision of a Trump-led “Peace Board”, which is expected to be led by Bulgarian diplomats and politicians. Nikolay Mladenov.
Shath is upbeat about the committee’s plans so far, saying reconstruction and recovery will take about three years.
But the United Nations Development Program estimates that it will take seven years just to clear the rubble and only an uninterrupted supply of fuel and heavy machinery – with no guarantee that Israel will retain more than 50 percent of the so-called strip.Yellow line“
A little clarity
As the Trump plan enters its second phase, there is no clarity on the timing and extent of Israel’s withdrawal from the enclave.
It also remains unclear how the disarmament of Hamas, a central tenet of the plan, will unfold. The armed group has so far refused to lay down its arms.
Nevertheless, Hamas welcomed the establishment of the technocratic committee on Friday, calling it “a step in the right direction” and indicating it was ready to hand over administration of Gaza.
Sultan Barkat, a professor of public policy at Hamad Bin Khalifa University, told Al Jazeera that Hamas’s approval indicated it had “documented” its long-standing differences with the PA.
Trump has maintained a hard line on Hamas’ disarmament, telling the group on Thursday that it could disarm “the easy way or the hard way” and warning of the “immediate” return of the remains of the last Israeli captive.
Reporting from Gaza City, Al Jazeera’s Tarek Abu Azzoum said the people of Gaza, hundreds of thousands of whom are living in flimsy temporary shelters in the depths of winter, had “little expectation that political plans would translate into real relief”.
“For most people here, the promises of the second phase of the ceasefire agreement seem distant and abstract, while food, shelter, water and security are urgent concerns,” he said.