U.S. President Donald Trump is welcoming a deal aimed at ending the Gaza war and disarming Hamas, while residents of the area say the situation is not improving. 18 Palestinians were killed in one day as a result of Israeli strikes. Reuters reported this.
According to the publication, Trump announced on July 31 that a "big step" had been taken to implement a peace plan in Gaza. He stressed that Hamas will be disarmed and Israeli troops will be gradually withdrawn from the area.
However, in reality the situation remains tense. Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said on Sunday that the Israeli army will not leave Gaza until Hamas is disarmed and underground tunnels are destroyed.
Hamas, for its part, demands that Israel stop attacks before the disarmament part of the deal is implemented.
Trump's "Peace Council" representative overseeing the peace deal, Nikolai Mladenov, met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other officials on Monday. The Council said the main goal is to destroy all weapons in Gaza and transfer control of the area from armed groups to civilian administration.
Meanwhile, Palestinian officials expressed concern that the deal talks focus only on disarmament, while clauses such as stopping fire and ending attacks on Gaza are being ignored.
In Gaza, people say the hope for peace is fading. A large part of the area has been destroyed by Israeli military operations.
Oya Muhammad Zakki, a 32-year-old resident of Gaza City, described the recent attacks in a phone interview with Reuters, saying, "It was as if the war had started again. There were attacks every hour or even less."
According to data, among those killed on Sunday were a husband and wife and their child who died in a strike on a home in Gaza City. The Israeli army said military targets were hit in those attacks.
Egyptian, Qatari and Turkish mediators, meanwhile, condemned the ongoing attacks and stressed that this situation contradicts the terms of the deal.
At the same time, Israel announced that it controls 60–70 percent of the Gaza Strip. Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said troops are searching for Hamas tunnels in these areas.
Gaza residents, meanwhile, fear further displacement.
60-year-old Sumah Dawla said the "yellow line" designated by Israel near the area where she lives has been expanded.
"We are waiting for displacement at any time. Our whole life is lost, our future is lost, our children's future is lost," — she said.
Like the Dawla family, millions of people in Gaza have been forced to leave their homes several times since the war began.
Palestinians had hoped the situation would change after Trump announced his peace plan, but according to them, on the contrary, destruction and displacement have intensified.
According to Gaza health authorities, at least 1,230 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli strikes since the plan for the deal was put forward in October. Most of them are civilians.
Israeli officials, meanwhile, said four soldiers had been killed during this period.
For now, negotiations on the next stage of the agreement between the parties continue, but the consequences of the war for citizens living in Gaza have not yet been eliminated.
