Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu insists on disarming the Palestinian Hamas movement and the demilitarization of the Gaza Strip. If this is not the case, he said he hell. In Tuesday’s interview for CBS News, however, he said that the second phase of US President Donald Trump’s peace plan for the Palestinian enclave will be peaceful, TASR reports. “We have agreed to give a chance of peace,“He noted Netanyahu the day after Trump’s visit to Israel and after the remaining 20 live hostages from the Gaza Strip.
The US President announced the beginning of the second phase of his 20-point peace plan for the Gaza Strip on Tuesday. Netanyahu noted that Hamas must first hand over his weapons. And secondly, it is necessary to make sure that there are no weapons factories in Gaza. That weapons do not enter Gaza. This is demilitarization.
Hamas repeatedly rejected his disarmament. “If they do not get rid of weapons ourselves, we disarm them … and it happens quickly and perhaps forcibly,“Trump warned on Tuesday in the White House. However, the movement agreed with this point.
The agreement mediated by Trump’s administration during the first phase ensured the exchange of 20 living Israeli hostages for nearly 2000 Palestinian prisoners. Hamas undertook to return the bodies of 28 hostages within 72 hours of the end of the fighting (Lehota has passed on Monday afternoon, note TASR), but so far he only handed over only eight bodies and the other four wants to hand over Wednesday.
The movement claims that some bodies are under the ruins of bombed buildings and tunnels. Tel Aviv, on the other hand, blames Hamas of deliberately slowing down the peace process and warned that if the bodies are not immediately returned, he will restore combat operations. The Israeli Forum of Related Hostages called for a pause of the peace plan until all the bodies are returned.
The exchange was a key step in the agreement to end the two -year war in the Gaza Strip and in the pursuit of permanent peace in the region. The plan also included the withdrawal of Israeli forces from the parts of the Gaza Strip and the immediate provision of humanitarian aid.
Netanyahu stressed that Israel is ready to continue peaceful initiatives. “We have a chance to expand peace. It would be the greatest blessing we can bring to people in Israel, in the region and in the world”He added.
