Plenković backs US President's proposed peace plan for Gaza

Hamas has said that it is ready to release the remaining hostages and pursue a peace agreement with Israel, in return for negotiations on key points outlined in Washington’s proposed peace plan. Talks between Israel and Hamas are expected to resume in Egypt on Sunday.

US President Donald Trump announced on Saturday that he believes that Hamas is ready for a lasting peace and has called on Israel to end its bombing of Gaza. However, in spite of these developments the IDF has not ended it aggression against Gaza outright. Nonetheless President Trump feels that peace is at hand: "This is a very special day. Maybe unprecedented in many ways. It is unprecedented. But thank you all and thank you all to those great countries that helped. We were given a tremendous amount of help. Everybody was unified in wanting this war to end and seeing peace in the Middle East. And we're very close to achieving that. Thank you all and everybody will be treated fairly."

Senior Hamas official Mousa Abu Marzouk however, noted that without the occupation there would have never been a need for Hamas: "Hamas resists the occupation. And if the occupation ends and the Palestinians control themselves, and there is a Palestinian state, Hamas will no longer have any weapons. This means that we would hand them over to the Palestinian authority. But that's what we said from the beginning. We don't need the weapons if there is no occupation."

For his part Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenković has welcomed President Trump's plan to restore peace to the Gaza Strip. In a post on social media he called on both sides to end the violence: "The hostages must be released, weapons laid down and the fighting ended without delay. After almost two years of war, peace is urgently needed, and Croatia will continue to energetically support all efforts to achieve that peace."

Source: HRT