Rights group: Trump’s Gaza plan fails to address Israeli abuses
US President Donald Trump’s Gaza peace plan has been accused by Human Rights Watch of not addressing human rights abuses by Israel, the Middle East Eye reported on October 6th.
This accusation came on October 6th, as the organisation’s director for Israel and Palestine, Omar Shakir, said: “The two years since October 7, 2023, have brought a seemingly endless stream of atrocities against civilians for which there has been no let-up or justice.”
“Governments should not wait for the adoption of Trump’s or any other plan to take action to prevent further harm to those most at risk,” Shakir added.
The 20-point peace plan was revealed to Arab and Islamic leaders by Trump on September 23rd, during the period of the 80th United Nations General Assembly session in New York.
The proposal, would allow Gaza to be redeveloped as a “de-radicalised terror-free zone,” where Hamas would relinquish control of Gaza.
The United Nations General Assembly had previously voted on September 12th for a resolution that a Palestinian state would not be governed by Hamas.
Under Trump’s proposal, Israeli forces were expected to withdraw from Gaza so that power over the enclave could be transferred to an International Stabilisation Force; however, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reportedly rejected this proposal.
However, concerns have been raised over the apparent lack of accountability for Israel. For instance, Daniel Levy, a British-Israeli former peace negotiator, stated: “There is no plan in the sense of something sufficiently substantive and detailed that could be implemented – no granularity around the specifics of timelines and maps.”
He added: “That is by design. It allows Israel to blame the other side when either a deal is not reached or when Netanyahu decides to desist from implementing and resumes the genocide assault.”
A UN Commission of Inquiry concluded on September 16th that Israel was committing genocide in Gaza, an act which Human Rights Watch had previously accused Israel of committing on December 19th, 2024. Human Rights Watch accused Israel of committing “acts of genocide” in a report, where it claimed that Israel killed thousands of Palestinians by cutting off access to clean water.
According to the UN, Israel’s war on Gaza has met four of the five genocidal acts under the 1948 UN Genocide Convention: killing, serious bodily or mental harm, imposing destructive living conditions, and preventing births. Israel justifies these acts as self-defence following the October 7th 2023 Hamas attacks.
Over 64,700 people have died due to Israel’s war on Gaza, although Herzi Halevi, the former Israeli army chief, has said more than 200,000 Palestinians have been killed or wounded during the Gaza conflict.
Middle East Eye, Maghrebi.org
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