SARAH MCCAMMON, HOST:
President Trump said he was hopeful for a Gaza ceasefire deal last week as he met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Washington. Now Trump says he's hoping for a Gaza Ceasefire deal this week. In Israel, officials are discussing a different plan for Gaza, one that would drive hundreds of thousands of Palestinians into a new zone in Gaza's south. We'll get the latest from NPR's Daniel Estrin. He's on the line from Tel Aviv. Hi, Daniel.
DANIEL ESTRIN, BYLINE: Good morning, Sarah.
MCCAMMON: So if you would, tell us more about why the ceasefire talks still seem to be deadlocked.
ESTRIN: Well, Israel and Hamas are continuing talks in the capital of Qatar for a 60-day ceasefire, but there is a major issue not yet resolved. And that is Israel's demand to retain troops in a corridor, the strip of land cutting across southern Gaza. And the military captured that area a few months ago. Israeli mediators are now presenting maps of where they would want troops to remain, according to a person briefed on the matter who spoke on condition of anonymity.
But this troop presence is important to Israel because it would create a cordoned off zone in southern Gaza. Israel now is proposing building a huge tent camp and sending tens of thousands of Palestinians there to separate them from Hamas. Israeli officials are calling it a, quote, "humanitarian city." A top UN official said that would be mass displacement into, quote, "concentration camps." It would be next to the Egyptian border. And Palestinians fear this would just be one step toward Israel's goal to get people to leave Gaza altogether.
MCCAMMON: OK, Daniel, a couple of questions about that plan. I mean, what is the timeline, first of all? And would it mean that the war would continue?
ESTRIN: Well, at the moment, this is just in the realm of a proposal that's being discussed. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu held a meeting with top officials last night to discuss that idea. And according to the person briefed on the matter I spoke with, military officials said that kind of tent camp - humanitarian city, how they're calling it - that could take months or a year to build. And Netanyahu is demanding plans for it to be taking less time to build.
Now, Israeli defense analysts say this kind of an idea would mean a protracted Israeli occupation in Gaza, essentially having soldiers manage Palestinian civilian life. And polls show that the majority of Israelis do not want that kind of idea. They want soldiers out of Gaza. They want hostages out of Gaza, and they want the end of the war. This war remains catastrophic for Palestinians. Gaza health officials say children were killed yesterday collecting clean water when an Israeli strike hit them. And Israel does acknowledge it was an accidental misfire as they were trying to target a militant. Gaza officials say that the Palestinian death toll has now surpassed 58,000 deaths.
MCCAMMON: And, Daniel, within the last few days, there also was a U.S. citizen killed in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. What is known about what happened there?
ESTRIN: His name is Sayfollah Musallet. He was 21 years old. He ran an ice cream shop in Tampa, Florida. He was visiting his mom and siblings in their West Bank village, where they live. And residents say he joined a protest Friday against Israeli settlers, and settlers beat him. His father, Kamel Musallet, spoke to reporters.
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KAMEL MUSALLET: We demand the U.S. government to do something about it. They're always saying justice, justice, justice. But as Palestinians, they dehumanize us.
ESTRIN: His son was one of two Palestinians killed in the incident. The Israeli police tell me they arrested one Israeli reservist soldier in connection with the killings. He said he opened fire in the air, according to normal protocol, and so the military is now investigating his actions. Musallet is the fifth American reported killed in the West Bank since a wave of violence sparked by the October 7, 2023, Hamas attacks.
MCCAMMON: NPR's Daniel Estrin in Tel Aviv. Thank you, Daniel.
ESTRIN: You're welcome.
(SOUNDBITE OF BRUCE LANGHORNE'S "ENDING") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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