Thousands protested in both the Gaza Strip and West Bank on Tuesday ahead of the announcement of Donald Trump's Israel-Palestine peace plan.

Palestinians staged protests on Tuesday against US President Donald Trump's so-called "Deal of the Century" Israel-Palestine peace plan, hours before it was unveiled in Washington.

Thousands demonstrated in the besieged Gaza Strip, burning pictures of Trump and the American flag, while further rallies were planned for the coming days.

Details of the initiative remained under wraps on Tuesday afternoon, but Palestinians feared the plan would heavily favour Israel, whose Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was in Washington to attend the White House unveiling.

In a rare event, rival Palestinian factions Hamas and Fatah agreed to meet in the West Bank city of Ramallah to discuss a response to Trump.

Trump later released his plan, in preparation since 2017, at the White House together with his close ally Netanyahu, who is battling corruption charges which he denies and campaigning for March 2 elections.

The Palestinians, who accuse Trump of pro-Israel bias after his administration has unwaveringly backed Israeli objectives, were not talking part in the Washington event.

And Trump's vision of peace is almost certainly a non-starter for most Palestinians, including those in the Jordan Valley, a strategically vital area that constitutes around 30 percent of the West Bank.

Netanyahu said on Tuesday the Israel-Palestine peace plan would allow Israel sovereignity over the Jordan Valley, indicating a likely green light from Washington annex the fertile area, which is home to around 65,000 Palestinians, according to the Israeli anti-occupation NGO B'Tselem.

The Israeli army announced it was beefing up forces in the area ahead of Trump's announcement, with Defence Minister Naftali Bennett pledging the military was "ready for any scenario".



Future of settlements

Netanyahu added that the US would recognise its illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank as part of the plan, a move which will surely be unacceptable for Palestinians and would render an independent Palestinian state as advocated in the peace plan nearly impossible.



Settlements home to around 600,000 Israeli are dotted across the West Bank. Their annexation into Israel proper would deny Palestinians hope for a territorially contiguous state.

Extreme right-wing Israeli settlers had initially been upbeat about Trump's proposals.

But after being briefed on the plan by US officials, leaders of the Yesha Council umbrella group that represents settlers living in the West Bank said they were now "very concerned".

"We can't agree to a plan that includes forming a Palestinian state, which will constitute a threat to Israel and a great danger to the future," said council head David Elhayani.

Israeli Transport Minister Bezalel Smotrich of the far-right Yemina union stressed in an interview with army radio that his party "won't under any conditions agree to recognition, whether explicit or implicit, of a Palestinian state".