The Palestinian presidency accused Washington of scrapping its peace plan known as the “deal of the century” by concluding a deal in Gaza based on turning the Palestinian cause into a humanitarian matter. Nabil Abou Rudeineh, the Palestinian president’s official spokesperson, said that the US administration believed that removing Jerusalem from the peace talks and withdrawing from Iran’s nuclear agreement would allow it to make a deal with Gaza that is rejected at the Palestinian, regional and international levels. Abou Rudeineh reiterated President Mahmoud Abbas’ stance on the need to establish an international and multilateral mechanism to manage the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, instead of the US monopoly that perpetuates the Israeli occupation. “The Palestinians’ steadfast position and their adherence to their national principles as well as the Arab rejection to override the issue of Jerusalem and Arab legitimacy have aborted the so-called deal of the century because it was originally based on the idea of a deal for Gaza to turning the Palestinian cause into a humanitarian issue,” the spokesman said in a statement on Tuesday. He also called for “courageous national positions to preserve Jerusalem, the identity and the land, not through contacts or messages that give up our right to establish an independent Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital.” Abu Rudeineh was hinting at a Hamas-led approach to a long-term truce in Gaza that would strengthen the US plan to separate the Strip from the Palestinian file, but Hamas responded by reiterating its firm position towards the century deal. “There is no change in the position of Hamas that rejects the deal of the century,” said Sami Abu Zuhri, a spokesman for the movement. “The responsibility for the US exploitation of Gaza’s conditions lies in the PA sanctions that are no less horrifying than the Israeli siege.”