Live: Israel cracks down on Trump plan protests

Trump said that under new plan Jerusalem will be "Israel's undivided capital" city and that a joint committee will be proposed to complete his deal. 

Trump said he presented his 80-page plan to Israeli Prime Minister and described it as providing "precise technical solutions." 

He said the deal presents a "realistic" two-state solution and said that Netanyahu and Gantz endorsed the paper as a starting point for future negotiations. 

US President Donald Trump confirmed he met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and leader of the Blue and White party Benny Gantz. 

Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu are launching the US president's severely delayed and much-maligned scheme at the White House. You can watch Middle East Eye's live feed here:

Senior Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh and Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas spoke on the phone, where both agreed to show a united front against Trump's deal. 

According to the Palestinian Authority's Wafa news agency, Haniyeh called for "differences to be put aside" and to unite against Trump's deal of the century. 

The chief Palestinian envoy to the UK has said Trump's plan effectively gives Israel a green light to establish an apartheid state.

"This is a political circus, it's a sad piece of political theatre," said Husam Zomlot, who previously served as head of the Palestinian mission to Washington and as a strategic advisor to President Mahmoud Abbas.

While the peace proposal to be announced by Trump at noon in Washington might refer to the establishment of a Palestinian state, Zomlot said it would have none of the characteristics of a true state and would leave the Israelis able to carve up Palestinian territory into "bantustans."

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas slammed Donald Trump's so-called "deal of the century" and called the US President "a son of a bitch."

"They called me from Washington and I did not pick up the phone," Abbas said on Tuesday.

"I said no and I will continue to say no... We are going for difficult days and we are beginning to bear the consequences of the refusal.

He added: "I was told I'll pay a heavy price for my foolish behavior. I do not have much longer to live and I will not go down as a traitor. It's either dying like martyrs or flying the Palestinian flag on the walls of Jerusalem."

Here's a quick timeline of how the Trump administration's approached the Israel and Palestine issue in the past three years.

Spoilers: Existing policies foreshadow more of the same one-sided approach catering to many of Israel’s demands - including support for land annexation and the stifling of Palestinian political demands for statehood and sovereignty.

Read more here.

US President Donald Trump so-called "deal of the century" is aimed at winning over support among Christian Zionists, who number about 20 million in the United States and have poured millions of dollars over the past decades seeking an expanded Israel, analysts have said.

Phyllis Bennis, the director of New Internationalism project at the Institute for Palestine Studies, said that the announcement was also geared towards keeping Trump in the White House and Israeli Benjamin Netanyahu out of jail.

"There is an effort to win support from the right-wing Jewish community in the US and most especially the evangelical Christian Zionists. That's Trump's goal, his son-in-law and his bankruptcy lawyer and his buddies that made up this team, their goal is to support the right of the already very far right-wing range of Israeli politics," she told MEE.

According to previous reports by MEE, Christian Zionists have sponsored the migration of thousands of Jews from Russia, Ethiopia, and other countries to Israel.

"They [Trump and Netanyahu] are trying to support the settler movement, trying to discredit any notion that Palestinians have. And I think that's really what is going on here," Bennis said.

"How many big gifts can we give to Netanyahu so that he will be sure to get reelected? That will make the evangelicals happy, it will make the right-wing Jews happy and everybody will vote for Trump and he'll be happy. So it doesn't really have much to do with anyone's version of peace, certainly not justice, but even peace. This is not about changing anything, this is about consolidating what already exists."

Demonstrations took place on the Gaza Strip as Palestinians prepare for US President Donald Trump's announcement. 

MEE photographer Muhammed al Hajjar captures the anger, frustration and resolve on the streets of Gaza. 

We are hours away before Trump reveals the details of his secretive deal - which was brokered and led by his son in law Jared Kushner. 

Here are four things you need to know before the big reveal: 

1) Trump confirmed on Monday that he will be unveiling his anticipated plan alongside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday afternoon.

2) Palestine's political leadership has uniformly rejected Trump's plan and united - albeit briefly- to discuss next steps in how they will oppose Trump's plan.

3) Trump's son in law Jared Kushner was tasked with drafting the plan. Kushner has no experience of Middle East diplomacy. 

4) Both Trump and Netanyahu face domestic issues. Netanyahu faces corruption charges and another election in a month's time. While Trump's impeachment trial enters a critical phase. 

In a Tweet parodying the president's Twitter style, Ayman Odeh, the chairman of the Joint List of Arab parties wrote: "We need to talk to Donald Trump in his own language:

"Bad deal. VERY BAD. No peace with annexation. CORRUPT BIBI doesn’t want peace. CHEATING TRUMP doesn’t want peace. They only care about HASINUT!!!! Sad." He said, referring to Netanyahu's bid to gain immunity in his corruption cases. 

The Islamic State group (IS) vowed in an audio message released on Monday that it would start a new phase of attacks that would focus on Israel, as it blasted the Trump administration's plan to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Despite carrying out deadly attacks throughout the world over the past years, IS has rarely targeted Israel.

The message exhorted the "soldiers of the caliphate" especially in Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula and across the Levant to attack Jewish targets as they are near to Israel.

The message added: "To Muslims and Palestine and elsewhere, be a main force in fighting Jews and frustrating their plans such as the Deal of the Century."