By Andrew Bernard
US President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced a plan to end the war in Gaza, with a 72-hour deadline, which begins when Israel accepts the agreement, for Hamas to return the hostages whom it holds in Gaza.
Speaking at a press conference after the White House released the plan, Trump said that Hamas has not agreed to the proposal but that Arab and Muslim countries are negotiating with the terrorist group.
“We’re relying on the countries that I named and others to deal with Hamas, and I’m hearing that Hamas wants to get this done, too,” Trump said. Among the countries he named were Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Jordan.
Trump said that if Hamas rejects the proposal, he will continue to support Israel’s war effort.
“If Hamas rejects the deal, which is always possible — they’re the only one left, everyone else has accepted it — but I have a feeling that we’re going to have a positive answer,” Trump said. “If not, as you know, Bibi, you’d have my full backing to do what you would have to do.”
The plan calls for an immediate ceasefire, phased Israeli withdrawal from most of Gaza, Hamas releasing Israeli hostages in exchange for the Jewish state releasing nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners, amnesty for Hamas members who lay down arms and creating a “technocratic, apolitical Palestinian committee” to govern Gaza on a transitional basis.
It largely conforms to prior media reports about the proposal, except that it does not include an Israeli pledge to refrain from carrying out airstrikes against Qatar. Netanyahu made that promise orally in a phone call with Qatar’s prime minister earlier on Monday, in which he also apologized for violating Qatari sovereignty in the Sept. 9 bombing, according to a White House readout of the call.
‘UNRWA can’t come back’
Richard Goldberg, senior adviser at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, told JNS that the plan includes both things that would occur quickly and concretely — like releasing the hostages within 72 hours — and longer-term items, like reforming the Palestinian Authority.
“The top-line principles of the deal are exactly in line with Israel’s stated war goals, demands, priorities and interests,” Goldberg said. “How does it actually all happen? There are a million ways this could all go bad.”
“How do you actually deradicalize the Gaza Strip?” he said. “How do you actually ensure that it becomes a terror-free zone long term? Who will be participating in this international security force?”
Other questions include “how will you ensure the United Nations is not continuing to provide services, money, aid, equipment to members of Hamas or other terror organizations that are not recognized as terror organizations by the United Nations?” Goldberg said. “How do you deradicalize if the Qataris are at the table, having been longtime sponsors, financiers of Muslim Brotherhood ideology and the radicalization that obviously has already taken place?
“These are all important questions that we’re going to have to address.”
The plan calls for aid distribution in Gaza via the United Nations “and its agencies” to “proceed without interference.” It does not say what role, if any, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency — the UN Palestinian aid agency that Israel banned in January over its alleged ties to Hamas — will play in a future Gaza.
Goldberg said that UNRWA continuing to have a role in Gaza would undermine efforts to deradicalize the Palestinian enclave.
“UNRWA can’t come back,” he said. “What does it mean to have the United Nations in some sort of leading role in the delivery of aid and services, and how does that align with the stated objective of a Gaza that is self-sufficient for the Gazan people who would also de-radicalize? UNRWA cannot deliver on either of those.”
Day-after plan
Netanyahu said that the Israeli cabinet has approved the proposal, which he said is the “day-after” plan for Gaza.
“Hamas will be disarmed, Gaza will be demilitarized, Israel will retain security responsibility, including a security perimeter for the foreseeable future,” the premier said. “Gaza will have a peaceful, civilian administration. That is run neither by Hamas nor by the Palestinian Authority.”
The transitional Palestinian committee to govern Gaza will be overseen by a “board of peace,” which Trump is to chair, and whose members are to include Tony Blair, a former UK prime minister who oversaw the Good Friday agreement in Northern Ireland.
The plan envisions the Palestinian Authority replacing both entities eventually.
“This body will set the framework and handle the funding for the redevelopment of Gaza until such time as the Palestinian Authority has completed its reform program, as outlined in various proposals, including President Trump’s peace plan in 2020 and the Saudi-French proposal and can securely and effectively take back control of Gaza,” point nine states.
The plan leaves the possibility of a Palestinian state open in the future, even as Trump said that several countries had “foolishly” recognized such a state and noted that Netanyahu said he was deeply opposed to it.
“While Gaza redevelopment advances and when the Palestinian Authority reform program is faithfully carried out, the conditions may finally be in place for a credible pathway to Palestinian self-determination and statehood, which we recognize as the aspiration of the Palestinian people,” it states.
Jewish groups applauded the proposed deal. Ronald Lauder, president of the World Jewish Congress, called the announcement “a moment of historic consequence.”
“The plan forged by the United States, agreed upon by Israel and shared with key international partners, marks the first credible path forward toward ending the cycle of violence that has gripped the region since Hamas’s brutal terror attack on Oct. 7,” Lauder stated. “For the first time, there is a clear framework that ensures all hostages will be freed, Hamas will be disarmed, Gaza will be demilitarized, and Israel’s security will be preserved.”
“Critically, it finally opens the possibility for the Palestinian people to live free of radical terrorist rule that has brought them only misery and destruction,” he added. “This is a turning point. Peace is now within reach, but only if Hamas chooses to lay down its weapons and release the innocent men, women and children it continues to hold.”
