Beirut – President Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu presented a 20 -point plan on Monday to end the war in the Gaza Strip, a radical proposal that calls for Hamas not only to lay down their arms, but to give up any role in the governance of the enclave.
The key elements of the plan, which the leaders announced to the White House in Washington, include the release of hostages, an exchange of prisoners involving hundreds and amnesty for Hamas fighters. Trump would play a role, head of a commission created to govern Gaza.
Trump said he was “very, very close” to an agreement to end the war, although he has not yet received a reaction from Hamas. The plan calls on the Israeli army to stop fighting once the pact has been approved, but does not specify a last stop of forces in Gaza.
“And I think we are very close,” added Trump of his most concerted push to reach a cease-fire between Israel and Hamas, even if the Israeli soldiers flock with his offensive in the city of Gaza, the largest urban center in the enclave.
In a 30-minute speech to journalists after his meeting with Netanyahu, Trump seemed enthusiastic about his proposal, praising him as an unprecedented stage towards peace not only in Gaza but through the Middle East. “It is potentially one of the biggest days of civilization,” he said.
Trump said he “heard Hamas also wanted to do this.” But, he added, if Hamas did not accept the plan, Israel would have the “right” and the “full support” of the United States to “finish work”-in other words, eliminate Hamas.
According to Trump’s plan, which the White House published on Monday, hostilities would end immediately, with frozen battle lines before a partial Israeli withdrawal in preparation for the exit of the hostages.
Hamas would make all the hostages – alive or deceased – within 72 hours of the acceptance of Israel, after which Israel would release 250 Palestinian prisoners serving perpetuity sentences and 1,700 residents of Gaza detained after October 7, 2023, and a number of people who were deceased.
Help, which Israel has blocked for months, would be allowed to surrender. Hamas would go, and the United States and the Arab partner countries would create a “international stabilization force”, which, once ready, would then take charge of the Gaza areas from which the Israeli army withdraws.
A “temporary transitional government” will manage the daily functioning of the Gaza Strip, supervised by a “peace council” chaired and led by Trump. Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair will also play a role. This organization will remain in place until the Palestinian authority finishes a reform program and can then take control of the Gaza Strip.
And in a nod to Trump’s interest in the long term to develop Gaza in a “Middle East riviera”, the enclave will be subject to a “Trump’s economic development plan” which “would reconstruct and energize Gaza” and include a special economic zone.
No one would be forced to leave Gaza, and those who wish to leave would be free to do so and could come back. The members of Hamas who “commit to peaceful coexistence” receive an amnesty, and those who wish to leave Gaza will obtain a safe passage.
Netanyahu, who has repeatedly demonstrated his admiration for Trump and described him as “the greatest friend that Israel has ever had in the White House”, said that the proposal has achieved “our war objectives” and was “a critical stage towards the end at the end of the war in Gaza and prepared the ground to advance peace radically in the Middle East”.
But Netanyahu also threatened that “Israel will end the work by itself” if Hamas rejects the plan, or if it accepts it but in return. “This can be done the easy way, or it can be done. But it will be done,” he said.
Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Jordan and Egypt gave their approval from Trump’s plan in a joint declaration, claiming that they were ready to “cooperate positively and constructively with the United States and the parties concerned to conclude the agreement and ensure its implementation”. The countries have added that they would work with the United States to end the war thanks to a complete agreement that would see the creation of a “just peace process based on the two-state solution”.
The Palestinian authority also praised the agreement. The Palestinian Authority, which oversees the West Bank occupied by Israeli, ruled Gaza until Hamas prevailed in the elections in 2006.
Hamas would have received the proposal a short time ago and would have studied it.
Although the plan as it is published remains rare on the details, it is not clear how Hamas would be likely to surrender and disarm while obtaining the terms it has sought during more than a year of tortuous negotiations: a cessation of hostilities and a complete posse-Israeli state, as well as the creation of an independent Palestinian State.
The plan also has little on a viable path to a Palestinian state – a prerequisite for the condition of Saudi Arabia before joining any normalization agreement with Israel. Instead, the agreement gives a vague notion of recognition of self -determination and the State as the “aspiration” of the Palestinian people, and that “the conditions can finally be in place” for this after the Palestinian Authority’s reform plan is “faithfully carried out” and Gaza is redeemed.
Netanyahu has repeatedly insisted that there will be no Palestinian state. A number of nations have recognized a Palestinian state. The United Kingdom, Australia and Canada have taken these measures this month.
Netanyahu earlier Monday officially apologized to Qatar for his recent attack on Hamas leaders in the Qatari capital, Doha.
“In the first step, Prime Minister Netanyahu expressed his deep regret that the Missile strike of Israel against Hamas targets in Qatar has involuntarily killed a Qatari soldier,” the White House said in a statement. “He also expressed his regret that by targeting Hamas leaders during hostage negotiations, Israel violated Qatari sovereignty and said that Israel would no longer lead such an attack in the future.”
The war in Gaza began on October 7, 2023, when Hamas activists attacked southern Israel, killing some 1,200 people – two thirds of them civilians, say the Israeli totalities – and by kidnapping 251 others.
Israel retaliated with a complete offensive that has sprayed large expanses of the enclave and has so far killed more than 66,000 people, the vast majority of them civilians, according to health authorities and Gaza aid groups.
