Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday vowed to continue his country’s war against Hamas in Gaza if the militant group doesn’t accept the terms of a U.S.-backed plan to end the war by putting an international “peace board” run by President Donald Trump, former British prime minister Tony Blair and others in charge of Gaza.
Netanyahu offered Hamas a take-it-or-leave it approach to the 20-point proposal that would require the group to disarm and give up any role in the administration of the Gaza Strip, which according to the plan would become a “deradicalized terror-free zone that does not pose a threat to its neighbors” that will be “redeveloped for the benefit of the people of Gaza.”
Speaking at the White House alongside Trump during a press conference at which the two leaders took no questions, Netanyahu told Trump that a decision by Hamas to reject the plan — or to accept it but later work to undermine it — would give Israel a green light to “finish the job by itself.”
“This can be done the easy way, or it can be done the hard way, but it will be done. We prefer the easy way, but it has to be done,” Netanyahu said.
The Israeli leader praised Trump’s efforts in backing the plan for Gaza, which he described as “taking the next step to win the war and expand the peace” and being consistent with his government’s goal of returning all living and deceased hostages taken during the October 7 attacks, disarming Hamas, demilitarizing Gaza, and installing “a peaceful, civilian administration that is run neither by Hamas nor by the Palestinian Authority” in Gaza.
The nuts and bolts of the proposal largely track a peace plan that has been shopped around the Middle East in recent months by Blair with the backing of Trump’s roving special envoy, Steve Witkoff, and his son-in-law and former senior adviser, Jared Kushner.
According to a copy of the 20-point proposal distributed by the White House, if Hamas agrees to the proposal hostilities would cease “immediately” and following steps would begin:
- Israeli forces will withdraw to the agreed upon line to prepare for a hostage release.
- During this time, all military operations, including aerial and artillery bombardment, will be suspended, and battle lines will remain frozen until conditions are met for the complete staged withdrawal.
- Within 72 hours of Israel publicly accepting this agreement, all hostages, alive and deceased, will be returned.
- Once all hostages are released, Israel will release 250 life sentence prisoners plus 1700 Gazans who were detained after October 7th 2023, including all women and children detained in that context. For every Israeli hostage whose remains are released, Israel will release the remains of 15 deceased Gazans.
At that point, Hamas militants who agree to “commit to peaceful co-existence and to decommission their weapons” will receive amnesty and any who want to leave Gaza would be granted passage to as-yet unspecified “receiving countries.”
The plan also calls for aid to Gaza to resume with the minimum level of aid consistent with the temporary ceasefire deal reached by the outgoing Biden and incoming Trump administration representatives this past January. Israel would also agree not to interfere with aid distribution by the Red Crescent and United Nations plus “other international institutions not associated in any manner with either party.”
The task of running Gaza would then fall to a “temporary transitional governance of a technocratic, apolitical Palestinian committee, responsible for delivering the day-to-day running of public services and municipalities for the people in Gaza” and made up of “qualified Palestinians and international experts.”
That committee would in turn be supervised by a “Board of Peace” to be chaired by Trump and include Blair as well as other “other members and heads of State to be announced.” According to the plan, the board would “set the framework and handle the funding for the redevelopment of Gaza” until the Palestinian Authority meets conditions laid out in a plan put forth by Trump during his first term.
The plan also states that Gaza would be demilitarized under supervision of “independent monitors” including “placing weapons permanently beyond use through an agreed process of decommissioning, and supported by an internationally funded buy back and reintegration program all verified by the independent monitors.”
Security in Gaza would be handled by an Arab and internationally backed “International Stabilization Force” that would also be in charge of training and supporting “vetted Palestinian police forces in Gaza.”
In exchange, Israel would agree to “not occupy or annex Gaza” and to withdraw Israeli Defense Forces “based on standards, milestones, and timeframes linked to demilitarization that will be agreed upon between the IDF, ISF, the guarantors, and the Unites States, with the objective of a secure Gaza that no longer poses a threat to Israel, Egypt, or its citizens.”
Regarding the Palestinian Authority, Netanyahu stressed that in order to be permitted to have a role in running what the plan calls “New Gaza” it would have to go through a “radical and genuine transformation” including agreeing to stop cash awards to the families of militants who kill Israelis, “changing poisonous textbooks that teach hatred to Jews to Palestinian children,” recognizing Israel as a Jewish state, ending efforts to prosecute Israel — and him — at the International Criminal Court and International Court of Justice, plus “many other reforms.”
It’s unclear whether any Palestinian representatives were consulted before the unveiling of the plan, though a Hamas representative said the group was reviewing the proposal in good faith.
For his part, Trump cast the peace plan as a “historic day for peace” and said it could “bring an end to the death and destruction that we’ve seen for so many years” in favor of “a new chapter of security, peace and prosperity for the entire region.”
He claimed that Arab leaders and others had asked him to run the “peace board” and said it was “so important” that he was willing to take on the role in addition to his responsibilities as president.
Trump criticized the various western leaders who’d recognized a Palestinian state in recent days as “foolish” but acknowledged that the leaders who’d done so are “very tired of what’s going on for so many decades” with respect to Gaza.
“There are many Palestinians who wish to live in peace … and I challenge the Palestinians to take responsibility for their destiny, because that’s what we’re giving them,” Trump said.
