A plan is underway for “eternal peace in the Middle East” with officials “very, very close” to a ceasefire deal in Gaza, a beaming Donald Trump declared during a White House press conference with Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday.
The reason? His new “extremely fair” 20-point peace proposal.
A plan so great, he claimed, that European leaders have been on the phone heralding it as “the most incredible thing we’ve heard”.
“Some think it’s the biggest thing they’ve ever heard. They called just to find out: was it just a rumour or is it actually done?” he added.
Certainly the leaders of Qatar, Jordan, the United Arab Emirates, Indonesia, Pakistan, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, and Egypt released a joint statement immediately afterwards “welcoming” Trump’s “sincere efforts to end the war in Gaza”.
But after reading the 20-point proposal and listening to Netanyahu’s interpretation of it, The Independent is not sure that either Hamas – the militant group Israel has been fighting for two years – or the internationally recognised Palestinian Authority based in the occupied West Bank will agree to it.
It was also presented, not in a mediated negotiation process between two sides of a conflict, but as something already negotiated that Hamas must accept or face the consequences. The plan itself is scant on details and absent of most timelines.
There also appears to be some daylight between what the White House has written down and how Benjamin Netanyahu has chosen to interpret the words publicly.
Speaking at the press conference (which Palestinians were not invited to), Netanyahu made it very clear that Trump’s plan is entirely “consistent with the five principles” his government has already set out for the “day after”. Principles which have already been rejected by the Palestinian Authority (PA) as a boots-on-the-ground occupation of Gaza, and that Hamas has said would be a “surrender” that would prolong genocide.
Netanyahu’s principles include, he repeated: the disarmament of Hamas; the demilitarisation of Gaza; Israel retaining “security responsibility, including a security perimeter for the foreseeable future”; and the creation of a new civil administration “led neither by Hamas nor by the Palestinian Authority”.
Pouring fuel on the fire is the fact that Trump’s plan includes no provision or guarantees for the creation of a Palestinian state – a key demand from the Palestinians, the Middle East region and something which a slew of countries, including the UK, have officially endorsed, as the slaughter in Gaza has reached unprecedented proportions.
Instead, the plan somewhat confusingly suggests that after the removal of Hamas, if the PA “reforms” enough to be allowed back into some role of governance and following the imposition of a transitional authority (overseen by Donald Trump and Tony Blair), then, and only then, “the conditions may finally be in place for a credible pathway to Palestinian self-determination and statehood”.
But again, no guarantees. No timelines. No details.
At the press conference, Netanyahu leapt on this.
He said he welcomed Donald Trump’s rejection of a Palestinian state and added that recognising it in the plan “would be an outcome that, after October 7 [2023 attacks], would reward terrorists, undermine security, and endanger Israel’s very existence”.
Netanyahu, who already has an outstanding International Criminal Court arrest warrant against him, also added a few more caveats to the PA’s “reform” programme that are not listed in Trump’s 20-point proposal, including “ending lawfare against Israel at the ICC and the International Court of Justice”, which effectively means he is demanding impunity.
Trump’s plan itself introduces the notion of a “New Gaza”, accompanied by a map so simplistic it looks as though a boomer was unleashed on Microsoft Paint.
Simply entitled “End of Gaza War”, it is decorated with three primary-coloured lines indicating a three-stage Israeli withdrawal, with no timelines or operational details revealed.
In essence, it states that within the first 72 hours of the peace proposal being signed, Hamas will release all 48 remaining hostages, alive and deceased, in exchange for several hundred Palestinian prisoners. Again, something Hamas is unlikely to agree to.
“New Gaza”, as it is referred to, will then be immediately disarmed and demilitarised.
The PA will only be permitted to govern once it has “completed its reform programme”. In the interim, there will be “temporary transitional governance by a technocratic, apolitical Palestinian committee” responsible only for the day-to-day running of public services and municipalities. That will be overseen by a “board of peace,” headed by Sir Tony Blair and Donald Trump himself.
A temporary “International Stabilisation Force” – built by the US, Arab countries, and other international partners – will train and vet Palestinian police, and effectively run security in Gaza. The Independent presumes that this will be alongside Israelis, as the timeline withdrawal of its troops is unclear.
![Palestinians run to escape an Israeli air assault [file]](https://static.independent.co.uk/2025/09/28/11/ORIENTE_MEDIO-GUERRAS_67158.jpg)
Israel will not be permitted to occupy or annex Gaza, and no one will be forced to leave. The Israeli military will “progressively hand over Gaza”, although no dates have been given.
Hamas handing over all hostages – their only leverage – within 72 hours, surrendering all their weapons and power, and leaving the strip on the vague promise of “amnesty”, while relinquishing ever participating in Palestinian political life or in Gaza, is something the militant group is highly unlikely to agree to.
A Gaza that is not permitted to be run by the Palestinian Authority, where Israel and Netanyahu are shielded from the ICC and ICJ, will also be difficult for the West Bank-based authorities to accept.
On the other hand, a Gaza where Palestinians are not forced to leave and that cannot be annexed will not be favourable to the extreme-right settler factions within Netanyahu’s government.
Cabinet members like far-right settler and finance minister Bezalel Smotrich, who has called for the total destruction of Gaza and, at a recent conference, promised a “real estate bonanza” with Gaza’s prime seafront location.
There have been pledges of support. From Sir Tony, who called it “bold and intelligent”, to French president Emmanuel Macron, who welcomed Trump’s “commitment” to ending the war.
The joint statement from key regional, Arab and Muslim countries also threw their weight behind it. But without the buy-in from the Palestinian leadership, it is hard to see how far Trump’s “incredible” proposal will go.
