Bloomberg: Trump says Netanyahu agreed to 20-Point Plan to end war in Gaza

Donald Trump (left), Benjamin Netanyahu (right), Gaza – at center.
Photo: ‘Cumhuriyet’

President Donald Trump said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had agreed to a 20-point plan designed to end the war between Israel and Hamas after talks on Monday, casting it as a “historic day for peace,” Bloomberg reports.

Trump said the agreement had the support of other leaders from the Middle East and Muslim majority nations during a press conference alongside Netanyahu, and suggested it could lay the ground for a broader peace in the region. Still, Trump warned that “if Hamas rejects the deal” then Netanyahu would “have our full backing” to destroy the militant group.

“We discussed how to end the war in Gaza, but it’s just a part of the bigger picture, which is peace in the Middle East, and let’s call it eternal peace in the Middle East,” Trump said. “So this is far more than anybody expected, but the level of support that I’ve had from the nations in the Middle East.”

The proposal — which mandates Hamas have no role in the future of Gaza — must be accepted by the militant group, which would need to agree to substantial concessions. Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, said ahead of the Trump-Netanyahu meeting that it had not yet seen the plan and would need to study the proposal.

The plan stipulates that the two-year conflict would end immediately if accepted by both Israel and Hamas, and that all hostages and the remains of those who died would be returned within 72 hours. The agreement would also see Israel release nearly 2,000 prisoners and stipulates that Israel would not occupy or annex Gaza.

The terms also reference a future where the conditions for a Palestinian state “may finally be in place” if the agreement is implemented.

Trump shared his plan with leaders from Muslim-majority countries during a meeting in New York last week on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly and had teased the prospect of imminent progress.

Trump and Netanyahu entered Monday’s meeting, their fourth this year, at a crossroads with Israel increasingly isolated on the the international stage and intensifying pressure from the US president for a ceasefire.

The path to the agreement was also eased by a phone call — set up by Trump — earlier Monday where Netanyahu expressed regret to Qatar’s prime minister for a strike on Doha aimed at killing senior Hamas leaders. Qatar, a key mediator between Israel and Hamas, and the host of the largest US military base in the region was outraged by the strike, as were other Arab states.

But Trump — along with Netanyahu — has also assailed other nations for moving to recognize a Palestinian state, saying it rewards Hamas for its attack.

President Trump and US Defense Secretary Hegseth watch Netanyahu at official dinner at the White House.
Photo: White House

Netanyahu’s balancing act

But Hamas said it would consider a new offer to end the war as its armed wing, the Qassam Brigades, warned that contact had been lost with teams holding two Israeli captives in Gaza City amid an expanding Israeli ground invasion and aerial bombardment, which is killing dozens of Palestinian civilians daily and destroying Gaza’s largest urban centre further, ‘Al Jazeera’ stresses.

Most notably, the vision claims to leave the door open for a future Palestinian state, something top Israeli leaders have said they would never allow.

The plan underscores that it does not want to forcibly expel Palestinians from Gaza and they would have a right of return if they choose to leave after two years of genocidal war has left most of the enclave in ruins.

Meanwhile, Netanyahu’s top ministers and coalition partners, including Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, have pushed for destroying what is left of Gaza and “encouraging voluntary migration” without return.

They want to cut off all food, water and medicine as Israel did for months, starting on March 18 when it torpedoed a previous ceasefire with Hamas, leading to famine and mass starvation. And they want to rebuild Israeli settlements inside Gaza after seizing and militarily controlling the area while annexing the occupied West Bank. Settlements are illegal under international law.

Smotrich and Ben-Gvir – two far-right hardliners who live in illegal settlements have been sanctioned, along with other ministers and leaders of violent settler organisations, by several Western governments – have already blasted the plan by Trump, whom they have repeatedly praised as Israel’s biggest-ever ally in the White House.

They believe Netanyahu has no mandate to accept such a deal without eliminating Hamas, which was set as a key goal of the war in October 2023.

Smotrich’s and Ben-Gvir’s parties hold 13 seats, meaning they could potentially topple Netanyahu’s government and force new elections if they pull out of the coalition.

Ben-Gvir actually resigned from his cabinet post in January in protest against the ceasefire with Hamas that brought back a number of captives but soon returned after Israel started bombing Gaza again.

But the far-right figures are unlikely to bring down the coalition anytime soon as Israel continues to block most aid to Gaza while pushing deeper inside Gaza City with tanks and launching explosives from the air and sea.

Numerous Israeli raids and settler attacks are launched against Palestinians on a daily basis in the West Bank as Israel grabs more land and demolishes Palestinian homes despite Trump’s claim that he will not allow annexation of the territory.

Trump’s new proposal currently seems provisional at best, too, and will take a long time to implement even if it is agreed by all sides and manages to secure a UN mandate.

Structure of Gaza’s future governance

The plan put forward by Trump has been drafted in collaboration with Israel and an organisation run by Tony Blair, who was the United Kingdom’s prime minister during the 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq.

It considers appointing him as the head of a newly established entity called the Gaza International Transitional Authority (GITA), which would administer Gaza after Hamas is ousted for several years.

The international board of GITA, which would initially be based in Egypt or elsewhere near but outside Gaza due to the chaotic situation created by Israel on the ground, could include a UN official, Egyptian businessmen and Muslim members in an attempt to build credibility.

It would reportedly have an executive secretariat with five commissioners operating under it to oversee humanitarian affairs, reconstruction, legislation, security oversight and coordination with the Palestinian Authority (PA), which is urged to undergo reforms on a promise it would take charge of governance at an undisclosed future time.

Under them will be a Palestinian technocratic authority appointed by the board to handle some implementation on the ground as a multinational stabilisation force takes charge of crossings into Gaza, the enclave’s coast and “perimeter zones” near its boundaries with Israel and Egypt, which are currently occupied by Israel.

This is while Netanyahu and others have insisted Israel will have “security control” over the enclave.

GITA is envisaged to have a $90m management budget in its first year, bumped to $133.5m and $164m in the two years after that. Those figures do not include reconstruction and humanitarian aid expenses.

read more in our Telegram-channel https://t.me/The_International_Affairs