Only a few days before the second anniversary of the genocidal Israeli war on Gaza, the White House tabled a 20-point plan this week that it said would bring an end to the war.
In essence, the plan demands that Hamas promptly and fully hands over the Israeli hostages that are still held in Gaza and the bodies of those who have died while in captivity.
In return, the plan offers the Palestinians two things. The first is the release of a specific number of Palestinian prisoners, including some with life sentences. The second is a highly conditional end to the Israeli war on Gaza with some indefinite schemes for an open-ended, partial, and not necessarily full Israeli withdrawal from the Strip that would then be put under non-Palestinian administrative and security control for an indefinite length of time.
Despite a courteous but ambiguous reference to the Saudi-French diplomatic initiative on the two-state solution before the recent UN General Assembly meetings in New York, the plan falls far short of clearly endorsing a Palestinian state.
The 19th point of Trump’s plan says that “while Gaza re-development advances and when the Palestinian Authority (PA) reform programme is faithfully carried out, the conditions may finally be in place for a credible pathway to Palestinian self-determination and statehood, which we recognise as the aspiration of the Palestinian people.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has made it clear that he does not support the creation of a Palestinian state, however.
A statement to this effect came just hours after US President Donald Trump announced the proposed ceasefire plan for Gaza. Speaking to the media, Netanyahu said he had not agreed with Trump on the issue of Palestinian statehood and added that the peace deal contains no mention of a future Palestinian state.
Netanyahu emphasised that Israel remains firmly opposed to Palestinian statehood. “One thing is clear — we will strongly oppose any form of Palestinian state,” he said, adding that Israeli forces would remain in control of most areas of Gaza.
The statement came despite growing global pressure for a two-state solution, and Netanyahu’s remarks raise doubts about how far the new ceasefire plan will go in bringing about a lasting peace.
On Tuesday this week, during a meeting in Cairo with Park Bom Kye, special envoy of the president of the Republic of South Korea, President Abdel-Fattah Al-Sisi reiterated the Egyptian position on the Gaza war, urging nations that have not yet recognised a Palestinian state to accelerate this step.
He stressed that this recognition would have a profound impact on supporting the two-state solution, which remains the only viable path to achieving lasting peace and stability in the region, Presidential Spokesperson Mohamed Al-Shennawi said.
An informed diplomatic source said that the points included in the new US plan was the maximum that the Trump administration would agree to, however, in view of its opposition to what it has described as “any imposition of Palestinian statehood on Israel”.
In a joint press conference following the meeting in Washington on Monday, Netanyahu said that the plan represents Israel’s aims in Gaza and that the war would continue if Hamas does not agree to it.
Trump said that if Hamas does not bow to the plan, he will support Netanyahu in continuing the war on Gaza.
Hours after the plan was proposed, Ismail Al-Thawabta, director of the Hamas Government Media Office, said that the plan imposes a new kind of guardianship over Gaza and legitimises the Israeli occupation.
In a statement on social media, Al-Thawabta wrote that the proposal “does not represent a real, objective, or fair solution” to the Gaza conflict.
The Gaza-based Jihad Movement said that the plan is “a recipe to maintain the Israeli aggression against the Palestinian people… and to explode the region.”
The plan was presented to Hamas leaders on Monday in Doha. Sources say that despite the unease of the Egyptian and Qatari mediators about some of the contents of the plan, they advised Hamas to try to work with it rather than to reject it.
“Clearly, there are some serious issues with the plan, but our focus should be to end the war or at least to try to do so,” said one of the sources who preferred to withhold his name.
He added that in view of the significant influence that Netanyahu has on Trump and his team, the best way forward for Hamas would be to try to work with it and not come out as the spoiler of the plan.
The same source said that different Arab capitals have different assessments of this plan, with some being more in favour and some more apprehensive about it. An informed diplomatic source said the plan is “disappointing” but added that “it is not smart to reject it, as conditions do not allow for this.”
A joint statement by the foreign ministers of Egypt, Qatar, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, the UAE, Turkey, Pakistan, and Indonesia welcomed the “leadership that President Trump is showing and his dedicated efforts to end the war in Gaza.”
It said that the plan offers a chance to end the war in Gaza, reconstruct the Strip, and prevent the displacement of the Palestinians. It underlined the ministers’ willingness to work with the US to secure the implementation of the deal.
In a New York meeting on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly meetings last week, Trump discussed elements of the plan with the leaders of these countries. An informed source said that Trump had told the leaders that this might well be his last offer to end the war and that Hamas did not have much choice but to accept it.
According to the informed source, the Arab and Muslim countries concerned know that there are few choices at this point. This, he said, was the reason why the wording of their statement underlined the core issues of Arab and Muslim interest: the end of the war, the reconstruction of Gaza, and the prevention of displacement.
He added that the capitals had declined to take part in a proposed signing ceremony to publicly ratify the deal.
“The approach towards this plan is one of realpolitik,” he said. “We are not sure how far it could go, but we know we have to try,” he added.
The European Council said that the plan offers “a chance” that should be taken to end the “unbearable situation in Gaza and to release all the prisoners at once.”
President of the European Council Antonio Costa said that he was “encouraged by Netanyahu’s positive response” to the Trump plan.
Several European leaders, including French President Emmanuel Macron, said that Hamas “has no choice but to accept the plan and to release the hostages immediately.”
UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer said that “Hamas should now agree to the plan.”
Speaking on Monday, a source close to Hamas said that the resistance movement knew that the momentum was there to attempt to eliminate “not just Hamas but the concept of resistance as a whole”.
However, he added that as far as Hamas and Jihad leaders are concerned, this is not just about eliminating resistance but also about eliminating the Palestinian cause in general.
There is a very big question about whether Hamas could agree to the plan, which “at best would bring about a maximum of a few weeks ceasefire before Netanyahu would resume his war,” not just against Gaza but against all the occupied Palestinian territories and against all entities that support Palestinian rights, he said.
The source said that Hamas leaders do not trust Netanyahu or Trump. He added that the answer of Hamas to the plan would not be inspired by “fake promises of Israeli amnesty for its leaders or the unwritten promise to return the bodies of its martyred leaders,” including that of Yahya Al-Sinwar.
He said that Hamas leaders are aware of their weakness after two years of war, adding that they are equally aware that the people of Gaza are “way beyond dilapidated”.
The plan says that after the end of the war “Gaza will be governed under the temporary transitional governance of a technocratic, apolitical Palestinian committee,” though it does not identify any Palestinian individual or group by name as being involved in the transition.
The committee would be supervised by a new international transitional body called the Board of Peace. It would be headed by Trump and would include former UK prime minister Tony Blair.
In his statement before the UN General Assembly on 26 September, Netanyahu bragged about the elimination of almost all anti-Israeli resistance entities.
“Half the Houthi leadership in Yemen — gone. Yahya Al-Sinwar in Gaza — gone. Hassan Nasrallah in Lebanon — gone. The Al-Assad regime in Syria — gone,” he said, adding “those militias in Iraq? Well, they’re still deterred. And their leaders, if they attack Israel, will also be gone.”
“And for Iran’s top military commanders and its top nuclear scientists… Well, they’re gone too,” he stated.
However, according to commentators in the Israeli press, while Netanyahu might brag in public he knows that Hamas has successfully recruited new fighters and that his war on Gaza has led to Israel’s international isolation, even as his war on Iran shows no signs of leading to regime change in Tehran.
* A version of this article appears in print in the 2 October, 2025 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly
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