Déjà-vu in Gaza: The Latest Plan Won’t Work Either
According to President Donald Trump, Hamas has agreed to disarm. Just hours later, the message has already changed.
Announced in late September 2025, just ahead of the second anniversary of Hamas' massacre in Israel, Trump's ambitious Gaza peace plan has made little progress, if any. On Thursday, the U.S. president announced that a "milestone" had been reached. That would indeed be true if the plan developed by Trump's self-created "Board of Peace" were ever implemented. But the prospects of that happening are bleak.
It is déjà-vu all over again. Within hours, what Trump had presented as a finished plan became a project whose details had yet to be worked out. At first, the claim was that Hamas had agreed in principle to disarm. That was immediately followed by Hamas’ clarification of what Israel would first have to do in return. As long as Hamas retains its weapons, Israel will not withdraw from the expanded and heavily fortified portion of the Gaza Strip it has controlled for the past 10 months. Even if Israel were not heading into Knesset elections at the end of October, that would likely still be the case.
But those elections undoubtedly make Israeli approval of a phased plan — partial disarmament in exchange for partial withdrawals — even less likely. Another likely nonstarter for Benjamin Netanyahu is the proposal that Hamas' weapons could — though much remains unclear — be handed over to Palestinians, namely the National Committee that would administer Gaza. In the midst of an election campaign, the prime minister cannot justify such a move to his political base.
Who Will Provide the Troops?
Even so, Netanyahu can afford to be fairly relaxed, because even if the new plan is eventually finalized, several crucial prerequisites for its implementation are still missing. The International Stabilization Force, intended for deployment to the Gaza Strip, exists only on paper. The same is true of a Palestinian police force — one that Israel would also have to trust.
The real problem remains unchanged. There is a complete lack of political will, both on the Israeli side, where any Palestinian political entity is rejected, and on the Hamas side, which has no intention of fading into irrelevance.
Meanwhile, the region has become even more unstable and violent. Key players — not least the Arab Gulf states — without whom peace in Gaza cannot be achieved, are now grappling with challenges brought on by the U.S. and Israeli-led war against Iran that, a year ago, they could not have imagined even in their worst nightmares.
Announced in late September 2025, just ahead of the second anniversary of Hamas' massacre in Israel, Trump's ambitious Gaza peace plan has made little progress, if any. On Thursday, the U.S. president announced that a "milestone" had been reached. That would indeed be true if the plan developed by Trump's self-created "Board of Peace" were ever implemented. But the prospects of that happening are bleak.
It is déjà-vu all over again. Within hours, what Trump had presented as a finished plan became a project whose details had yet to be worked out. At first, the claim was that Hamas had agreed in principle to disarm. That was immediately followed by Hamas’ clarification of what Israel would first have to do in return. As long as Hamas retains its weapons, Israel will not withdraw from the expanded and heavily fortified portion of the Gaza Strip it has controlled for the past 10 months. Even if Israel were not heading into Knesset elections at the end of October, that would likely still be the case.
But those elections undoubtedly make Israeli approval of a phased plan — partial disarmament in exchange for partial withdrawals — even less likely. Another likely nonstarter for Benjamin Netanyahu is the proposal that Hamas' weapons could — though much remains unclear — be handed over to Palestinians, namely the National Committee that would administer Gaza. In the midst of an election campaign, the prime minister cannot justify such a move to his political base.
Who Will Provide the Troops?
Even so, Netanyahu can afford to be fairly relaxed, because even if the new plan is eventually finalized, several crucial prerequisites for its implementation are still missing. The International Stabilization Force, intended for deployment to the Gaza Strip, exists only on paper. The same is true of a Palestinian police force — one that Israel would also have to trust.
The real problem remains unchanged. There is a complete lack of political will, both on the Israeli side, where any Palestinian political entity is rejected, and on the Hamas side, which has no intention of fading into irrelevance.
Meanwhile, the region has become even more unstable and violent. Key players — not least the Arab Gulf states — without whom peace in Gaza cannot be achieved, are now grappling with challenges brought on by the U.S. and Israeli-led war against Iran that, a year ago, they could not have imagined even in their worst nightmares.
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