Welcome to The Logoff: President Donald Trump announced a new peace plan for Gaza on Monday — and a threat for Hamas if the group isn’t willing to go along with it.
What just happened? Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu backed the Trump plan, which he said “achieves [Israel’s] war aims,” during his Monday visit to the White House. But it’s still not clear if the deal has a path to success.
What’s in the plan? The 20-point proposal calls for an immediate ceasefire, followed shortly thereafter by the release of the final Israeli hostages held by Hamas, the release of Palestinian prisoners by Israel, and the opening of Gaza to badly needed humanitarian aid.
Other longer-term elements of the plan, such as the creation of a “new international transitional body” chaired by Trump and the development of a “Trump economic development plan” for Gaza, are less clear.
What’s the context? Negotiations over a possible ceasefire broke off abruptly earlier in September after Israel struck at Hamas leadership in Doha, Qatar. This plan is a new effort to bring the two parties back to the table.
What comes next? It’s unclear if Hamas will accept the plan, which calls for the complete demilitarization of Gaza and its exclusion from any future governance, among other provisions.
Even if Hamas does so, however, there could be other hurdles; the plan’s mention of Palestinian statehood, noncommittal as it is, may prove to be a non-starter for the more extreme factions in Netanyahu’s governing coalition.
Why does this matter? It can be hard to gauge the importance of Trump’s often-mercurial efforts to end global conflicts in places like Gaza and Ukraine. But his warning on Monday that Israel will have his “full backing” to destroy Hamas if this plan fails spells out the stakes for Gaza clearly: Conditions in the territory, already impossibly dire, could still get worse.
