{"id":304101,"date":"2025-10-06T12:00:55","date_gmt":"2025-10-06T11:00:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=304101"},"modified":"2025-10-06T12:15:41","modified_gmt":"2025-10-06T11:15:41","slug":"trumps-20-point-gaza-plan-a-rubber-stamp-of-legitimacy-on-israels-subjugation-of-palestine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2025\/10\/trumps-20-point-gaza-plan-a-rubber-stamp-of-legitimacy-on-israels-subjugation-of-palestine\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump\u2019s 20-Point Gaza Plan: A Rubber Stamp of Legitimacy on Israel\u2019s Subjugation of Palestine"},"content":{"rendered":"
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US President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu after a press conference at the White House in Washington, DC on 29 Sep 2025. Photo by JIM WATSON\/AFP via Getty Images<\/p><\/div>\n

After his White House speech, Netanyahu said Israel will never withdraw from Gaza and promised to resume the genocide if Hamas does not disarm.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

30 Sep 2025\u00a0<\/em>–\u00a0Three weeks after Israel attempted to assassinate Hamas\u2019s lead negotiators in a series of airstrikes on the group\u2019s offices in Doha, Qatar, President Donald Trump hailed the public announcement of his 20-point plan<\/a> to end the war in Gaza as \u201cpotentially one of the great days ever in civilization.\u201d The framework was drafted in coordination with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu\u2019s top adviser, Ron Dermer, and spearheaded by Special Envoy Steve Witkoff and Trump\u2019s son-in-law, Jared Kushner. Several Arab and Muslim states also contributed. No Palestinian officials from Hamas or any other faction, including the internationally-recognized Palestinian Authority, were consulted in crafting the plan.<\/p>\n

The proposal, which Netanyahu agreed to after meeting with Trump at the White House on Monday, links the delivery of food and other life essentials and the withdrawal of Israeli forces to the demilitarization of Gaza and includes several loopholes that would permit Israel to resume the genocide. It also would impose a foreign-led authority on the demilitarized Gaza Strip, backed by Arab and international troops, and allow the Israeli army to indefinitely encircle the enclave by maintaining positions inside Gaza\u2019s territory. The plan requires Hamas to release all Israeli captives held in Gaza before any Palestinians would be freed. While the proposal includes a series of apparent concessions to Arab and Muslim countries in return for their endorsement, it makes no mention of how Israel would be prevented from violating the agreement. The plan also includes a nebulous mention of possible future Palestinian \u201cself-determination and statehood\u201d after Gaza \u201cre-development advances\u201d and the Palestinian Authority is reformed.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf both sides agree to this proposal, the war will immediately end,\u201d the framework\u2019s text, released on Monday, states. \u201cIsraeli forces will withdraw to the agreed upon line to prepare for a hostage release. During this time, all military operations, including aerial and artillery bombardment, will be suspended, and battle lines will remain frozen until conditions are met for the complete staged withdrawal.\u201d<\/p>\n

In his White House remarks, Netanyahu affirmed his acceptance of the framework, but made clear Israel stands poised to resume the genocide. \u201cIf Hamas rejects your plan, Mr. President, or if they supposedly accept it and then basically do everything to counter it\u2014then Israel will finish the job by itself,\u201d he declared. \u201cThis can be done the easy way or it can be done the hard way, but it will be done. We prefer the easy way, but it has to be done.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trump also underscored this point. \u201cIsrael would have my full backing to finish the job of destroying the threat of Hamas,\u201d he said. \u201cBut I hope that we\u2019re going to have a deal for peace, and if Hamas rejects the deal\u2026 Bibi you\u2019d have our full backing to do what you would have to do. Everyone understands that the ultimate result must be the elimination of any danger posed in the region. And the danger is caused by Hamas.\u201d<\/p>\n

On Tuesday, Trump reiterated this and said he would give Hamas \u201cabout three or four days\u201d to respond. \u201cWe\u2019re just waiting for Hamas, and Hamas is either going to be doing it or not, and if it\u2019s not, it\u2019s going to be a very sad end,\u201d he said, adding that if Hamas rejects the deal, \u201cI would let [Israel] go and do what they have to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hamas was not given any details on the proposal prior to Trump and Netanyahu unveiling it at the White House, a senior leader told Al Jazeera Mubasher. \u201cNot a single Palestinian has reviewed this plan, and what was recounted \u2026 represents a tilt toward the Israeli vision\u2014an approach close to what Netanyahu insisted on and pleaded for\u2014to continue the war and the annihilation. Nothing more, nothing less,\u201d said senior Hamas leader Mahmoud Mardawi immediately following the Trump\u2013Netanyahu press conference. \u201cTo negotiate an end to this criminal war in exchange for ending the Palestinian people\u2019s right to their state and their rights to their land, homeland, and holy sites\u2014no Palestinian will accept that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mardawi said that Hamas and other Palestinian factions would need to study the proposal, adding that, \u201cthe official position must be issued after reading the proposal and then stating our position and making amendments that conform with our right to self-determination.\u201d The last time Hamas leaders gathered to discuss a U.S. proposal, on September 9, Israel attempted to assassinate its negotiators.<\/p>\n

Qatar\u2019s foreign ministry spokesman Majed Al-Ansari said Tuesday that Egypt and Qatar had delivered the plan to Hamas and, along with Turkish officials, would be holding a \u201cconsultative meeting.\u201d Al-Ansari added, \u201cWe are optimistic that Trump\u2019s plan is comprehensive, and the Hamas delegation is studying it responsibly, and we continue to consult with them.\u201d<\/p>\n

While Trump praised his own plan as a landmark opportunity for \u201ceternal peace in the Middle East,\u201d the exclusion of all Palestinians from the process is an extension of decades of Western colonial dominance of decision-making surrounding the future of Palestine. At the heart of Trump\u2019s plan is a thinly-veiled ultimatum to Palestinians: bend the knee to Israel, renounce the right of armed resistance, and agree to indefinite subjugation by foreign actors.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis plan is a malicious attempt to achieve through politics what the war of extermination could not achieve on the ground,\u201d said Sami Al-Arian, a prominent Palestinian academic and activist and the director of the Center for Islam and Global Affairs at Istanbul Zaim University. \u201cThis includes ending the resistance, withdrawing weapons, releasing [Israeli] captives without a complete withdrawal, maintaining security, political, and economic control over Gaza, and imposing international tutelage.\u201d He said the Trump framework is aimed at \u201cperpetuating the Israeli narrative that the challenge is a security one related to Israeli security needs, not to ending a military occupation, Israeli genocide, ethnic cleansing, war crimes, and ongoing aggression.\u201d<\/p>\n

Al-Arian told Drop Site, \u201cThere is no negotiation here. There is an American plan. It was modified by some Israeli points and possibly some Arab points. And it\u2019s given to the resistance as a \u2018Take it or leave it\u2019 thing.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the lead-up to the announcement, the Trump administration pushed a familiar narrative to friendly media outlets that he pressured a resistant Netanyahu into the agreement. In reality, Israeli officials were deeply involved with crafting the proposal right up to the moment the White House released the text.<\/p>\n

In a video address in Hebrew following his event with Trump, Netanyahu portrayed the plan as a coup for Israel\u2019s agenda, saying it effectively placed an Arab and international stamp of legitimacy on his genocidal plans. \u201cThis is a historic visit. Instead of Hamas isolating us, we turned the tables and isolated Hamas. Now the entire world, including the Arab and Muslim world, is pressuring Hamas to accept the terms we set together with President Trump: to release all our hostages, both living and deceased, while the IDF remains in most of the Strip,\u201d Netanyahu declared. \u201cWho would have believed this? After all, people constantly say, the IDF should withdraw\u2026 No way, that\u2019s not happening.\u201d<\/p>\n

In previous \u201cceasefire\u201d negotiations, when Hamas has sought to propose amendments or even to clarify phrasing in draft texts, Israel and the U.S. denounced Hamas, falsely accusing it of rejecting peace, and then Israel intensified the military assault on Gaza. Israel, meanwhile, has offered the public perception it agrees to draft deals, while at the same time securing \u201cside letters\u201d<\/a> from Trump and his predecessor, Joe Biden, authorizing Israel to resume the war if it determines the agreement is no longer in its interests.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThere is no negotiation here. There is an American plan. It was modified by some Israeli points and possibly some Arab points. And it\u2019s given to the resistance as a \u2018Take it or leave it\u2019 thing.\u201d<\/strong><\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n

And after it signed the January 2025 ceasefire agreement, Israel repeatedly violated it, regularly striking Gaza and ultimately blowing up the agreement entirely after the first of what was supposed to be a three-phase deal. Netanyahu has made clear that he wants not only Hamas\u2019s surrender, but the decimation of all Palestinian resistance in Gaza.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat was announced at the press conference between Trump and Netanyahu is an American-Israeli agreement, an expression of Israel\u2019s entire position, and a recipe for continued aggression against the Palestinian people,\u201d said Ziyad al-Nakhalah, the secretary general of Palestinian Islamic Jihad, the second largest armed resistance group in Gaza, in a statement. \u201cIsrael is trying to impose, through the United States, what it has been unable to achieve through war. Therefore, we consider the American-Israeli announcement a recipe for igniting the region.\u201d<\/p>\n

In crafting this plan, Trump deployed his son-in-law, Kushner, to shore up support from Arab nations ahead of the announcement. Kushner is often touted by Trump as the mastermind of the so-called Abraham Accord \u201cnormalization\u201d agreements with Israel. Kushner has extensive business dealings in Gulf countries and his investment firm, Affinity Partners, is backed by billions of dollars from Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Qatar.<\/p>\n

Trump boasted that he has the full backing of all major Arab nations. \u201cThe level of support that I\u2019ve had from the nations in the Middle East and surrounding Israel and neighbors of Israel has been incredible. Incredible. Every single one of them,\u201d Trump said, highlighting the leaders of Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the UAE. \u201cThese are the people that we\u2019ve been dealing with and who\u2019ve been actually very much involved in this negotiation, giving us ideas, things they can live with, things they can\u2019t live with.\u201d<\/p>\n

Embedded within the plan are several terms that Arab nations pushed for and which certainly were key to getting their buy-in. \u201cThe conditions may finally be in place for a credible pathway to Palestinian self-determination and statehood, which we recognize as the aspiration of the Palestinian people,\u201d the plan states. Arab and Muslim countries also certainly advocated for including a provision that Israel will cease its military assault and \u201cIsrael will not occupy or annex Gaza.\u201d No Palestinians, the outline states, \u201cwill be forced to leave Gaza, and those who wish to leave will be free to do so and free to return. We will encourage people to stay and offer them the opportunity to build a better Gaza.\u201d<\/p>\n

An earlier leaked draft of Trump\u2019s plan, as reported in Hebrew media, included a commitment that Israel would not annex the West Bank. That term does not exist in the text distributed Monday by the White House.<\/p>\n

Nonetheless, the foreign ministers of Jordan, the United Arab Emirates, Indonesia, Pakistan, T\u00fcrkiye, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and Egypt issued a statement saying they \u201cwelcome President Donald J Trump\u2019s leadership and his sincere efforts to end the war in Gaza, and assert their confidence in his ability to find a path to peace.\u201d<\/p>\n

During his appearance on Al Jazeera after the plan was announced, Mardawi repeatedly emphasized the exclusion of Palestinians from the drafting of the Trump plan. \u201cHow can an Arab state refuse to allow the Palestinian people, with all their current political forces and over past decades, to participate?\u201d he asked, rejecting the premise. \u201cIn everything put forward there is no affirmation of the Palestinian people\u2019s rights.\u201d He added that Hamas \u201cwill examine the proposal, discuss it with the factions, amend it, and consult the countries\u2014all the countries that were willing and ready among those that met with Trump\u2014and review their positions.\u201d<\/p>\n

Abu Ali Hassan, a member of the General Central Committee of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine denounced the plan as giving diplomatic cover to a continuation of Israel\u2019s broader agenda. \u201cTrump gave the occupying state sufficient time to achieve its goals to no avail. The plan is a political intervention to achieve the military objectives of the war,\u201d he told the Palestinian Sanad news agency. The plan, he said, \u201cis an expression of a conspiracy involving international and Arab parties to undermine the rights of the Palestinian people and defeat their resistance.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Privatizing and Colonizing Gaza<\/strong><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/form>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

The Trump plan is riddled with ambiguities, loopholes, and proposals that leave a multitude of paths for Israel to resume its genocidal assault on Gaza.<\/p>\n

Within 72 hours of an agreement, the plan says, Hamas must release all Israeli captives held in Gaza. There are believed to be 20 living Israelis and the bodies of 28 deceased remaining in the Strip. In return, Israel would subsequently release 250 Palestinians sentenced to life and 1,700 Palestinians from Gaza taken captive after October 7, 2023, including all women and children. The bodies of 15 Palestinians, according to the plan, would be returned for the remains of each deceased Israeli held in Gaza.<\/p>\n

The plan states that deliveries of food and other life essentials to Gaza will resume in quantities consistent with the January 2025 ceasefire agreement that Israel unilaterally abandoned. \u201cEntry of distribution and aid in the Gaza Strip will proceed without interference from the two parties through the United Nations and its agencies, and the Red Crescent, in addition to other international institutions not associated in any manner with either party,\u201d it says, adding that this will include \u201crehabilitation of infrastructure (water, electricity, sewage), rehabilitation of hospitals and bakeries, and entry of necessary equipment to remove rubble and open roads.\u201d The plan also pledges that the Rafah crossing along the border with Egypt\u2014what was once Gaza\u2019s only gateway to the world beyond Israeli control\u2014would be opened in both directions under the rules established in the January ceasefire deal. But a map of the proposed Israeli withdrawals would allow Israeli forces to remain deployed across southern Gaza, including along the Philadelphi corridor that runs along the border with Egypt, until an international force met standards approved by Trump.<\/p>\n

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The White House released a map Mon 29 Sep showing proposed Israeli troop withdrawals as part of Trump\u2019s Gaza plan.<\/p><\/div>\n

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The maps for a proposed phased Israeli withdrawal are consistent with those proposed by Israel<\/a> in July\u2014and rejected by Hamas\u2014with the added term that any Israeli troop withdrawals will be linked to the verified disarmament of Palestinian resistance groups. The plan says that Israeli forces would \u201cprogressively hand over the Gaza territory it occupies\u201d to an international security force, but that Israeli troops would maintain \u201ca security perimeter presence that will remain until Gaza is properly secure from any resurgent terror threat.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe resumption of the aid is extremely important in light of the fact that there is starvation and famine taking place,\u201d said Al-Arian. \u201cBut I think the thorniest of issues would be the disarmament and the [Israeli] withdrawal. These could be the two issues that can make this whole deal unravel.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Trump framework also states that if Hamas \u201cdelays or rejects this proposal,\u201d aid distribution will only proceed in areas under Israeli control or those handed over to the international force after disarmament of Palestinians in the area.<\/p>\n

The plan also contains terms that Hamas has explicitly defined as \u201cred lines,\u201d namely a demand to strip Palestinians of their right to armed resistance against Israeli occupation. \u201cAll military, terror, and offensive infrastructure, including tunnels and weapon production facilities, will be destroyed and not rebuilt,\u201d it states. \u201cThere will be a process of demilitarization of Gaza under the supervision of independent monitors, which will include placing weapons permanently beyond use through an agreed process of decommissioning, and supported by an internationally funded buy back and reintegration program all verified by the independent monitors.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mardawi, the Hamas official, said the U.S. and Israel were engaged in a propaganda campaign to rebrand the Palestinian right to self defense as a justification for Israel\u2019s genocidal war. \u201cTo confiscate these weapons without a horizon, without a roadmap, without steps that lead to the establishment of the Palestinian state that the world recognizes is an attempt to bury the international consensus\u2014except for America and the rogue Israel\u2014on recognizing the Palestinian people\u2019s right to establish their state,\u201d he told Al Jazeera. \u201cThis international diplomatic and political momentum\u2014especially from Europe, which used to support, back, and provide all forms of assistance to the state of the occupation\u2014this recognition and this shift toward affirming the Palestinian people\u2019s right to establish their state on their homeland is being undermined.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Trump plan says that the U.S. will work with Arab and international partners to create \u201ca temporary International Stabilization Force (ISF) to immediately deploy in Gaza\u201d to establish \u201ccontrol and stability.\u201d In addition to providing security in Gaza, the plan says the ISF would also \u201cwork with Israel and Egypt to help secure border areas, along with newly trained Palestinian police forces.\u201d The concept outlined in the plan is that as the ISF takes control of areas occupied by Israel, Israeli forces would withdraw. But the entire plan is predicated on the disarmament of Palestinian factions in areas the Israeli military would agree to withdraw from. It states that Israeli withdrawal would be \u201cbased on standards, milestones, and timeframes linked to demilitarization\u2026 with the objective of a secure Gaza that no longer poses a threat to Israel, Egypt, or its citizens.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI think there will be huge reservations from all Palestinian factions, that they will not surrender their weapons,\u201d Al-Arian said. \u201cPeople have the right to defend themselves, particularly when dealing with an enemy that does not respect any law, any international law, any humanitarian law whatsoever.\u201d<\/p>\n

At the White House on Monday, Trump claimed he had secured commitments from Arab and Muslim countries \u201cto demilitarize Gaza, and that\u2019s quickly. Decommission the military capabilities of Hamas and all other terror organizations. Do that immediately. We\u2019re relying on the countries that I named and others to deal with Hamas.\u201d<\/p>\n

Al-Arian said he was skeptical Israel would actually agree to the deployment of a foreign force, particularly an Arab one. But even if it did happen, he said it would not be capable of achieving the stated aim of disarming Palestinian resistance factions. \u201cThey\u2019re not going to bring Arab and international troops to go and fight the resistance. The resistance will not voluntarily give up its arms,\u201d said Al-Arian. \u201cWhich makes the Israelis say, \u2018If that doesn\u2019t happen, we\u2019re not withdrawing.\u2019 So you end up with a frozen conflict that could actually unravel and return back to genocide. But this time the Americans will say, \u2018We tried, we failed.\u2019 And then the Israelis have a free hand to resume their genocide.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hamas has repeatedly said that it would relinquish governing authority in Gaza to an independent technocratic committee of Palestinians. On several occasions, Hamas proposed including the term in previous ceasefire proposals and the U.S., and Israel removed it. The Trump plan states, \u201cHamas and other factions agree to not have any role in the governance of Gaza, directly, indirectly, or in any form.\u201d It does not clarify which factions this would include.<\/p>\n

While the Trump plan states that \u201cGaza will be governed under the temporary transitional governance of a technocratic, apolitical Palestinian committee,\u201d it requires that it be overseen by another newly created entity that would be headed by Trump and reportedly managed by former British Prime Minister Tony Blair. The document references the potential future involvement of the Palestinian Authority, but offers no timeline.<\/p>\n

Hossam Badran, a member of Hamas\u2019s political bureau, denounced the involvement of Blair, an unrepentant war monger who has spent his years since leaving office cashing in by peddling his influence to dictators and despots. \u201cI could call him \u2018the devil\u2019s brother\u2019\u2014that\u2019s Tony Blair. He has brought no good to the Palestinian cause, to the Arabs, or to the Muslims. His criminal and destructive role since the war on Iraq, in which he had a central role both theoretically and in practical participation, is well known,\u201d Badran told Al Jazeera Mubasher on Sunday. \u201cTony Blair is not a welcome figure in the Palestinian cause, and therefore any plan associated with this person is an ill omen for the Palestinian people.\u201d After resigning as British Prime Minister, Blair served as the official Middle East envoy for the Quartet\u2014consisting of the U.S., the UN, the EU, and Russia\u2014from 2007 to 2015 and was widely criticized for achieving little.<\/p>\n

Al-Arian said that while Hamas has agreed that it would not be a part of an interim governing body for Gaza, Israel and Trump seem to be trying to preemptively strip Palestinians of the right to choose their leaders democratically. \u201cEventually there will have to be some sort of a democratic transition, democratic elections in which Gazans have the right to rule themselves,\u201d he said. \u201cI don\u2019t think any Palestinian would agree to have a foreign power governing them. That imperialist, colonialist mentality is not acceptable to any Palestinian.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Trump plan calls for the establishment of an \u201ceconomic development plan\u201d that would be managed by a \u201cpanel of experts who have helped birth some of the thriving modern miracle cities in the Middle East.\u201d The language is consistent with the praise Trump heaped on the rulers of Gulf nations when he visited Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE in May. While Trump made no mention of his oft-repeated threat to turn Gaza into a U.S.-run \u201cMiddle East Riviera,\u201d the plan indicates he sees massive private investment opportunities in the rubble of Gaza.<\/p>\n

During the Monday press conference, Trump addressed Dermer\u2014Netanyahu\u2019s chief strategist\u2014in the front row with a rambling digression referring to Gaza as the most beautiful real estate in the region and offered a staggeringly false history of Israel \u201cgiving it\u201d to the Palestinians in 2005. \u201cThey [Israel] said, \u2018You take it. This is our contribution to peace.\u2019 But that didn\u2019t work out. That didn\u2019t work out. It was the opposite of peace,\u201d Trump said. \u201cThey pulled away, they let them have it. And I never forgot that because I said, \u2018That doesn\u2019t sound like a good deal to me as a real estate person.\u2019 They gave up the ocean, right? Ron, they gave up the ocean. They said, \u2018Who would do this deal?\u2019And it still didn\u2019t work out. They were very generous, actually. And they gave up the most magnificent piece of land in many ways in the Middle East. And they said, \u2018All we want to do now is have peace.\u2019 That request was not honored.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery move on Trump\u2019s part, he gets someone in the back door, whether it\u2019s his children, his son in law, or friends, to take a piece of the act,\u201d said Al-Arian. \u201cSo he sees big dollar signs coming in and that\u2019s why he got in Tony Blair, because that is the medium by which he\u2019s going to be able to control the money and control what\u2019s happening in Gaza.\u201d<\/p>\n

While Trump and Netanyahu can forge ahead with their attempt to impose this plan on Gaza, Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad still hold nearly 50 Israeli captives, living and dead. Hamas knows this is the only leverage it holds in any negotiation. \u201cThe only thing that Hamas can reject really is the hand over the captives,\u201d said Al-Arian. \u201cHamas doesn\u2019t want to be stripped of this card and then end up with another war in which they have zero leverage after that.\u201d Should Netanyahu and Trump attempt to entirely circumvent Hamas and recover the captives through military force, it is certain that many, if not all of them, would be killed. Hamas\u2019s armed wing, Qassam Brigades, has issued several warnings to Israel against such plans.<\/p>\n

The Trump plan states that, \u201cOnce all hostages are returned, Hamas members who commit to peaceful co-existence and to decommission their weapons will be given amnesty. Members of Hamas who wish to leave Gaza will be provided safe passage to receiving countries.\u201d This clause portrays Hamas as akin to a small group of foreign fighters, rather than a political movement that has won democratic elections, governed Gaza for two decades, and which still enjoys a sizable amount of support in public polls across Palestine.<\/p>\n

While the Trump proposal contains some elements that the Palestinian resistance has long demanded, including the resumption of life essentials and humanitarian aid, the exchange of captives and a framework, albeit deeply skewed toward Israel, for withdrawal of occupation forces. But Al-Arian said these terms do not outweigh the traps embedded within the plan\u2019s text.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe may get the first phase of the plan. What happens to the rest of the plan is going to depend pretty much on other dynamics, but more importantly on the Trump administration, which is Zionist to the core. So I don\u2019t have much hope that this is going to be carried out,\u201d Al-Arian said. \u201cAnd what comes after that is going to be a renewed effort to establish Greater Israel, which will also precipitate greater effort to resist this. That means that the whole region will stay unstable.\u201d<\/p>\n

Killing Negotiations<\/strong><\/p>\n

Some terms of the plan appear to be rooted in the terms of a 13-point U.S.-Israeli-drafted plan that Hamas agreed to on August 18. Israel never formally responded to Hamas\u2019s acceptance of the so-called Witkoff framework, which the U.S. publicly characterized as the deal that would end the war. By that point, Israel was finalizing preparations for a sustained ground invasion of Gaza City aimed at expelling one million Palestinians. On August 20, two days after Hamas made major concessions<\/a> and accepted the Witkoff plan, Israel forged ahead with its invasion of Gaza City.<\/p>\n

As Israel intensified its air strikes and ground operations against Gaza, Trump bombastically announced<\/a> on September 3 that he was making a final offer to Hamas. Ignoring the fact that Hamas had already conceded to what Trump had also called the last chance for a deal, the U.S. delivered to Hamas via Qatari mediators a 100-word document<\/a> that called for the unconditional release of all Israeli captives, living and dead, in Gaza in return for a 60-day ceasefire and an opaque commitment to end the war. As the U.S. initiated backdoor communications with Hamas, claiming to want to make a deal, Israeli army Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir publicly threatened to assassinate Hamas leaders outside of Gaza if the group did not surrender.<\/p>\n

As Hamas officials convened in Doha on September 9 to discuss how to respond to the paragraph-long document from Trump and messages it received through intermediaries, Israel carried out what it called Operation Day of Judgement, bombing Hamas\u2019s offices and the Qatar residence of its chief political leader and negotiator Khalil Al-Hayya. While the strike failed to kill any Hamas leaders, Israel\u2019s missiles took the lives of Al-Hayya\u2019s son and four Hamas administrative staff as well as a Qatari security guard. The attack also wounded Al-Hayya\u2019s wife, daughter-in-law, and some of his grandchildren.<\/p>\n

Qatar is the home of U.S. Central Command, the premiere American strategic military facility in the region. Israel was able to conduct its attacks without encountering any apparent resistance from the U.S.-provided air defense systems in Qatar, raising serious questions about the extent of U.S. involvement in the strike. While the Trump administration claimed it was only alerted by Israel soon before the Israeli air strikes and tried to warn Qatar\u2019s leader, the contention defies common sense. No country in the world has a more extensive military and intelligence apparatus in the region than that operated by the U.S.<\/p>\n

Whether by Israeli design or the product of a U.S.-Israeli plot, the series of events\u2014most prominently the U.S.-enabled sabotage of yet another ceasefire agreement\u2014paved the way for weeks of wanton killing, forced displacement and mass destruction in northern Gaza.<\/p>\n

Arab leaders gathered in Doha for an emergency summit on September 15 to discuss Israel\u2019s bombing of Qatar. In the end, they issued only a strongly worded statement and declined to engage in any military response to Israel\u2019s attack. Trump claimed he was not happy with the Israeli bombing of Qatar and claimed it would not happen again. But two Arab diplomatic sources told Drop Site that on his recent visit to Qatar, Secretary of State Marco Rubio told officials in Doha that the U.S. could make no such guarantee as long as Hamas was allowed to operate in Qatar. A State Department spokesperson declined to confirm or deny what the sources told Drop Site.<\/p>\n

During his meeting with Trump on Monday, Netanyahu offered an apology to the emir of Qatar on a phone call made from inside the White House and promised not to violate Qatari sovereignty again. But the apology was narrowly focused on the killing of the Qatari security guard and not for bombing the Hamas office in an effort to kill its negotiating team in the midst of negotiations which Qatar was mediating at the request of the U.S.<\/p>\n

On Monday, Qatar\u2019s foreign ministry released a statement acknowledging Netanyahu\u2019s apology and stated that it would resume its mediation efforts in support of Trump\u2019s plan. Since Israel\u2019s attempt to assassinate Hamas\u2019s external leadership, several of the group\u2019s senior leaders have been held in safe houses in Qatar with limited access to communications. While this has created challenges for the group to maintain contact with commanders on the ground in Gaza, sources have told Drop Site they have developed alternative methods.<\/p>\n

As Hamas and other Palestinian groups debate their response to the Trump plan, the final word will lie not with those in Doha, but inside Gaza.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat proposal will come to the leaders in exile. They will look at it, they will make some decisions. These decisions would also be consulted with the people in the field in Gaza. They will have to be heard at the end. They are the ones who control the [Israeli] captives,\u201d Al-Arian said. \u201cIt doesn\u2019t even matter what the people say outside. It\u2019s only going to be an opinion and they hope that that opinion would be accepted by the people inside [Gaza]. But the people who are leading in the field in Gaza will have to make that decision. But I believe, all in all, that Hamas and the resistance have shown that they have tremendous discipline, that they are capable of communicating and having a unified position.\u201d<\/p>\n

_______________________________________<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a> Jeremy Scahill – <\/strong>Journalist at <\/em>Drop Site News, co-founder of<\/em> The Intercept, author of the books<\/em> Blackwater and<\/em> Dirty Wars. Reported from Iraq, Afghanistan, Somalia, Yemen, etc. <\/em><\/p>\n

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Jawa Ahmad is a <\/span>Middle East Research Fellow at<\/em> Drop Site News.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Go to Original \u2013 dropsitenews.com<\/a><\/p>\n

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JOIN THE BDS-BOYCOTT, DIVESTMENT, SANCTIONS CAMPAIGN TO PROTEST THE ISRAELI BARBARIC GENOCIDE OF PALESTINIANS IN GAZA.<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

DON’T BUY PRODUCTS WHOSE BARCODE STARTS WITH <\/em><\/strong>729, WHICH INDICATES THAT THEY ARE PRODUCED IN ISRAEL. DO YOUR PART! MAKE A DIFFERENCE!<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

7 2 9: BOYCOTT FOR HUMAN JUSTICE!<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

30 Sep 2025\u00a0–\u00a0Three weeks after Israel attempted to assassinate Hamas\u2019s negotiators in Doha, Trump hailed the public announcement of his 20-point plan to end the ‘war’ in Gaza as \u201cpotentially one of the great days ever in civilization.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":270605,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[65],"tags":[2746,87,865,1029,88,475,427,880,1759,249,70],"class_list":["post-304101","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-anglo-america","tag-doha","tag-gaza","tag-genocide","tag-hamas","tag-israel","tag-netanyahu","tag-palestine","tag-state-terrorism","tag-targeted-assassination","tag-trump","tag-usa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/304101","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=304101"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/304101\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":304454,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/304101\/revisions\/304454"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/270605"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=304101"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=304101"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=304101"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}