Gaza peace plan: Will US pressure Israel to accept it?
Reports suggest US President Donald Trump would be "very disappointed" if Israel doesn't agree to a new peace plan for Gaza, announced last week. But
Reports suggest US President Donald Trump would be "very disappointed" if Israel doesn't agree to a new peace plan for Gaza, announced last week. But how far would the US go to make that happen? US President Donald Trump touted it as a "historic breakthrough." But so far the new Gaza peace deal, announced last week and meant to help end the fighting and ease the ongoing humanitarian crisis in the coastal enclave, only seems to have resulted in another standoff between the key belligerents. However, experts point out, there are some differences between this new peace deal and previous arrangements that could be positive. For one thing, it is much more detailed and substantive. For another, statements by Trump indicate he might be more willing to push Israel towards accepting the deal. And finally, after resisting the idea for years, this month the Gaza-based group Hamas has agreed to disarm. It was Hamas that sent fighters into Israel on October 7, 2023, an attack that resulted in over 1,000 deaths and sparked nearly three years of an ongoing Israeli military campaign in Gaza. The Israeli military has since killed over 73,000 people there, causing a UN independent commission of inquiry to classify its behavior as a genocide. UN report condemns Israeli military action in Gaza To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video One of the main sticking points of any peace plan for Gaza has been the sequencing of events. Israel has demanded that Hamas disarm before it withdraws its troops from Gaza. But up until last month, Hamas had refused to disarm until Israel withdrew its troops. This led to an ongoing stalemate. Early in July, Hamas agreed to hand over power to the Committee for the Administration of Gaza, or NCAG, a group of independent technocrats set up to govern Gaza.
Later in July, the group also agreed to hand over their weapons to the NCAG. Why did Hamas do this? Hamas agreeing to disarm after years of promoting armed resistance against Israel should be taken seriously, says Muhammad Shehada, a visiting fellow with the Middle East and North Africa program at the European Council of Foreign Affairs, who is originally from Gaza. Hamas has been under pressure from negotiators from other countries like Egypt and Qatar and this could also be something of a political tactic "to expose that Israel is the party that is obstructing any progress in Gaza under [Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu's government," Shehada concedes. But, he added, "they would not have made such a major, historic concession unless their backs were totally against the wall and they fully understood that this is the only way forward." Should Israel agree to the new peace plan, there would also be no way Hamas could renege. "They would be locked in," Shehada told DW. "Because if they renege or violate the decommissioning arrangements, they would give Israel the ultimate pretext to resume military operations in Gaza and collapse the whole Trump deal. Hamas would then be blamed by the entire Palestinian public." On the other hand, Hamas probably also understands that Israel is unlikely to agree, so there's no fear disarmament is going to happen immediately, he added. The dangers of living along Gaza's shifting front lines To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video Israel's political problem with peace plan Israel expressed its displeasure with the new 15-point deal almost immediately. "The version that has been made public does not reflect Israel's positions," a spokesperson for the Israeli prime minister's office told news agency AFP. Far-right Israeli minister Itamar Ben-Gvir dismissed the deal as "unacceptable" on social media, adding that "assassinations in Gaza must continue." Israel will hold elections in October and Netanyahu faces tough competition.
The BriefWire