United States President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are holding talks at the White House – their fourth meeting this year – as a plan for the future governance of a Gaza decimated by Israel’s nearly two-year genocidal war circulates and the ironclad relationship between the two countries could be tested.
Trump said on Monday that he was “very confident” of a Gaza deal as he welcomed Netanyahu to the White House.
Trump promised “greatness in the Middle East” and “something special” in another all-caps post on his Truth Social platform on Sunday. He has made repeated statements recently that it is time for the war to end.
Netanyahu, for his part, told Fox News that Israel is working with Washington to “make [the plan] a go”.
Trump first presented the 21-point “day after” war plan to Arab and Muslim leaders on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly session in New York last week.
According to numerous Israeli and Western reports, the plan says Hamas must release all 48 remaining captives held in Gaza, about 20 of whom are believed to be alive, within two days.
Hamas fighters would reportedly be allowed to leave Gaza or offered amnesty if they renounce resistance. Significant amounts of humanitarian aid would be allowed into the famine-stricken enclave, some Palestinian prisoners would be released from Israeli military jails and Israeli forces would gradually withdraw.
Hamas said in a statement on Sunday that it had received no new proposal from mediators Egypt and Qatar, both of whom have reportedly received the Trump proposal.
But Hamas said it would consider a new offer to end the war as its armed wing, the Qassam Brigades, warned that contact had been lost with teams holding two Israeli captives in Gaza City amid an expanding Israeli ground invasion and aerial bombardment, which is killing dozens of Palestinian civilians daily and destroying Gaza’s largest urban centre further.
Netanyahu’s balancing act
The Israeli prime minister appears to be embracing the plan even though – if implemented as presented – it goes against some of his far-right government’s core positions.
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Most notably, the vision claims to leave the door open for a future Palestinian state, something top Israeli leaders have said they would never allow.
The plan underscores that it does not want to forcibly expel Palestinians from Gaza and they would have a right of return if they choose to leave after two years of genocidal war has left most of the enclave in ruins.
Meanwhile, Netanyahu’s top ministers and coalition partners, including Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, have pushed for destroying what is left of Gaza and “encouraging voluntary migration” without return.
They want to cut off all food, water and medicine as Israel did for months, starting on March 18 when it torpedoed a previous ceasefire with Hamas, leading to famine and mass starvation. And they want to rebuild Israeli settlements inside Gaza after seizing and militarily controlling the area while annexing the occupied West Bank. Settlements are illegal under international law.
Smotrich and Ben-Gvir – two far-right hardliners who live in illegal settlements have been sanctioned, along with other ministers and leaders of violent settler organisations, by several Western governments – have already blasted the plan by Trump, whom they have repeatedly praised as Israel’s biggest-ever ally in the White House.
They believe Netanyahu has no mandate to accept such a deal without eliminating Hamas, which was set as a key goal of the war in October 2023.
But Netanyahu may be squeezed by Trump, whom he will want to appease after the White House’s unconditional support and diplomatic cover.