Trump’s plan for Gaza gives no immediate answers about hostages or war

Almost a week ago, Israelis gathered at Tel Aviv’s hostages waving posters, thanked President Trump and his Middle East envoy for their role in helping secure an initial ceasefire agreement in Gaza and getting some hostages released.

Many of them hoped that Mr. Trump would be a strong arm Israeli long -term prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, to agree to negotiate a cessation of the war with Hamas and get the rest of the hostages released when the two leaders met in Washington on Tuesday.

Instead, they woke up to news about Mr. Trump’s amazing idea of ​​removing the population of about two million Gazans from the broken enclave to make room for a sparkling, American-owned Middle Eastern Riviera.

Far picked up as Mr. Trump’s vision for Gaza may be-the Arab world has rounded off it, and any forced removal of a population violates international law-it suddenly changed attention away from the future of the ceasefire agreement, whose initial, week-week-week phase must end at the beginning of the beginning March.

Then Mr. Trump drawn his magnificent plans for Gaza, he placed little public pressure on Mr. Netanyahu to continue with conversations via Qatari and Egyptian Mediators to transform the temporary ceasefire into a permanent cessation of hostilities. It left Israel with a wide quay on how it can handle Gaza next.

The negotiations that were intended to start this week are now up in the air. And Mr. Netanyahu will leave Washington with Mr. Trump’s approval of what right -wing members of the Israeli government have effectively called for: The mass migration of Palestinians from Gaza.

It leaves the fate of the hostages still contained by Hamas, which the militant group assesses how to move on, and many Palestinians care about whether the war could resume again.

“On the one hand, we are very grateful for what Trump has done,” said Idit Ohel, whose son, Alon Ohel, 23, was kidnapped from a bombing when he tried to escape from a music festival under the Hamas-led assault it October 7, 2023, which started the war.

“Now,” said Ms. Ohel about Mr. Trump, “I don’t understand the consequences of what he says or how this will bring my son home.”

Mr. Netanyahu, in An interview With Fox News late Wednesday, Mr. Trump’s idea as “remarkable” and said it should be “pursued”, drowning any talk about the details of how to move ceasefire for negotiations forward.

And Thursday morning Mr. Netanyahus Loyal Defense Minister Israel Katz, a statement that he had instructed the Israeli military to prepare a plan to facilitate the exit to “Any resident of Gaza who is interested in leaving to any place in the world it accepts to accept them . ”

The initial phase of the ceasefire agreement came into force on January 19 and gives Hamas to release 33 Hostages in exchange for hundreds of Palestinians imprisoned in Israel. About 79 hostages remain in Gaza, of which at least 35 are assumed to have died.

The negotiations were to start Monday – Day 16 of the Agreement – in another phase, which is supposed to result in the rest of the living hostages being released and introducing a permanent cessation of hostilities. That would mean a full withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza.

The wording about the transition to the second phase had become intentionally vague as Israel and Hamas hold out for mutually exclusive demands.

Mr. Netanyahu has promised to continue the war until Hamas no longer keeps turns in Gaza and, if necessary, to resume matches. Hamas refuses to give up control or disarmament.

In repeated statements in Washington, Mr. Netanyahu her three priorities for Gaza, where the hostages only came in second place.

“In Gaza, Israel has three goals: Destroy Hamas’s military and controlling capabilities, secure the release of all our hostages and ensure that Gaza never poses a threat to Israel,” he said.

Mr. Netanyahu could stand to lose his own grip on power, with the right-right flank of his controlling coalition, which had threatened to quit if he ends the war in Gaza with Hamas, still in control there.

As of Thursday, no Israeli delegation had yet to put out to Doha, Qatar, for negotiations, according to two Israeli officials who were not authorized to discuss the sensitive question in public.

Mr. Trump also sounded less obliged than he did in the past about the fate of the hostages and ended the war and said it was unclear if the ceasefire would hold. He said he wanted to get all the hostages out. “If we do not, it will just make us something more violent,” he said, which may indicate that we are supporting a resumption of the matches.

In the Middle East, analysts analyzed what Mr. Trumps Tectonic diversion of Gaza’s future may mean in the more immediate period.

“I think what he was doing was throwing the old checker table from the table and replacing it with a monopoly,” said Kobi Michael, an expert in the Israel-Palestinian conflict at the Department of National Security Studies at Tel Aviv University. “He not only changed the rules of the game, but the game itself,” he said.

Both Israel and Hamas are likely to buy Time-Hamas to rehabilitate themselves and its forces after 15 violent months of war and Mr. Netanyahu to keep his right-wing coalition together-and can try to expand the first phase of the agreement, permission by several hostages-for-prisoners exchanges.

Mr. Michael said Mr. Trump’s vision for a Gaza without Gazan could work as a threat and put significant pressure on Hamas to release more hostages. Conversely, he said, it could make Hamas go away from the deal completely.

“Mr. Trump is a businessman, ”Mr. Michael. “He takes risks.”

Zakaria al-Qaq, a Palestinian expert in national security, said that even the mere proposal to move two million Gazans is likely to complicate the ceasefire negotiations by making Hamas more cautious and to destabilize the entire Arab world.

Mr. Trump’s statement, he said, was “the perfect recipe to recruit more people to Hamas,” adding that Mr. Trump’s “New Colonialism” had given Hamas “Easy Marketing Tools.”

Many people believe that Mr. Trump’s vision for Gaza is not possible, but regardless of reality, Mr. Netanyahu came without signs of being pressed by Mr. Trump or for any daylight between them. His government is intact for now.

An Israeli official who informed Israeli political journalists in Washington after the Netanyahu-Trump meeting said it was now clear to Mr. Netanyahu’s coalition partners that reducing its right -wing government with Mr. Trump as president would be irresponsible and foil “historical” opportunities in the coming years.

Relatives of the hostages warn that they do not have time.

“I live in daily fear,” said Alon Nimrodi, father of Tamir Nimrodi, an Israeli soldier who is only intended to be released during another phase of the deal.

Mr. Trump’s vision for Gaza wasn’t a bad one, Mr. Nimrodi. “But it’s not time to talk about it,” he said. The plans for Gaza have to wait until “after the hostages are out,” he said.