Middle Eastern and European leaders have expressed cautious support for Donald Trump’s 20-point plan to end the war in Gaza, backing that was tempered by scepticism from some in the territory.
The plan announced on Monday by Trump and Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, calls for an immediate ceasefire, an exchange of hostages held by Hamas for Palestinian prisoners held by Israel, a staged Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, Hamas disarmament and a transitional government led by an international body.
By Tuesday morning, Netanyahu was already walking back on the plan, including a clause that says Israel will not occupy Gaza and its military will withdraw completely. He said the army “will remain in most of Gaza”.
Still, as the only US-backed option to end what a UN inquiry found this month was an ongoing genocide, the plan was welcomed in principle by leaders in Saudi Arabia, Jordan, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Indonesia, Turkey, Pakistan and Egypt, who said they were ready to cooperate with Washington to ensure its implementation.
It was clear, however, that Hamas remains a critical factor in whether Trump’s peace proposal gets off the ground. Experts and residents of Gaza said the absence of the group from negotiations and the plan’s demand that they renounce governance of the strip raised doubts about its viability.
“It’s clear that this plan is unrealistic,” Ibrahim Joudeh told the AFP news agency from southern Gaza. “It’s drafted with conditions that the US and Israel know Hamas will never accept. For us, that means the war and the suffering will continue.”
Abu Mazen Nassar was equally pessimistic, saying: “This is all manipulation. What does it mean to hand over all the prisoners without official guarantees to end the war? Hamas has lost us and drowned us in the flood it created.”
The plan did receive backing from some allies of the US who last week formally recognised Palestine as an independent state. The UK prime minister, Keir Starmer, called on Hamas to agree to the plan and “end the misery”, while France’s Emmanuel Macron said Hamas had no choice but to “follow this plan”.
Even the Spanish government – which has been one of the most vociferous European critics of Israel’s offensive – welcomed the plan and urged both sides to commit to ending the violence.
The European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, said she encouraged “all parties to now seize this opportunity”, while the German chancellor, Friedrich Merz, an Israel ally, said the plan was the “best chance” to end the war.
Diplomatic veterans of the Obama and Biden administrations also described it as a “good deal”. Brett McGurk, previously of the US national security council, said with Israel and the group of Arab and Islamic countries endorsing the plan, “all international pressure must now come down squarely on Hamas”.
Barack Obama’s ambassador to Israel, Dan Shapiro, said that while there were still a lot of details to be worked out, Trump’s plan was “credible”, adding: “Next step is to get Hamas to accept it, which requires strong pressure on them from Qatar and Turkey.”
Under the details of the plan, a transitional authority – overseen and supervised by an international “board of peace” headed by Donald Trump – would take control of Gaza until the Palestinian Authority has completed a programme of “reform”.
The authority, which is nominally in charge of Palestinian affairs in the West Bank, welcomed Trump’s efforts to end the war, and called for a comprehensive deal that would pave the way for a “just peace on the basis of [a] two-state solution”.
The presence of the former UK prime minister Tony Blair on the “board of peace” raised eyebrows among many, with Mustafa Barghouti, the general secretary of the Palestinian National Initiative, saying: “We’ve been under British colonialism already.”
“He has a negative reputation here. If you mention Tony Blair, the first thing people mention is the Iraq war,” Barghouti told the Washington Post.
In Israel though, there was cautious hope that the nearly two-year conflict could finally be drawing to a close.
In Tel Aviv, where protests calling for an end to the war and the return of hostages have been growing, Inbar Hayman said she was optimistic, but “afraid of being disappointed again”.
Gal Goren, whose parents were killed during the Hamas-led attack on 7 October 2023, said: “We were very happy to hear what Trump said. We were happy to hear that Trump saw us, that he heard us calling for ending this war and bringing all the hostages … home.”
Less than 75km (47 miles) south in war-torn Gaza, where at least 30 people were reportedly killed by Israeli strikes on Monday, some also dared to hope.
Anas Sorour, a 31-year-old street vendor, told AFP: “Despite everything we’ve lived through and lost in this war … I still have hope. No war lasts for ever. This time I am very optimistic, and God willing it will be a moment of joy that makes us forget our pain and our anguish.”
But after almost two years of war and countless attempts at ceasefire deals for Gaza, every new announcement is still met with suspicion.
Mohammed al-Beltaji, a 47-year-old from Gaza City, summarised his views of the negotiations: “As always, Israel agrees then Hamas refuses – or the other way around. It’s all a game, and we, the people, are the ones paying the price.”
With Agence France-Presse
