Why the Trump-Netanyahu ‘peace plan’ is a trap
Doctor Khaled al-Saedni, whose leg was amputated after being wounded in an IDF strike, checks on a child at Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al-Balah, in January 2025
Qassam Muaddi writes in Mondoweiss on 30 September 2025:
The formula Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu presented for the plan to end the war in Gaza is riddled with red flags. With the Israeli Prime Minister to his side, the U.S. President explained that his plan would include the release of all Israeli captives in Gaza, dead or alive, within the first 72 hours of the deal, while Israel would release 250 Palestinians from Israeli jails, and humanitarian aid would flow into the Strip.
That’s about the only part of the proposal that’s clear. Nothing else in the “20-point plan” has a clear timeframe or mechanism of implementation.
The plan includes a “gradual” withdrawal of Israeli forces from the Gaza Strip, leaving up to 70% of its surface under Israeli control. International and Arab forces would take over running Gaza, which would be “demilitarized,” and the “military capabilities” of Palestinian resistance factions would be destroyed. At least nominally, Palestinians would not be forcibly removed from Gaza en masse. An independent, apolitical commission would run Palestinians’ everyday lives and also run Gaza’s reconstruction.
The commission itself would be under the supervision of a “board of peace” headed by Trump himself. It would also include Palestinian and international members.