The U.S. administration is having great difficulties advancing the Peace Plan for Gaza. After two days of on-the-ground talks, the special envoy of the U.S. president, his son-in-law Jared Kushner, only obtained a vague commitment from the Israeli prime minister to “move forward.” Benjamin Netanyahu insisted that Israel will not withdraw its army from the Gaza Strip until Hamas has been completely disarmed, a position he has not changed for weeks. In his meeting with Kushner, which was described as “extensive, deep, and very productive” in a statement from the Peace Board, Netanyahu requested that a U.S. general oversee the delivery of weapons by the Palestinian group.
One day earlier, Kushner had met in Cairo with Khalil Al-Hayya, the Hamas leader who survived the Israeli bombing in 2025 of the hotel where he was with his children, who died in the attack. Al-Hayya reaffirmed Hamas’s willingness to disarm, announced in July. This agreement should be accompanied by a simultaneous withdrawal of the Israeli army. On Monday, Kushner also met in Jerusalem with Nikolai Mladenov, the Bulgarian who serves as the High Representative for Gaza of the Peace Board, an organization created by the U.S. president to oversee the implementation of the plan.
The twenty-point plan was presented with great pomp in September 2025
The plan consists of twenty points. It was presented in September 2025, received United Nations support a month later, and was endorsed in January 2026 in Davos, where the Peace Board was established. The plan called for the disarmament of Hamas and the withdrawal of the Israeli army from that territory, which would be governed by an executive composed of Palestinian technocrats and overseen by a group of countries that would provide soldiers to guarantee peace through an International Stabilization Force.
Previously, the plan called for the release of Israelis who had been kidnapped by the jihadist organization since the massacre on October 7, as well as the release of a significant number of Palestinian prisoners. The plan also foresaw the entry of humanitarian aid into Gaza and the final deployment of investments for the reconstruction of the enclave.
Hamas released the kidnapped Israelis and handed over the remains of the deceased hostages. But the plan did not progress much further. During these months, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) have retained between 60% and 70% of the territory of the strip. International aid has trickled in. And the number of Palestinians victimized by Israeli army attacks ranges—according to sources—between 450 and 1,100.
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Netanyahu will not move until after the October elections, where his future is at stake
In July, as soon as it became known that Hamas was willing to gradual disarmament, Netanyahu warned that he rejected the plan. It is unlikely he will change his stance until after the October elections. Netanyahu depends on the votes of that far right that rejects Trump’s plan and has placed him in an uncomfortable position. The Israeli prime minister has always boasted of maintaining a privileged relationship with Trump. However, that relationship has deteriorated due to the failure of both partners’ attacks on Iran and Israel’s partial occupation of southern Lebanon.
Although Gaza is low on Trump’s hypothetical concerns in the region, the truth is that the Israeli government’s position bothers him. He wants to end the conflict with Iran before the midterm elections in November. On Sunday, a group of Arab countries (including Egypt, Turkey, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates) issued a statement denouncing Israel’s obstructionist policy.
But Netanyahu does not have much room to maneuver. An example of this was the statements of his Interior Minister, Itamar ben-Gvir, in a podcast where he spoke with a former hostage held in Gaza, Rom Braslavski. Ben-Gvir advocated killing between 30 and 40 people in Gaza every night. “I think selective assassinations should be carried out in Gaza, eliminating between 30 and 40 people each night,” he said. “Not only those who represent an immediate threat; there are people there who do not deserve to live. They should not live. They are not even people.”
