After meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday, US President Donald Trump said the leaders were “close” to achieving peace in the Middle East.
“At the very least, at a minimum very, very close,” Trump said during a joint news conference at the White House.
He outlined his new 20-point plan to end Israel’s war on Gaza and secure the release of Israeli captives still being held in the Palestinian territory. Diplomatic sources have told Al Jazeera that Hamas’s negotiating team is studying Trump’s plan to end the war.
Here are the key takeaways:
Trump thanks Netanyahu for agreeing to the plan
“Thank you very much, everybody. This is a big, big day, a beautiful day, potentially one of the great days ever in civilisation,” Trump said as the news conference started.
“And I’m not just talking about Gaza. Gaza is one thing, but we’re talking about much beyond Gaza. The whole deal, everything getting solved. It’s called peace in the Middle East,” he added.
“Prime Minister Netanyahu and I have just concluded an important meeting on many vital issues, including Iran, trade, the expansion of the Abraham Accords, and, most importantly, we discussed how to end the war in Gaza, but it’s just a part of the bigger picture, which is peace in the Middle East, and let’s call it eternal peace in the Middle East,” Trump said.
He thanked Netanyahu and leaders from the Middle East, as well as Turkiye, Indonesia, Pakistan and Europe.
Trump introduces his plan
Trump introduced his plan to end the war, noting that many countries had contributed to its development.
“This afternoon, after extensive consultation with our friends and partners throughout the region, I’m formally releasing our principles for peace, which people have really liked, I must say,” Trump said.
He went on to outline some of the central commitments in the plan:
“Under the plan, Arab and Muslim countries have committed, and in writing, in many cases … to demilitarise Gaza, and that’s quickly. Decommission the military capabilities of Hamas and all other terror organisations. Do that immediately,” he said.
“We’re relying on the countries… to deal with Hamas. And I’m hearing that Hamas wants to get this done, too. That’s a good thing,” he added.
“The United States will establish a dialogue between Israel and the Palestinians to agree on a political horizon for PEACEFUL and prosperous co-existence.” https://t.co/Vk7K5YNIhj
— The White House (@WhiteHouse) September 29, 2025
He then expanded on dismantling Hamas’s operational capacity.
“And destroy all terror infrastructure … including the tunnels, weapons and production facilities. There’s a lot of production facilities that we’re destroying. It’ll also help train local police forces in the areas that we’re discussing, right now, in particular in and around Gaza, working with the new transitional authority in Gaza.”
Turning back to the role of Arab and Muslim nations, Trump emphasised the need for collaboration.
“Arab and Muslim nations need to be allowed the chance to fulfil these commitments of dealing with Hamas. They have to deal with them because they were the one group that we have not dealt with. I haven’t dealt with them.”
“But the Arab countries are going to, and Muslim countries, are going to be dealing with Hamas. And I believe they’ve already been there. I think they probably have an understanding. They haven’t, maybe, mentioned that, but I would imagine they do. Otherwise, they wouldn’t have gone as far as they’ve gone.”
Governing Gaza
Under Trump’s plan, a “technocratic” leadership of Palestinians, unaffiliated with any political faction, will govern Gaza on a day-to-day basis after the end of the war.
But that Palestinian leadership will be selected not by the Palestinian people, but by a new international body that would oversee the implementation of the peace plan. Trump said this organisation, called the “board of peace”, would be tasked with ensuring the agreement’s success and bringing together key regional and international leaders.
He said that the oversight body would be chaired by him, personally.
“It would be headed by a gentleman known as President Donald J Trump of the United States. That’s what I want, some extra work to do, but it’s so important that I’m willing to do it,” Trump said.
Trump explained that the body would also include other leaders.
“We’ll do it right … We’ll have a board. One of the people that wants to be on the board is the UK former Prime Minister Tony Blair. Good man, very good man. And some others.”
“Hamas and other terrorist factions will play no role in the board,” Trump added.
Gaza’s security and long-term governance
Trump’s plan speaks of an international stabilisation force (ISF) that the US and its Arab and other partners will set up to oversee the security of Gaza after Hamas is demilitarised.
“This force will be the long-term internal security solution. The ISF will work with Israel and Egypt to help secure border areas, along with newly trained Palestinian police forces,” the plan outlines.
But Netanyahu, standing next to Trump at the news conference, suggested that Israel has other ideas.
“Israel will retain security responsibility, including a security perimeter, for the foreseeable future,” Netanyahu said. “Gaza will have a peaceful civilian administration that is run neither by Hamas nor by the Palestinian Authority, but by those committed to a genuine peace with Israel.”
Netanyahu’s comments are also at odds with Trump’s plan on Gaza’s long-term governance. The plan suggests that the Palestinian Authority can take over Gaza’s governance in the long run if it implements a series of reforms.
Hamas still needs to respond
“So now, it’s time for Hamas to accept the terms of the plan that we’ve put forward today. And again, this is a different Hamas than we were dealing with, because I guess over 20,000 have been killed,” Trump said.
“Their leadership has been killed three times over. So, you’re really dealing with different people than we’ve been dealing with over the last four years, five years,” he added.
According to Al Jazeera’s Marwan Bishara, this proposal involves “the surrender for Hamas”.
“I wish I could put a better spin on it, but Trump’s plan will be perceived by Hamas as an ultimatum to surrender, or else the US will back its best friend, Israel,” he said.
Now, they could be convinced that maybe they should surrender for the better, that maybe at least after three years of genocide and of incessant bombardment … that maybe that bloodbath will stop,” Bishara explained.
“But when the entire thing is based on the idea that there are terror networks in Gaza, that there are terrorists in Gaza, and this deal will ensure that they disarm and that the territory they once sort of governed under occupation will be disarmed, this is no less than a surrender,” Bishara added.
Trump’s message to Palestinians
In outlining the proposal, Trump said the plan was intended to provide Palestinians with an opportunity to take responsibility for their future.
“So, there are many Palestinians who wish to live in peace. I’ve seen so many of them, and they have support,” he said.
“I challenge the Palestinians to take responsibility for their destiny, because that’s what we’re giving them. We’re giving them responsibility for their destiny, [to] fully condemn and prohibit terrorism and earn their way to a brighter future. They don’t want the life that they’ve had. They’ve had a rough life with Hamas,” he added.
“If the Palestinian Authority does not complete the reforms that I laid out in my vision for peace in 2020, they’ll have only themselves to blame.”
Tareq Abu Azzoum, reporting from Gaza, said that people remained sceptical about the success of this plan.
“Many Palestinians believe that the current demands regarding the demilitarisation and removal of Hamas might be rejected,” he said.
“Still, people are looking forward to any kind of cessation of hostilities that can ensure the withdrawal of the Israeli military from Gaza, the release of Palestinian prisoners, and a guarantee that hostilities will not resume again, which was not quite obvious in the current plan,” he added.
US will back Israel to ‘do what you have to do’ if Hamas rejects the deal
Trump also addressed the possibility that Hamas might reject the proposal, stressing both US support for Israel and the need to confront the group directly.
“And, if Hamas rejects the deal, which is always possible… as you know, Bibi, you’d have our full backing to do what you would have to do,” Trump said, using Netanyahu’s nickname.
“A notable point is that Hamas has not agreed yet to this plan,” said Al Jazeera’s Mike Hanna, reporting from New York.
“This is basically a green light for intensified Israeli action in Gaza if Hamas does not accept this 20-point plan,” he added.
‘I support your plan,’ Netanyahu said
“I support your plan to end the war in Gaza, which achieves our war aims. It will bring back to Israel all our hostages, dismantle Hamas’s military capabilities and its political rule, and ensure that Gaza never again poses a threat to Israel,” Netanyahu said.
Al Jazeera’s James Bays, reporting from the United Nations, questioned Netanyahu’s intentions.
“Netanyahu has welcomed this, but does he really believe in it? He has, for some time, not been prepared to end the war or allow aid in,” Bays said.
“The plan says there should be a credible pathway to Palestinian statehood, but that’s something Netanyahu has fought against his entire political career.”
“So, I think it could bring short-term benefit for the people of Gaza, but with many questions about how this will all happen and potential hurdles on the way,” Bays added.
Israel will ‘finish the job’
Speaking about the sequence of actions that would follow agreement on the plan, Netanyahu outlined a phased approach, linking withdrawals, captives’ releases and the role of an international oversight body.
“If Hamas agrees to your plan, Mr President, the first step will be a modest withdrawal, followed by the release of all our hostages within 72 hours. The next step will be the establishment of an international body charged with fully disarming Hamas and demilitarising Gaza.”
“Now, if this international body succeeds, we will have permanently ended the war. Israel will conduct further withdrawals linked to the extent of disarmament and demilitarisation, but will remain in the security perimeter for the foreseeable future.”
Netanyahu warned of the alternative if the plan were rejected or subverted.
“But if Hamas rejects your plan, Mr President, or if they supposedly accept it and then basically do everything to counter it, then Israel will finish the job by itself.”
“This can be done the easy way, or it can be done the hard way, but it will be done. We prefer the easy way, but it has to be done.”
“There are no guarantees here to protect Palestinian interests,” Phyllis Bennis, a fellow at the Washington, DC-based Institute for Policy Studies, told Al Jazeera.
“There is every indication that if at any point Israel decides they want to go back to the war as soon as they get their hostages back, they are going to say, ‘Well, we are just not getting the kind of cooperation that we expected, so we gotta go back to war; sorry about that, Mr President’,” she added.
