According to the plan, Hamas will disarm, and the Gaza Strip will become a “deradicalized terror-free zone” governed by a “technocratic, apolitical Palestinian committee.”
Brig. Gen. (res.) Amir Avivi, founder and chairman of Israel’s Defense and Security Forum, gave the plan an emphatically positive reading, saying it achieves almost every war objective Israel has pursued.
Jonathan Conricus, a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and the former international spokesperson for the Israel Defense Forces, offered a dubious assessment. In fact, he didn’t think that the plan would get off the ground at all, as he doubted Hamas would accept it.
By David Isaac, JNS
U.S. President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced a plan to end the war in the Gaza Strip, giving a 72-hour deadline for Hamas to return the hostages. The clock begins ticking the moment that Israel accepts the agreement.
During a press conference on Monday at the White House, Trump said Hamas hadn’t yet agreed, but that Muslim countries were negotiating with the terror group.
According to the main points of the plan, which the White House posted to X, Hamas will disarm, and the coastal enclave will become a “deradicalized terror-free zone” governed by a “technocratic, apolitical Palestinian committee” overseen by an international body dubbed the “Board of Peace,” and led by the United States.
Brig. Gen. (res.) Amir Avivi, founder and chairman of Israel’s Defense and Security Forum, gave the plan an emphatically positive reading, saying it achieves almost every war objective Israel has pursued.
“All the goals of the war are reached with this agreement. I think this a total victory for Israel,” Avivi told JNS, echoing Netanyahu, who told Trump at the press conference, “I support your plan to end the war in Gaza, which achieves our war aims.”
Avivi argued the plan would secure the hostages’ return, strip Hamas of its weapons and power, and create a demilitarized Gaza Strip in which Israel effectively controls key areas, including Rafah, northern Gaza and the Philadelphi Corridor, which runs along the Gaza-Egypt border.
Avivi emphasized that Hamas is dependent on Qatar and that Doha’s cooperation is therefore decisive. He said Hamas will accept the agreement, given that Qatar has signed onto it.
‘The heart or the wisdom to do so’
Jonathan Conricus, a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and the former international spokesperson for the Israel Defense Forces (2017-2021), offered a far more dubious assessment. In fact, he didn’t think that the plan would get off the ground at all, as he doubted Hamas would accept it.
“I hope that Hamas will accept the proposal and that we will get our hostages back. I doubt that Hamas will have the heart or the wisdom to do so,” he told JNS. “I think that the order of the day for the IDF will be eventually to continue and to enhance pressure on Hamas in Gaza—to fight above and below ground, hopefully, to get our hostages out.”
A major shortcoming of the proposal is the degree of naiveté of its planners in their expectation that Hamas will lay down its arms, he said. First, because it’s totally contrary to their “jihadi creed,” and second, because it would be suicidal for them to do so. Gazans blame Hamas for the destruction that rained down on them following the Oct. 7, 2023, invasion of Israel and would take vengeance on Hamas the moment that it disarmed.
Conricus flagged other concerns. He questioned who the Arab technocrats would be to run Gaza, and which countries would send troops to help them govern. Trump mentioned Pakistan and Turkey as enthusiastic backers of his plan. Both countries have been outspoken advocates of Hamas, and both have had faltering relations with Israel.
Conricus also said that deradicalization would never come about if the Strip’s education system wasn’t overhauled, which would require the removal of the U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees. Trump mentioned UNRWA in passing during the press conference, though he didn’t explicitly say it would have no role in post-war Gaza.
On the plus side, Conricus said the plan was a diplomatic milestone since, for the first time, it marshaled regional and international pressure against Hamas. He noted the unusually broad regional buy-in that the White House said it has secured.
The plan also meets most of Israel’s security concerns. “It falls short of the total victory that the prime minister has been campaigning on … but it does include a few quite significant achievements,” he said.