US President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu held a joint press conference at the White House on Monday.
Trump called the proposal “extremely fair,” saying Arab and Muslim partners were “ready to step up for the people of Gaza.”
During his speech at the news conference, US President Trump said he felt Hamas would give “a positive answer” to the plan, even though a Hamas official stressed on Monday that the group had not yet received the written proposal.
Trump said the agreement would involve Arab countries and should help to achieve a broader peace in the Middle East.
Trump says deal ‘very close’
He said they were “beyond very close” to an agreement, noting that Arab and Muslim countries were committed to helping “demilitarise Gaza” under the plan.
“At least we're at a minimum, very, very close. And I think we're beyond very close,” Trump said.
Trump challenged Palestinians to "take responsibility for their destiny" by pushing for acceptance of a peace deal with Israel that he said would create conditions for durable Israeli security.
"There are many Palestinians who wish to live in peace," Trump said, standing alongside Netanyahu.
"If the Palestinian Authority does not complete the reforms that I laid out, they'll have only themselves to blame,” he added.
No clear timetable for Israeli withdrawal
Albeit calling for Israel not to occupy or annex Gaza, the comprehensive 20-point plan stops short of guaranteeing a full withdrawal of Israeli forces.
It calls for a phased pullback, which Trump said the parties would also agree to a timeline for, but allows Israel to maintain a buffer zone inside the enclave “until Gaza is properly secure from any resurgent terror threat.”
This was confirmed by Israeli President Netanyahu, who, in his short speech following Trump, said that if Hamas accepted the proposal, Israel would withdraw troops from Gaza but continue to keep them “in the security perimeter for the foreseeable future.”
Although the plan calls for a new international body called the “Board of Peace” and a trilateral mechanism for security oversight, it does not specify who would decide when the conditions are met or who would monitor compliance.
Analysts warn that the lack of detail could allow Israel to hold the area indefinitely.
Plan disclosed after Israel’s apology
Monday’s press conference took place shortly after Israel offered a mea culpa to Qatar during a trilateral telephone call with US President Donald Trump on the line.
In the call, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu expressed regret to Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani over the attack on Doha that he authorised earlier this month, the White House said.
"Prime Minister Netanyahu expressed his deep regret that Israel’s missile strike against Hamas targets in Qatar unintentionally killed a Qatari serviceman," the White House said in an exceptionally rare formal readout of the call.
Hamas
Hamas has insisted that its conditions for a ceasefire remain unchanged.
The Palestinian resistance group says it has yet to receive a written copy of Trump’s Gaza peace plan, hours after the announcement at the White House press conference.
The Qatari prime minister and the Egyptian intelligence chief shared US President Donald Trump's 20-point Gaza plan with Palestinian resistance group Hamas, an official briefed on the talks told Reuters.
Hamas negotiators told mediators they will review the plan "in good faith" and provide a response, the official said.
