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Today’s confusing diplomatic scene offers the chance that the Israeli onslaught on Gaza may at least be paused, the genocide put on hold. Has Hamas’ conditional acceptance of US President Donald Trump’s 20-point peace proposal done enough? Will Israel cease operations and for how long? The Palestinians I have spoken to in Gaza are beyond desperate — these are people who have been hoping to be bombed rather than starved to death.

The initial phases of the Trump proposal are the least problematic. Who would not wish to see a proper ceasefire, save the genocidaires? Who would not want to see the resumption of aid to an enclave engulfed by an Israeli-orchestrated famine? Lifesaving aid must be let in at scale, run by the UN, as it should always have been, and not the scandalous Gaza Humanitarian Foundation and its death traps. Given what it has been like for the hostages, both Israeli and Palestinian (Israel has detained thousands of Palestinians, including women and children, without trial) over the last two years, who would not welcome their release?

President Trump wants the win. Hence, he told Israel to stop its operations after the Hamas statement, even though it was not a full acceptance of his initiative. Pretty much every world leader of consequence has welcomed the news, so momentum to get this across the line has built up.

The leaders who welcomed Hamas’ statement have to push back and get the plan revised significantly

Chris Doyle

However, trust is nonexistent. Hamas may not release the hostages. Netanyahu could resume his annihilation of Gaza as soon as the hostages are out.

The challenge in Trump’s 20 points lies in what is envisaged for later. This is where those very same leaders who welcomed Hamas’ statement have to push back and get it revised significantly.

The greatest omission is typical of the Trump-Netanyahu approach to Palestinians. It is the complete and utter lack of any Palestinian agency. No Palestinian was involved in the drafting of these 20 points. It was not negotiated with them. It was a diktat issued to Hamas.

Amazingly, Netanyahu and Trump empowered Hamas, a group they see as terrorist, to be the Palestinian party to agree to a proposal about Gaza’s long-term future. Why should Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank have their futures determined by foreign leaders and a group that will not even be able to exist within Gaza as a result of the agreement? Hamas’ leaders and foot soldiers will not have to live in Gaza with Trump and former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair as their viceroys.

For any Palestinian, any Palestinian group, the total lack of agency in the future of Gaza is unacceptable

Chris Doyle

One can blame Hamas for many things, not just the atrocities of Oct. 7, but insisting the 20-point plan is renegotiated and clarified is just common sense. It is so vague, more of a loose roadmap than a coherent plan. There is no timetable, no way of operationalizing even the early parts of this. What is the sequencing?

But for any Palestinian, any Palestinian group, the total lack of agency in the future of Gaza is unacceptable. For them, this is occupation in another form.

This is what is proposed: Palestinians will not be sovereign in their own territory. Yes, there would be a technocratic, apolitical Palestinian body (chosen by whom?), but it will be governed by this “Board of Peace,” with security control under the authority of an international stabilization force.

Look at the wording about Palestinian statehood: “While Gaza redevelopment advances and when the (Palestinian Authority) reform program is faithfully carried out, the conditions may finally be in place for a credible pathway to Palestinian self-determination and statehood, which we recognize as the aspiration of the Palestinian people.” There is zero commitment to that horizon at all. None. Even then, Netanyahu has made it clear he would forcibly resist the creation of any Palestinian state. Like Hamas, he does not agree to the Trump proposal in full either.

It smacks of the colonial ideology that the childish natives cannot rule over themselves. They need Western “adults” to govern them, until such time as they have been properly civilized. One of the authors of these proposals, Jared Kushner, encapsulated this attitude when he  in 2019: “The hope is that they, over time, will become capable of governing.”

Palestinians are meant to deradicalize, whatever this means, even while the unlawful occupation persists. Yet Israeli leaders and others who have made genocidal comments and imposed starvation as a weapon of war do not have to deradicalize.

Third-party states need to be wary. This plan is a repackaging of an unlawful Israeli occupation with an additional layer of external US control. Israel has not agreed to a full withdrawal, nor to ceding control of the borders, by air, land or sea.

Politically, legally and morally, outside actors must steer clear of this scenario, pushing for a massive revision that puts Palestinian rights and hopes as the priority. Only then can Palestinians in Gaza dare to dream.

• Chris Doyle is director of the Council for Arab-British Understanding in London. X: @Doylech