黑料社区

Gaza ceasefire talks kicked off in Sharm El-Sheikh on Monday, with Hamas and Israel engaging in indirect negotiations aimed at agreeing on how to implement President Donald Trump鈥檚 20-point plan unveiled in Washington last week. The negotiations are taking place with the participation of US and Egyptian mediators. Under pressure from Trump, Israel had agreed to tone down its airstrikes on Gaza City. Still, reports from the beleaguered enclave speak of continued Israeli bombardment, with Palestinian casualties reported all over the Strip.

Most of Gaza City is now encircled, cutting off tens of thousands of residents who remain in parts of the city. The UN and others have also warned of a deteriorating humanitarian situation all over Gaza.

The Egypt talks began on the eve of the second anniversary of the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks and as a majority of Israelis expressed support for Trump鈥檚 plan, which calls on Hamas to release all the Israeli hostages, dead and alive, within 72 hours. Hamas on Friday announced that it had accepted the plan with caveats, seeking clarifications regarding several points, including the Israeli withdrawal from Gaza and the proposed interim governing body that Trump will head, among others. Its position on complete disarmament remains unclear.

But while both sides appear to have reservations regarding the US plan, the fact is this is the first time the US president has committed personally to ending the war in Gaza, in which at least 67,000 Palestinians have been killed and more than 100,000 injured. More than 80 percent of Gaza鈥檚 infrastructure has been destroyed.

Trump pushed on, leaving the Israeli premier no choice but to send his delegation to Sharm El-Sheikh

Osama Al-Sharif

And while the plan is thin on details, it does spell out certain conditions, such as removing the displacement of Palestinians and perpetual Israeli occupation of Gaza from the table. It is now a fact that Trump forced Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to accept the plan. It also appears that he was allowed to make certain amendments to the original document that Trump shared with Arab and Muslim leaders in New York two weeks ago.

It is also worth noting that Hamas鈥� 鈥測es but鈥� response to the plan, which Trump accepted, was seen as a positive sign that warranted sending his son-in-law, Jared Kushner 鈥� one of the plan鈥檚 co-authors 鈥� and special envoy Steve Witkoff to Egypt to oversee the indirect negotiations. The Israeli press reported that Netanyahu saw Hamas鈥� conditional response as a rejection. Still, Trump pushed on, leaving the Israeli premier no choice but to send his delegation to Sharm El-Sheikh.

Trump initially backed Netanyahu鈥檚 plan to take over Gaza City, which the Israeli leader claimed was the last stronghold of Hamas. But then, suddenly, he shifted his position, calling for a meeting with Arab and Muslim leaders and presenting a plan that aimed at ending the war and paving the way for a final settlement of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Hamas and the mediators should pressure Israel to cease fire immediately, while negotiations are taking place

Osama Al-Sharif

This change of heart can be attributed to several factors. Israel鈥檚 impudent and irresponsible strike on Doha last month, while Hamas leaders were gathered to discuss an American ceasefire proposal, was a tipping point. The 黑料社区n-French initiative to support the two-state solution at the UN General Assembly, which was followed by the historic recognition of Palestinian statehood by a number of key Western countries, was another factor.

But the main factor, analysts believe, was that Trump鈥檚 inner circle had begun admitting that Netanyahu was becoming a personal liability for the US president, as well as for Israel. Trump acknowledged that Israel鈥檚 war on Gaza had put Tel Aviv in an unprecedented state of global isolation. The US position on the war was at odds with that of its closest allies.

Moreover, the tide of public opinion in the US has shifted drastically, especially among the youth from both parties. Even American Jews are now conflicted, with a recent poll finding that four out of 10 US Jews agree that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza.

The US position had become untenable, with Trump鈥檚 Arab and Muslim allies pressuring him to end the bloodbath in Gaza.

Trump鈥檚 plan is not ideal and its details allow Netanyahu to buy time while seeking ways to derail it. His far-right coalition partners are openly threatening to quit if he agrees to withdraw from Gaza and end the war. For now, he is seeking to see whether Hamas implements the clause where it releases all hostages, thus removing any leverage the movement still has.

But Netanyahu is losing the goodwill of Trump, who is now personally involved in the process. Other complicated issues will make the full implementation of the plan more difficult. Chief among them is the disarmament issue, the governing body that includes former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, the future role of the Palestinian Authority, if any, the complete Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, reconstruction, and the link to the future of the West Bank.

Another tricky issue has to do with the presence of an international peacekeeping force in Gaza, a temporary International Stabilization Force. It would be the first time such a force was deployed on occupied Palestinian lands. Such a reality would present a nightmare for Netanyahu and his partners, as it could one day be suggested for the West Bank as well.

Hamas and the mediators should pressure Israel to cease fire immediately, while negotiations are taking place. Hamas has claimed, rightly so, that it cannot retrieve all hostages, including the dead, under Israeli fire. Ending the wanton killing in Gaza must be achieved as a first step. And according to the plan, when both parties accept the agreement, aid should flow into Gaza unimpeded. That is yet to happen.

If history has taught us anything, it is that successive Middle East plans rarely deliver on their objectives. The devil, as they say, is in the details. And Netanyahu will waste no time inserting fine print into any agreement. What is important to note here is that Hamas has committed to not having a role in running the Strip. That means the PA must step in at some point, since it remains the only recognized body representing the Palestinians.

For more than a decade, the US had stepped back from playing the role of mediator between Palestinians and Israelis, and there was a reason for that: Netanyahu derailed such a role. Now, Trump has put the US back in the driving seat with hopes that a Gaza ceasefire might open the gates for a wider deal. What is interesting to note is that Trump is now listening to his Arab and Muslim allies. His initiative may lay the foundation for a renewed peace process.

• Osama Al-Sharif is a journalist and political commentator based in Amman. X: @plato010