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Ever since US President Donald Trump forced Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to embrace his 20-point Gaza ceasefire plan, the Israeli premier has been looking for ways to sabotage the deal. In fact, Netanyahu would like nothing more than to turn phase one of Trump’s peace plan into the new status quo in Gaza: a tenuous ceasefire where Israel is free to use feeble excuses to carry out airstrikes and fire artillery shells, while continuing to control and manipulate the flow of much-needed aid to the devastated enclave.

According to Hamas, Egypt and Turkiye, Israel has already violated the ceasefire dozens of times since the Sharm El-Sheikh ceremony last month. Last week, it launched multiple airstrikes across Gaza that killed more than 100 Palestinians, including at least 40 women and children. It has blocked the passage of aid through the Rafah crossing point, while demolishing the remaining houses and buildings under its army’s control behind the so-called yellow line.

Under the first phase of the deal, Hamas has already handed over all living captives to Israel and has been able to retrieve and deliver most of the dead Israelis. Still, Tel Aviv has blamed Hamas for wavering and used the delay in the handing over of the remaining bodies of Israeli captives to breach the ceasefire. In almost all cases, the US has supported the Israeli position and threatened Hamas with destruction. Yet Trump and Vice President J.D. Vance have reiterated that the truce is solid and holding.

Netanyahu and his far-right partners are seeking ways to turn the first phase of Trump’s plan into the new reality in Gaza. The second phase would deliver objectives that are anathema to Israeli hard-liners: a Palestinian interim administration, an international peacekeeping force and reconstruction plans. The proposed International Stabilization Force, composed mainly of Arab and Muslim countries, would oversee disarmament, prevent the smuggling of weapons and maintain an observation role in the ceasefire and complete Israeli military withdrawal. Aside from disarming Hamas and other groups, these goals would erase any victory Netanyahu and his partners have already declared.

Hamas’ political leadership has already committed to not having any role in running Gaza in the future and to a formula under which it would surrender its heavy weapons. With Israel controlling more than 50 percent of the enclave, Hamas has been instrumental in keeping the peace in areas under its control. Under the second phase, a Palestinian police force — trained by Egypt and Jordan — would replace Hamas fighters.

The International Stabilization Force is an idea that Netanyahu is trying to bring down. For Israel, the presence of an international force on Palestinian land would set a dangerous precedent. It would restrain the Israeli army from punishing Gaza whenever it wanted. If he were to accept such a force in Gaza, the West Bank could be next.

Furthermore, several Arab and Western countries have demanded that the force receive a clear mandate from the UN Security Council. They include Egypt, Jordan, Qatar, the UAE, ��������, the Palestinian Authority and Germany. Netanyahu has rejected this demand because it would bring the UN and its resolutions back into the Palestine-Israel conflict — something Netanyahu has spent his entire political career trying to negate.

The Israeli premier has already rejected any role for Turkiye in the proposed force. Ankara is one of four guarantors of the agreement, along with the US, Qatar and Egypt. Netanyahu has brushed aside several Egyptian proposals to form a Palestinian administrative body for Gaza, suggesting that such a body would have links to the PA. Hamas, on the other hand, has insisted that the PA be involved in running Gazan affairs.

The US has been vague about its position on implementing the crucial second phase. On Monday, however, American media reported that Washington has submitted a draft resolution to UN Security Council members regarding the mandate it is hoping to receive for the International Stabilization Force. The draft suggests a wide-ranging mandate to run Gaza for two years and says the force’s role will be enforcing peace rather than peacekeeping. According to the UN, peace enforcement uses coercive measures including military force, while peacekeeping operates with the consent of the parties to a conflict and troops only use force in self-defense and defense of their mandate. In an interview with the BBC last week, Jordan’s King Abdullah said: “What is the mandate of security forces inside of Gaza? And we hope that it is peacekeeping, because if it’s peace enforcing, nobody will want to touch that.”

Talks over its composition are also stuck, with Israel now hinting that no such force can be formed unless Egypt withdraws troops from the Sinai as per the Camp David peace treaty.

The reality is that Netanyahu would rather see the whole deal collapse so he can keep Israeli troops in Gaza and enforce the blockade. Such a situation would allow Israel to resume the genocide by other means while claiming to honor the ceasefire. Even though the second phase of the plan would require Hamas to disarm, Netanyahu would be loath to see a Muslim-majority peacekeeping force, backed by a UNSC mandate, deployed in Gaza for fear of the political and military fallout.

For Israel, the presence of an international force on Palestinian land would set a dangerous precedent.

Osama Al-Sharif

Meanwhile, the US has done nothing to ease the flow of humanitarian aid into Gaza. According to the UN and humanitarian organizations, the situation in the enclave remains catastrophic. Israel was supposed to launch its own reconstruction plans in areas under its control. But observers know this is a bluff and that no such plans exist. In fact, the demolition of all civilian infrastructure behind the yellow line has picked up in recent days.

The onus is now on the signatories to the Gaza plan to pressure Israel to honor its obligations under the deal. There are multiple issues related to the implementation of the plan: ending the blockade, allowing foreign journalists to enter the enclave, and accountability for the war crimes that were committed in the past two years.

Netanyahu understands the gravity of moving from phase one to phase two of Trump’s plan. That is why he is doing his best to derail any progress. Trump has to realize that Netanyahu cannot be trusted and that his own credibility, as well as that of the other guarantors, is at stake. He must intervene once more to make sure that both sides honor their commitments. More importantly, the Gaza plan should be a main component of a comprehensive settlement that is based on the two-state solution.

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