After the fanfare, Gaza peace proposal awaits Hamas response

A U.S.-sponsored ceasefire proposal for Gaza, unveiled with great ceremony on Monday by President Donald Trump and visiting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, was on Tuesday awaiting the vital response of Hamas.

Mediators Qatar and Egypt shared the document with Hamas late on Monday after Netanyahu stood alongside Trump at the White House and pledged his support for the proposal because he said it met Israel's war aims.

It was not clear what had allayed Netanyahu's earlier misgivings about elements of the proposal – but the mixed reactions of Israeli politicians suggest he still has to sell the deal back home. 

Hamas was not involved in the rounds of negotiations in the lead-up to Trump's plan, which calls on the Islamist group to disarm – a demand they have previously rejected.

"The Hamas negotiators said they would review it in good faith and provide a response," an official briefed on the talks said early on Tuesday.

Trump warned Hamas that if it rejects what he has offered, Israel would have full U.S. support to take whatever action it deemed necessary.

Netanyahu also cast doubt on any potential involvement in Gaza's governance of the Palestinian Authority, which nominally runs the occupied West Bank, and which welcomed the peace proposal.

The plan specifies an immediate ceasefire, an exchange of all hostages held by Hamas for Palestinian prisoners held by Israel, a staged Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, the disarmament of Hamas and the introduction of a transitional government led by an international body.

Problems with Hamas acceptance

Hamas did not rapidly respond to the proposal, and it was not immediately clear what was new about it, beyond the wide backing for the initiative expressed by Arab and Muslim countries.

Many elements of the plans have been included in numerous ceasefire deals proposed over the last two years, including those accepted and then subsequently rejected at various stages by both Israel and Hamas.

Indeed, a source close to Hamas told the Reuters news agency that the plan was "completely biased to Israel" and imposed "impossible conditions" that aimed to eliminate the group.

"What Trump has proposed is the full adoption of all Israeli conditions, which do not grant the Palestinian people or the residents of the Gaza Strip any legitimate rights," said the Palestinian official.

It was unclear how Hamas would word its response, as an absolute rejection may put it in conflict with a group of Arab and Muslim countries which welcomed the plan.

The foreign ministers of Qatar, Jordan, the United Arab Emirates, Indonesia, Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Egypt issued a joint statement on Monday welcoming Trump's proposal and underscoring what they said were the president's "sincere efforts to end the war in Gaza."

Problems with Israeli acceptance 

Meanwhile, Netanyahu has his own balancing act to perform, both in selling the deal to far-right members of his cabinet and in the ongoing balance of power in the region. 

Netanyahu is under mounting pressure from the hostages' families and, according to public opinion polls, a war-weary Israeli public. But he also risks the collapse of his governing coalition if far-right ministers believe he has made too many concessions for a peace deal.

He stressed to reporters that Israeli forces would retain responsibility for Gaza security "for the foreseeable future" and cast doubt on the Palestinian Authority's role.

The Palestinian Authority, which nominally runs the occupied West Bank, welcomed the peace proposal, but Netanyahu may not want it to be strengthened by having a part in governing the Gaza Strip, somewhat uniting the two Palestinian territories separated by Israeli land. 

Trump's plan, meanwhile, leaves hope for Palestinian statehood – something he said Netanyahu had strongly objected to during the meeting.

Israel's far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, a member of Netanyahu's coalition government, blasted the plan as a "resounding diplomatic failure". 

"It is a historic missed opportunity... and in my estimation it will end in tears. Our children will be forced to fight in Gaza again," Smotrich said. "We will consult, consider and decide, God willing. But the celebrations since yesterday are simply absurd."

Even during the unveiling of the peace plan, Netanyahu made sure to maintain a military threat.

"I support your plan to end the war in Gaza which achieves our war aims," he told Trump in front of reporters. "If Hamas rejects your plan, Mr President, or if they supposedly accept it and then basically do everything to counter it, then Israel will finish the job by itself."

For his part, Trump said that Israel would have his "full backing" to do so if Hamas did not accept the deal.

More problems 

While the framework could represent a potential path to peace, analysts caution that much further work is needed. 

"The Qataris now must put the screws to Hamas, and Netanyahu needs to sell to his security cabinet," said Steven Cook, a senior fellow of the Council on Foreign Relations think-tank.

The linear nature of the framework proposal could present problems all down the line, with participants free to argue at any point that other protagonists have not satisfactorily fulfilled their remit. 

Even after the immediate amelioration of the conflict's most horrific aspects – the cessation of hostilities, the exchange of hostages and prisoners, and the provision of life-saving aid into a brutalized warzone – the long-tail stabilization and redevelopment of Gaza could produce lots of obstacles. 

The plan includes deployment of a "temporary international stabilization force" – and the creation of a transitional authority headed by Trump himself and including former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair.

It remains to be seen how popular this notion will be in the wider Middle East, given Trump's often unpredictable nature and his previous backing of Israeli actions. 

Meanwhile Blair, who hailed the "bold and intelligent" plan, is still widely hated in the Middle East for his role in the 2003 Iraq war. 

While the foreign ministers of Qatar, Jordan, the United Arab Emirates, Indonesia, Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Egypt praised the proposal, Hamas ally Islamic Jihad said the plan would fuel further aggression against Palestinians.

"Through this, Israel is attempting – via the United States – to impose what it could not achieve through war," the group said in a statement.

In Gaza itself, skepticism also prevailed. 

"It's clear that this plan is unrealistic", said 39-year-old Ibrahim Joudeh from his shelter in Al-Mawasi, south Gaza.

"It's drafted with conditions that the U.S. and Israel know Hamas will never accept. For us, that means the war and the suffering will continue."

"We as a people will not accept this farce," said Abu Mazen Nassar, one of 1.9 million Gazans displaced by the war.