World

Gaza Peace Plan: 60-day truce or something more dramatic?

Donald Trump is indeed in a hurry to announce a permanent peace between Israel and Palestine, cementing his place as a ‘peacemaker’ before the 4th of July

Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu (file photo)
Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu (file photo) @AdameMedia/X

Despite the genocidal war and blockade of Gaza for the past 19 months, Israel has demonstrably failed to eliminate Hamas and secure the release of hostages taken alive from Israel on 7 October 2023.

Both the US and Israel are forced to negotiate with Hamas, which has kept the resistance going in Gaza against the Israeli occupation and which is believed to have around 30 Israeli hostages still in its custody.

Having failed to achieve his twin objectives, there is now growing pressure on Benjamin Netanyahu to agree to a ceasefire and accept Donald Trump’s peace plan.

The Israeli prime minister had refused to end the conflict till all hostages were released and Hamas disarmed and sent into exile. He hinted even in March 2025 that Israel would control Gaza indefinitely and allow Palestinians in Gaza to ‘leave voluntarily’.

Hamas, in turn, demanded a complete withdrawal of Israel from the Gaza Strip and a longer, lasting ceasefire. It had also offered to give up power to a committee of independent Palestinians for the reconstruction of Gaza.

The US president’s special envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff has, however, hinted that a settlement could be announced as early as the week beginning 30 June, when an Israeli minister will visit Washington DC. As June draws to a close, Witkoff is more reticent and would not state what the plans currently are and how close he is to a deal.

Witkoff’s plan, according to western media reports, involves a temporary, 60-day pause in fighting and assurances that Israeli forces will pull back to the positions they held when Israel ended the last pause in March 2025.

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The US is to guarantee that Israel will not resume hostilities after the hostages are released. The two sides are to begin negotiations for a permanent ceasefire on ‘Day 1 of the [temporary] ceasefire’.

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Even as Israel and Iran pounded each other in the 12-day war, following Israel’s surprise pre-emptive strike on Iran carried out on 13 June, the Israeli Defence Force (IDF) continued to bomb Gaza and its relief camps.

Jewish settlers in the West Bank, meanwhile, set fire to abandoned Palestinian homes. Incendiary statements continued to originate from Israel, such as finance minister Bezalel Smotrich calling for Gaza to be “completely destroyed” and its people asked to flee to other countries.

Two sensational reports published this week in the Israeli newspaper Haaretz put the situation in Gaza in context.

One of them quotes a research paper from political scientist Dr Khalil Shikaki and economist Prof. Michael Spagat to say that fresh estimates indicate that Israel had killed over 100,000 Palestinians in Gaza. The deaths were caused by violence, disease — and hunger from Israel’s blockade on relief material, medicines and food reaching Gaza.

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Israel, after having bombed 36 hospitals in Gaza, has now also turned its attention to the remaining functioning medical units in the Gaza Strip.

As many as 56 per cent of the victims, the report added, happen to be non-combatant women and children below the age of 18.

While Donald Trump is indeed in a hurry to announce a permanent peace in Gaza and cement his place as a ‘peacemaker’ by 4 July, Witkoff is working on bringing other West Asian countries on board to sign the US-brokered Peace Plan.

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Syria and Saudi Arabia, according to the plans, would also sign agreements with Israel, reports suggest.

Saudi Arabia is under pressure to recognise the nation of Israel and restore diplomatic relations.

Meanwhile, per this plan, Israel would undertake to withdraw from the areas it occupies in Syria — with Syria in return formally ceding to Israel the Golan Heights, which has been under Israeli military occupation since 1967 and was unilaterally annexed by it in 1981.

Nobody knows whether the outlandish ideas of developing Gaza as a riviera by the sea are still being entertained. For now, nobody is certain who will pay for the reconstruction of Gaza.

What is clear is that the United States will not allow Israel and prime minister Netanyahu to be punished for the genocide or let Netanyahu be tried as a war criminal.

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We know that the US has harboured plans to shift Palestinians from Gaza into other Arab countries and allow Israel to formalise its occupation of Palestine.

Saudi Arabia has put up what appears to be a token resistance, declaring that it will not recognise Israel or have diplomatic relations with it till it recognises the Palestine State with Jerusalem as its capital. It appears to be tokenism, because neither Israel nor the US seem likely to find this acceptable.

But what if the Saudis are serious and have woken up to the threat of Israel emerging as the regional hegemon flexing its muscles?

The next few weeks will hopefully provide some answers.

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