Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu declared this Sunday (7) that the second phase of the peace plan for the Gaza Strip was approaching, despite persistent disagreements on the fundamental elements for the continuity of the truce, such as the governmental and security structure of the territory and the laying down of Hamas weapons.
At a press conference with visiting German Prime Minister Friedrich Merz in Jerusalem, the Israeli prime minister also said he would meet with US President Donald Trump later this month to discuss the next steps on the deal.
Netanyahu is also going through a period of strong internal political pressure. With expected progress toward ending the conflict in Gaza, attention is once again turning to corruption charges against him: the prime minister has requested a pardon from the country’s president, Isaac Herzog.
At the news conference, Netanyahu said he would not retire from public life in exchange for a pardon, a possibility raised by his opponents during the week. “They are very concerned about my future, as are the voters, and they will decide,” he told Merz during the interview.
Negotiations on the next steps in Trump’s plan to end the two-year war in the Palestinian territory continue, but under pressure from Arab and Muslim countries over the steps following the return of all the bodies of Israeli hostages still in Gaza, the main point of the first phase for Israel, only the remains of Ran Gvili remain in the territory.
This Saturday (6), Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani described the timing of the negotiations as critical and rejected qualifying the current state of the ceasefire agreement.
“What we did was just a pause. We cannot yet consider a ceasefire. A ceasefire cannot be complete without a complete withdrawal of Israeli forces, without a return of stability to Gaza and without people being able to come and go, which is not the case today,” he said.
This message was echoed by Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan. Speaking to Reuters, the chancellor said that hoping for the disarmament of Hamas in the initial phase of the plan is “neither feasible nor realistic”, and that one way to achieve this would be to establish, before the faction lays down its arms, a civilian government and a Palestinian police force trained by international forces and without the participation of Hamas.
Fidan also said that if attempts to advance the plan did not work, the efforts would be seen as a “huge failure” by the world and by Washington.
US officials say the Trump administration wants to announce in the coming weeks the participants and mechanisms for the next steps in the second phase of the peace plan, underway since October. Officials interviewed by the Israeli press, however, admit that the definitions could only last until 2026.
Violence has decreased in the Palestinian territory since the truce began on October 10, but has not completely stopped. Episodes of Palestinian deaths and attacks on Israeli troops who retreated to the so-called Yellow Line, still inside Gaza, have persisted since then.
The peace plan proposed by Trump in partnership with his Muslim allies briefly mentions the stabilization of Gaza as part of a move to create a credible path toward the creation of a Palestinian state – a point that has displeased the Israeli government.
The measures included in the plan would, however, depend on a reform of the Palestinian Authority, which partially governs the West Bank, and a transition period in Gaza. Furthermore, the proposal does not define exactly under what conditions this credible path would be understood as such.
At the press conference, Netanyahu once again emphasized that Israel’s annexation of the West Bank was still a measure under discussion. Although the Israeli Parliament is debating the issue, even Tel Aviv’s key allies, such as the United States and the European Union, reject any partial or full annexation of the occupied territory.
This Sunday, Israeli soldiers killed a 55-year-old man and a Palestinian teenager in Hebron, in the West Bank. According to the Israeli army, the man was driving a car that was speeding towards the soldiers. The teenager, according to a source who requested anonymity, was near the scene and was hit – initially the army had said two terrorists had been killed.
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