Palestinian youth stroll alongside a tent camp for displaced individuals because the solar units in Nuseirat, central Gaza Strip, Friday, Dec. 26, 2025.
Abdel Kareem Hana/AP
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Abdel Kareem Hana/AP
PALM BEACH, Fla. — President Donald Trump is scheduled to satisfy with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday, as Washington seems to create recent momentum for a U.S.-brokered ceasefire in Gaza that may very well be at risk of stalling out earlier than a sophisticated second section.
Trump may use the face-to-face at his Mar-a-Lago property to attempt to leverage his robust relationship with Netanyahu and search for methods to hurry up the peace course of, particularly as Israel’s chief has been accused of not pushing his aspect to maneuver quick sufficient.
The ceasefire between Israel and Hamas that Trump has championed has principally held, however progress has slowed not too long ago. Each side accuse each other of violations, and divisions have emerged among the many U.S., Israel and Arab international locations concerning the path ahead.
The truce’s first section started in October, days after the two-year anniversary of the preliminary Hamas-led assault on Israel that killed round 1,200 individuals. All however one of many 251 hostages taken then have been launched, alive or useless.
Now comes the following, way more sophisticated half. Trump’s 20-point plan — which was permitted by the U.N. Safety Council — lays out an bold imaginative and prescient for ending Hamas’ rule of Gaza.
The 2 leaders additionally may focus on non-Gaza subjects, together with Iran, whose nuclear capabilities Trump continues to insist had been “fully and totally obliterated” following U.S. strikes on its nuclear websites in June.
There are a lot of key sides of the ceasefire’s second section that Israel’s chief does not assist or has even overtly opposed, stated Mona Yacoubian, director and senior adviser of the Center East Program on the Middle for Strategic and Worldwide Research.
“That is going to be a very tall order, I feel, for President Trump to get Netanyahu to agree,” she stated.
“How he does that, what sort of stress he places on Netanyahu, I feel, goes to be essential to observe for,” stated Yacoubian, who additionally stated the 2 may exhibit “a broader conflict of approaches to the area.”
Subsequent section is complicated
If profitable, the second section would see the rebuilding of a demilitarized Gaza below worldwide supervision by a bunch chaired by Trump and often known as the Board of Peace. The Palestinians would kind a “technocratic, apolitical” committee to run every day affairs in Gaza, below Board of Peace supervision.
It additional requires normalized relations between Israel and the Arab world, and a doable pathway to Palestinian independence. Then there are thorny logistical and humanitarian questions, together with rebuilding war-ravaged Gaza, disarming Hamas and making a safety equipment referred to as the Worldwide Stabilization Drive.
The Board of Peace would oversee Gaza’s reconstruction below a two-year, renewable U.N. mandate. Its members had been anticipated to be named by the top of the yr and would possibly even be revealed following Monday’s assembly, however the announcement may very well be pushed into subsequent month.
Netanyahu was the primary international chief to satisfy Trump on the White Home in his second time period, however this shall be their first in-person assembly since Trump went to Israel in October to mark the beginning of the ceasefire’s preliminary section. Netanyahu has been to Mar-a-Lago earlier than, together with in July 2024 when Trump was nonetheless looking for reelection.
A lot stays unsettled
Their newest assembly comes after U.S. Mideast envoy Steve Witkoff and the president’s son in legislation, Jared Kushner, not too long ago huddled in Florida with officers from Egypt, Qatar and Turkey, which have been mediating the ceasefire.
Two essential challenges have sophisticated shifting to the second section, in response to an official who was briefed on these conferences. Israeli officers have been taking quite a lot of time to vet and approve members of the Palestinian technocratic committee from a listing given to them by the mediators, and Israel continues its navy strikes.
Trump’s plan additionally requires the Worldwide Stabilization Drive, proposed as a multinational physique, to keep up safety. But it surely, too, has but to be shaped. Whether or not particulars shall be forthcoming after Monday’s assembly is unclear.
A Western diplomat stated there’s a “large gulf” between the U.S.-Israeli understanding of the Worldwide Stabilization Drive’s mandate and that of different main international locations within the area, in addition to European governments.
All spoke on the situation of anonymity to supply particulars that have not been made public.
The U.S. and Israel need the power to have a “commanding function” in safety duties, together with disarming Hamas and different militant teams. However international locations being courted to contribute troops concern that mandate will make it an “occupation power,” the diplomat stated.
Hamas has stated it is able to focus on “freezing or storing” its arsenal of weapons, however insists it has a proper to armed resistance so long as Israel occupies Palestinian territory. One U.S. official stated a possible plan could be to supply money incentives in trade for weapons, echoing a “buy-back” program Witkoff has beforehand floated.
Questions on Gaza reconstruction
Israeli bombardment and floor operations have remodeled neighborhoods in a number of Gaza cities into rubble-strewn wastelands, with blackened shells of buildings and lumps of particles stretching in all instructions.
Egypt, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Turkey are urgent for a negotiated deal on disarming Hamas, and on a further Israeli withdrawal from Gaza earlier than shifting to subsequent components of the plan. These embrace deployment of the worldwide safety power and reconstruction, three Arab officers informed The Related Press.
That seems to run towards concepts floated by U.S. officers to shortly begin constructing momentary housing for Palestinians in components of southern Gaza nonetheless managed by Israeli troops. Three officers stated the United Arab Emirates has agreed to fund reconstruction in Gaza, together with new communities, though they stated discussions are ongoing and plans stay unsettled.
A proposed map created by the U.S. and obtained by the AP exhibits an space labelled “UAE Short-term Emirates housing complicated” inside an Israeli-controlled space of Gaza. The map exhibits a “U.S. deliberate group space” surrounding the UAE space.
An Arab official stated he was conscious of the map, however stated it was a suggestion from the U.S. and Israel that was put to the Emiratis and different international locations.
The UAE didn’t reply to a number of requests for remark about whether or not it has agreed to the plans or to fund the communities. It isn’t recognized if the cash could be contingent on gestures from Israel and Hamas, resembling a dedication to Palestinian statehood or disarmament.
