U.S. President Donald Trump has cast doubt on whether the ceasefire deal in Gaza will reach the second stage, while his Middle East envoy has ruled out reaching stage three in its current conception.
During a press conference on Tuesday with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Trump told reporters:
I can’t tell you whether or not the ceasefire will hold.
We’ve done, I think, a very masterful job. We weren’t helped very much by the Biden administration. I can tell you that. But we’ve gotten quite a few hostages out.
He said that more Israeli captives would be released, but “we’re dealing with very complex people and we are going to see whether or not it holds”.
The Israeli premier described the deal as a “temporary ceasefire” during the conference, and said Israel could not leave Hamas to “continue the battle to destroy Israel”.
Netanyahu said that it was not possible to “talk about peace” while a “toxic murderous organisation is left standing”, stating that it would be like attempting to make peace in Europe after the Second World War while “the Nazi regime was left standing and the Nazi army was left standing”.
Basem Naim, a member of Hamas’ politburo, told MEE on Wednesday:
We demand the mediators, especially the United States, oblige the [Israeli] occupation to implement the ceasefire agreement in its three stages without procrastination or manipulation.
Naim said that Hamas was committed to the deal, “as long as the occupation commits to it”.
“Any manipulation in implementing the agreement may cause it to collapse,” he added.
The first stage of the deal, which officially began on 19 January, involves the exchange of Israeli captives and Palestinian detainees, the return of internally displaced Palestinians to northern Gaza, and the retreat of Israeli troops to a perimeter area.
The second phase of the deal, which was expected to begin 42 days after the beginning of the truce, would see all Israeli captives released in return for a total Israeli withdrawal from Gaza.
That phase has yet to be discussed thoroughly, though a Hamas official said on Tuesday that contact and negotiations for the second phase had begun, without providing further details.
The third stage of the ceasefire, if agreed, would involve a plan on the governance of post-war Gaza and a three- to five-year reconstruction project overseen by international actors.
Trump says U.S. will ‘own’ Gaza
Trump’s Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff has said that the third stage, as things currently stood, could not be reached.
“Part of the problem is that it wasn’t such a wonderful agreement that was first signed, that was not dictated by the Trump administration. We had nothing to do with it,” Witkoff told reporters on Tuesday.
We were able to get to the right place on [phase] one. We’re hopeful we’ll get to the right place on [stage] two.
And what me and the national security advisor are identifying, which, by the way President Trump identified, is that [stage] three can’t go the way that agreement talks about, which is a five-year programme.
Witkoff said that it was “physically impossible” for Palestinians to return to Gaza within five years due to the level of destruction.
It is unfair to have explained to Palestinians that they might be back in five years. That’s just preposterous.
He stated that Trump’s comments in which he said he would “clean out” Gaza was part of a “long range plan” to make the enclave habitable.
During the conference with Netanyahu, Trump doubled down on his plans to forcibly displace Palestinians from the enclave, adding that the U.S. would “take over” the enclave and “own it”.
“The U.S. will take over the Gaza Strip and we will do a job with it, too. We’ll own it and be responsible for dismantling all of the dangerous unexploded bombs and other weapons on the site,” Trump said.
If it’s necessary, we’ll do that, we’re going to take over that piece, we’re going to develop it, create thousands and thousands of jobs, and it’ll be something that the entire Middle East can be very proud of.
Netanyahu said that Trump’s idea was worth paying attention to, and “something that could change history”.
The plan has been criticised by leaders around the world, including from Spain, France and China.
Naim told MEE that Trump’s plans were “a crime against humanity, and a reinforcement of the law of the jungle at the international level”.
He said Hamas considered Trump to be interfering “in a topic which should not be of his concern”.
The senior official added that while Gaza was in need of reconstruction following Israel’s war, the problem was not “the presence of the Palestinian people on their land”, but in Israel’s “stifling siege of the Gaza Strip for more than 17 years with American support”.
“We demand urgent regional and international action to put an end to these malicious plans because any attempts to implement such plans will destabilise security in the region and beyond,” Naim said.