WASHINGTON/CAIRO/JERUSALEM--President Donald Trump secured Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's backing on Monday for a U.S.-sponsored peace proposal to end a nearly two-year-old war in Gaza, but questions loomed over whether Hamas would accept the plan.
Speaking at a joint White House press conference following a meeting with Netanyahu, Trump said they were "beyond very close" to an elusive peace deal for the Palestinian enclave. But he warned the Islamist group Hamas that Israel would have full U.S. support to take whatever action it deemed necessary if the militants reject what he has offered.
The White House released a 20-point document that called for an immediate ceasefire, an exchange of hostages held by Hamas for Palestinian prisoners held by Israel, a staged Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, Hamas disarmament and a transitional government led by an international body.
Trump went into Monday's meeting seeking to overcome Netanyahu's misgivings over parts of the plan. It was not immediately clear whether the Trump administration and Israel had resolved all their differences, including over the possibility of a future Palestinian State, which Netanyahu has forcefully rejected, and any role for the Palestinian Authority in post-war governance of the enclave.
Trump thanked Netanyahu "for agreeing to the plan and for trusting that if we work together, we can bring an end to the death and destruction that we've seen for so many years, decades, even centuries."
Standing next to Trump, Netanyahu responded: "I support your plan to end the war in Gaza, which achieves our war aims.
"It will bring back to Israel all our hostages, dismantle Hamas' military capabilities, end its political rule, and ensure that Gaza never again poses a threat to Israel," he said.
It was clear, however, that Hamas remained the key to whether Trump's peace proposals get off the ground. The group's absence from negotiations and its previous repeated refusals to disarm raised doubts about the plan's viability.
Hamas, which triggered the war with its October 7, 2023, attack on Israel, still holds 48 hostages, 20 of them still alive, Israel says. “Hamas hasn’t yet received the plan officially, nothing beyond media publication," a Hamas official told Reuters.
But an official briefed on the talks later said Qatar and Egypt shared the document with Hamas, which told mediators they will review it "in good faith" and then respond.
In Netanyahu’s fourth White House visit since Trump returned to office in January, the right-wing Israeli leader was looking to bolster his country’s most important relationship after a slew of Western leaders formally embraced Palestinian statehood at the United Nations last week in defiance of the U.S. and Israel. Trump sharply criticized the recognition of statehood as a prize for Hamas.
Monday's meeting marked a stepped-up diplomatic effort from the president, who vowed during the 2024 presidential campaign to quickly bring the conflict to a close and has since repeatedly claimed that a peace deal was near, only for it to fail to materialize. Washington outlined its peace plan to Arab and Muslim states on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly last week. Trump presented his set of proposals in effusive terms on Monday but ended what was billed as a press conference without taking questions.
