One critic noted Trump’s plan for Gaza “contains numerous opportunities for Netanyahu to renege on his commitments, as he has repeatedly done in the past".

US President  Donald Trump announced on Monday that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had agreed to a peace plan to end the war in Gaza – but many critics were sceptical that anything good would come from it.

The plan, which the White House  released on Monday, requires Hamas to return all remaining Israeli hostages it took in the 7 October 2023 attacks in exchange for the release of nearly 2000 Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli custody.

The plan also mandates that Hamas have no role in governing  Gaza after the war, as responsibility for running the exclave would be handed over on a temporary basis to “a technocratic, apolitical Palestinian committee, responsible for delivering the day-to-day running of public services and municipalities for the people in Gaza".

Notably, the Trump proposal dropped previous demands he’d made about expelling Palestinians from their land, and it stated that “no one will be forced to leave Gaza, and those who wish to leave will be free to do so and free to return". The plan also says that ” Israel will not occupy or annex Gaza,” even though Netanyahu and his government for months have  said they intend to take full control of Gaza.

The plan drew some immediate criticism from sceptics, however.

Matt Duss, executive vice-president at the Centre for International Policy and former foreign policy adviser to Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), attacked the Trump plan for not being a serious proposal to achieve peace between Israelis and Palestinians.

“Trump and Netanyahu’s remarks today were a litany of lies about the last 30 years, not a promising foundation for peace,” Duss said. “Despite his claim of being close to a deal, Trump’s statement that Israel will have ‘full US backing’ to ‘finish the job’ in Gaza if his plan is not agreed to stood out most clearly. This would be more of what we have seen not only over the last nine months, but the last two years, as the US has unconditionally armed and subsidised a genocide in Gaza.”

Duss welcomed Trump seemingly taking the forced expulsion of Palestinians from Gaza off the table as part of his plan, but added that it also “contains numerous opportunities for Netanyahu to renege on his commitments, as he has repeatedly done in the past".

Drop Site News’ Ryan Grim appeared equally sceptical that the Trump plan would hold up, and he wrote in a post on X he’s waiting to see “what Netanyahu does to scuttle the deal once he leaves the White House".

Trita Parsi, the executive vice-president of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, observed in a social media post that Trump had successfully pressured Netanyahu to apologise to the government of Qatar for launching an attack against Hamas leaders on its soil earlier this month.

“That Netanyahu was forced to apologise to the emir of Qatar by phone from the White House with Trump in the room shows the leverage that the US has over Israel when it chooses to,” he wrote. “Too often it chooses otherwise. It could’ve chosen not to support the genocide in the first place.”

Drop Site News  reported shortly after the deal was announced that the governments of Qatar and Egypt have given it to Hamas, which said it would study the proposal.

Republished from Common Dreams, 29 September 2025

The views expressed in this article may or may not reflect those of Pearls and Irritations.