Barely a week ago, the Israelis gathered in the hostage square of Tel Aviv, waving signs thanking President Trump and his Middle East envoy for their role by helping to obtain an initial cease-up agreement- fire in Gaza and the release of hostages.
Many of them hoped that Mr. Trump, Israel’s long-hesitant Prime Minister was going loudly, Benjamin Netanyahu, to agree to negotiate the end of the war with Hamas and to release the rest of the hostages when both leaders met in Washington on Tuesday.
Instead, they woke up to the news of Mr. Trump’s fantastic idea of withdrawing the population of approximately two million gas from the devastated enclave to make way for a riviera of the Middle East, belonging to of the United States.
Farfuly as the vision of Trump for Gaza can be – the Arab world has refused it and any forced distance from a population violates international law – it suddenly moved the attention of the future of the agreement Candiders, including the six initials, six-The weekly phase should end in early March.
While Mr. Trump sketched his grandiose plans for Gaza, he put little public pressure on Mr. Netanyahu to carry out talks via Qatari and Egyptian mediators to transform the temporary cease-fire into a permanent cessation of hostilities . This left Israel with a large place in the way it could manage Gaza afterwards.
The talks, who were to start this week, are now in the air. And Mr. Netanyahu will leave Washington with the approval by Mr. Trump that the far -right members of the Israeli government actually asked: the mass migration of the Palestinians of Gaza.
This leaves the fate of the hostages still held by the Hamas in question while the militant group evaluates how to move forward and many Palestinians care if the war could resume.
“On the one hand, we are very grateful for what Trump has done,” said Idit Ohel, whose son, Alon Ohel, 23 of October 7, 2023, who sparked the war.
“Now,” said Ohel about Trump, “I don’t understand the implications of what he says or how it will bring my son home.”
Mr. Netanyahu, in an interview Wednesday, with Fox News, praised the idea of Mr. Trump as “remarkable”, saying that it should be “pursued”, drowning any speech on the details of how to advance the cease-fire negotiations.
And Thursday morning, the faithful Minister of Defense of Mr. Netanyahu, Israel Katz, published a declaration saying that he had asked the Israeli army to prepare a plan to facilitate the exit of “any resident of Gaza who wishes to leave At any place in the world it agrees to accept them. »»
The initial phase of the ceasefire agreement came into force on January 19 and provides for Hamas to release 33 Hostages in exchange for hundreds of Palestinians imprisoned in Israel. About 79 hostages remain in Gaza, of which at least 35 are presumed dead.
The discussions were to start on Monday – day 16 of the agreement – on a second phase, which should lead to the release of living hostages and inaugurate a permanent cessation of hostilities. This would mean a complete withdrawal of Israeli Gaza troops.
The formulation of the transition to the second phase had been left intentionally vague, because Israel and Hamas hold mutually exclusive requests.
Mr. Netanyahu promised to continue the war until Hamas no longer holds in Gaza and to resume the fighting, if necessary. Hamas refuses to abandon control or disarmament.
In repeated statements in Washington, Mr. Netanyahu fixed his three priorities for Gaza, the hostages arriving in second position.
“In Gaza, Israel has three goals: destroying the military and governing capacities of Hamas, guaranteeing the release of all our hostages and guaranteeing that Gaza never represents a threat to Israel again,” he said.
Netanyahu could endure his own grip on power, the far-right flank of his power coalition having threatened to resign if he ends the war in Gaza with Hamas still in control there.
On Thursday, no Israeli delegation had yet expressed yourself in Doha, Qatar, for negotiations, according to two Israeli officials who were not authorized to discuss the sensitive issue publicly.
Mr. Trump also looked less as he did in the past about the fate of the hostages and ending the war, saying that he was not clear if the cease-fire would be held . But he spoke of “going to a phase II” of the ceasefire and said that he would like to take out all the hostages. “If we don’t do it, it will make us a little more violent,” he said, perhaps telling us the support for a resumption of the fighting.
In the Middle East, analysts analyze what Mr. Trump Tectonic diversion on the future of Gaza could mean in the more immediate term.
“I think what he did is throw the old ladies’ board out of the table and replaced it with the monopoly,” Kobi Michael said an expert in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in The University National Security Studies Institute Tel Aviv. “He has not only changed the rules of the game but the game itself,” he said.
Israel and Hamas will probably want to buy time – Hamas to rehabilitate itself and its forces after 15 exhausting months of war and Mr. Netanyahu to keep its coalition on the right – and can try to extend the first phase of the Agreement, allowing more exchanges of hostages for prison.
Michael said Mr. Trump’s vision for a Gaza without the Gazans could work as a threat and exert significant pressure on Hamas to release more hostages. Conversely, he said, this could completely move away from the agreement.
“Mr. Trump is a businessman,” said Michael. “He takes risks.”
Zakaria al-Qaq, a Palestinian expert in national security, said that even the simple suggestion of moving two million gasans was likely to complicate the cease-fire negotiations by making Hamas more prudent and destabilizing the whole Arab world .
Mr. Trump’s statement, he said, was “the perfect recipe to recruit more people in Hamas”, adding that Mr. Trump’s “new colonialism” had given Hamas “easy marketing tools” .
Many people believe that Mr. Trump’s vision for Gaza is not achievable, but whatever the reality, Mr. Netanyahu has made no sign of pressure by Trump, or every day between them. His government is intact, for the moment.
An Israeli official who informed Israeli political journalists in Washington after the Netanyahu-Trump meeting said that he was now clear to the coalition of the Coalition of Mr. Netanyahu who brought his right-wing government with Mr. Trump as President would be irresponsible and flowers “historic” “opportunities in the years to come.
The parents of the hostages warn that they do not have time.
“I live in daily fear,” said Alon Nimrodi, Tamir Nimrodi’s father, an Israeli soldier who should only be released under a second phase of the agreement.
Mr. Trump’s vision for Gaza was not a bad, said Nimrodi. “But it’s not time to talk about it,” he said. The plans for Gaza should wait “after the hostages,” he said.
