Over the past 24 hours, the high-stakes meeting between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former President Donald Trump has taken on historic significance—not only for Gaza, but for Israel’s broader sovereignty agenda. Amid their discussions, Netanyahu secured key edits to Trump’s Gaza plan that slow and limit Israel’s withdrawal. Meanwhile, in a masterstroke of diplomatic framing, Trump announced an international oversight body dubbed the “Board of Peace.”
After the meeting, Trump unveiled a 21-point proposal intended to end the war, release hostages, dismantle Hamas’s military strength, and oversee Gaza’s reconstruction under a technocratic regime. Netanyahu insisted that any IDF withdrawal be conditioned on strict benchmarks and buffer zones rather than open timelines. As he declared, “Now the whole world … is pressuring Hamas to accept the terms that we created together with Trump, to bring back all the hostages — the living and the dead — while the IDF stays in the majority of the Strip.”
Trump introduced “the Board of Peace”. He stipulated that he would personally chair the body, which will include global leaders such as former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair. The Board is to work with institutions like the World Bank, recruiting and training a new Gaza governance body made up of Palestinians and qualified experts. The board would entirely exclude Hamas or members of other terrorist groups. Under the plan, a technocratic, apolitical Palestinian committee will run Gaza’s daily affairs, guided and overseen by the Board of Peace. The Board will set funding, frameworks, and benchmarks, limiting Gaza’s autonomy until reforms allow handover to the Palestinian Authority, should the PA finally reject violence.
Trump has made statements declaring he would “not allow [Israeli] annexation of the West Bank.” Hamas has rejected all previous proposals and has yet to respond to Trump’s recent plan.
Under previous administrations, a policy of promoting a “two-state solution” patterned after the catastrophic Oslo “land-for-peace” model that led to the Hamas takeover of Gaza in 2007. A “two-state solution” would create an unprecedented militarized Arab state inside Israel’s borders, ethnically cleansed of Jews, with its exclusively Muslim capital in Jerusalem.
A snap poll conducted on behalf of i24NEWS Monday night found that fully two-thirds (67%) of Israelis back the Trump plan, compared to just 23% who oppose it, with 10% who had no opinion. The poll was conducted by the Direct Polls firm, operated by Shlomo Filber, a Netanyahu confidant and former advisor. The survey was conducted online, polling 520 Israeli adults, both Arabs and Jews. At the recent United Nations General Assembly, several countries unilaterally declared a “Palestinian state” in an initiative that ran counter to international law and precedent.
While the declaration of a Palestinian state was criticized by many as a reward for Hamas violence, it is nonetheless rejected by the majority of Palestinians. In a recent Gallup poll, only one in three Palestinian adults (33%) living in Judea and Samaria support a two-state solution, while 55% oppose it.
In 2012, a majority (61%) of Israelis supported the plan, but in the recent poll, only 27% of Israelis backed it, and 63% opposed it.
