Trump envoy announces launch of ‘phase two’ of plan to end Gaza war

United States President Donald Trump’s special envoy to the Middle East has announced the launch of the second phase of a US-brokered plan to end Israel’s genocidal war against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.

Steve Witkoff said in a social media post on Wednesday that Trump’s 20-point Gaza plan is “moving from ceasefire to demilitarization, technocratic governance, and reconstruction”.

The second phase will establish a transitional administration to govern over the bombarded Palestinian territory and see the “full demilitarization and reconstruction of Gaza”, Witkoff said.

“The US expects Hamas to comply fully with its obligations, including the immediate return of the final deceased hostage. Failure to do so will bring serious consequences,” he said.

Israel has violated the US-brokered ceasefire more than 1,190 times since it came into effect in October, according to the Gaza Government Media Office, killing more than 400 Palestinians and blocking critical humanitarian aid from entering the enclave.

Hamas, which has condemned Israel’s repeated ceasefire violations, did not immediately comment on Witkoff’s announcement.

Reporting from Deir el-Balah in central Gaza on Wednesday, media’s Tareq Abu Azzoum noted that the Palestinian group previously said it was ready to abandon day-to-day governance in Gaza as outlined under the Trump plan.

But the exact makeup and authority of the provisional body expected to govern in the enclave is not yet clear, Abu Azzoum said.

He added that serious questions also remain around the reconstruction of Gaza, where more than 80 percent of all buildings have been damaged or destroyed in Israel’s bombardment.

“The durability of the ceasefire itself remains a key variable. Any deterioration could delay or even ruin these plans,” Abu Azzoum said.

In a statement shared on social media, Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said the Israeli prime minister had spoken with the parents of Ran Gvili, a former Israeli police officer whose body is still in the Gaza Strip.

“The prime minister made it clear that Ran’s return is our top priority,” the statement said, adding that plans to establish the technocratic committee to run Gaza “will not affect efforts” to get Gvili’s remains back to Israel.

The 20-point US proposal, initially put forward in September, also includes the establishment of a “Board of Peace” chaired by Trump and the deployment of an “international stabilisation force” to oversee security in Gaza.

Last week, Netanyahu said former United Nations Middle East envoy Nickolay Mladenov would lead the board, which will be tasked with overseeing the Palestinian technocratic government governing Gaza.

Gaza mediators welcome technocratic body

Mediators Qatar, Turkiye and Egypt welcomed the formation of the Palestinian technocratic body, which they said would be headed by Ali Abdel Hamid Shaath.

“The mediators express their hope that the formation of the committee will pave the way for the implementation of the second phase of the ceasefire agreement in the Gaza Strip,” they said in a joint statement on Wednesday.

They also stressed that all parties must “fully commit to implementing the agreement in order to achieve a sustainable peace and create the appropriate conditions for the reconstruction” of Gaza.

Marwan Bishara, media’s senior political analyst, questioned how the US-led plan to end the Israeli war on Gaza would be successful, however, noting that the process “is rigged in favour of Israel”.

“How can you have a just process moving forward if one party is favoured all the time against the other party?” said Bishara, adding that the freedom and rights of Palestinians also have largely been ignored.

“The people in Gaza continue to suffer … while President Trump and his entourage are celebrating [and] are ‘peacemakers’ as it were,” he said.

“Israel is not interested in leaving Gaza. The United States is not interested in pressuring Israel. And so I think that phase two, we’ll be stuck [there] for a very, very long time.”

Meanwhile, the UN and leading humanitarian groups working in Gaza continue to call on Israel to allow unimpeded deliveries of aid into the territory, including food, shelter supplies, and equipment needed to clear rubble and rebuild homes.

Legal experts have noted that the continued restrictions violate Israel’s obligation, as the occupying power in the Gaza Strip, to provide for the needs of Palestinians in the territory under its control.

They also contravene the US-brokered ceasefire agreement, which ordered Israel to allow 600 aid trucks into the enclave daily.

Against that backdrop, hundreds of thousands of Palestinian families have sought shelter in ill-equipped tent camps and other makeshift shelters that leave them exposed to harsh winter conditions.

Separately on Wednesday, a member of the medical staff at Nasser Hospital in southern Gaza’s Khan Younis was killed after being shot by Israeli forces near the Bani Suheila roundabout east of the city, sources told media.

The Palestinian Health Ministry in Gaza said on Wednesday that at least 15 bodies were brought to local hospitals over the past 24 hours, including 13 that were recovered from the rubble.

More than 71,400 Palestinians have been killed and more than 171,000 others wounded in Israel’s war on Gaza, which began in October 2023.