Bowen: Momentum is the strength of Trump's Gaza plan, but lack of detail is its weakness [View all]

Source: BBC

Trump's Gaza plan, but lack of detail is its weakness

30 September 2025

Jeremy BowenInternational Editor

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The proposed deal looks a lot like a plan put forward by Joe Biden well over a year ago. Since then there has been massive killing of Palestinian civilians, more destruction in Gaza, and now a famine, while Israeli hostages in Gaza have had to endure months more of agony and captivity.

There were many reports in the Israeli media that the Biden initiative failed because Netanyahu moved the goalposts with a new set of demands - under pressure from the hard right in his cabinet.

Even so, the framework plan is a significant moment. For the first time, Donald Trump is putting pressure on Israel to end the war. Donald Trump has made himself into a leader to whom it is hard to say no. Nobody wants to end up getting the roasting Ukraine's president Volodymyr Zelensky received in the Oval Office back in February. But things can change when leaders leave the White House.

Before Benjamin Netanyahu left Washington DC to go back to Israel his staff filmed him putting over his version of events. One element was the idea of an independent Palestine next to Israel, the two-state solution which the UK and other Western countries have tried to revive by recognising Palestine.

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Read more: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cn829deeje3o