Trump’s Gaza plan does not call for Hamas’s expulsion

After UN vote, Netanyahu calls for Hamas’s expulsion from region

GAZA:  Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday called for Hamas to be expelled from the region, a day after the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) endorsed United States President Donald Trump’s Gaza plan that offers the Palestinian group amnesty.

Netanyahu publicly endorsed the plan during a White House visit in late September. However, his latest remarks appear to show that there are differences with the US on the path forward. Hamas has also objected to parts of the plan.

Diplomats say privately that entrenched positions on both the Israeli and Hamas sides have made it difficult to advance the plan, which lacks specific timelines or enforcement mechanisms. Still, it has received strong international backing, including from the Arab and Muslim countries that worked on it.

Netanyahu on Tuesday published a series of posts on X in response to the UN vote. In one post, he applauded Trump and in another wrote the Israeli government believes the plan would lead to peace and prosperity because it calls for the “full demilitarisation, disarmament, and deradicalisation of Gaza”.

“Israel extends its hand in peace and prosperity to all of our neighbours” and calls on neighbouring countries to “join us in expelling Hamas and its supporters from the region”, he said.

Asked what the prime minister had meant by expelling Hamas, a spokesperson said that it would mean “ensuring there is no Hamas in Gaza as outlined in the 20-point plan, and Hamas has no ability to govern the Palestinian people inside the Gaza Strip”.

Trump’s 20-point plan includes a clause saying that Hamas members “who commit to peaceful coexistence and to decommission their weapons will be given amnesty”, and members who wish to leave will be given safe passage to third countries.

Another clause says Hamas will agree to not having any role in Gaza’s governance.

There is no clause that explicitly calls for the resistance group to disband or to leave Gaza.

The plan says reforms to the Palestinian Authority may ultimately allow conditions “for a credible pathway to Palestinian self-determination and statehood”.

Palestinian Foreign Minister Varsen Aghabekian Shahin termed the UNSC resolution the “first step in a long road towards peace”.

“That step was needed because we could not embark on anything else before we had a ceasefire,” Shahin told reporters in Manila during a visit to the Philippines.

Shahin said there were still other issues that needed to be addressed, including Palestinian self-determination and eventual Palestinian independence, and that the process for implementing Trump’s plan must be governed by international law.

She said that although Trump’s plan alludes to possible Palestinian statehood only after the Palestinian Authority carries out reforms, that issue could be taken up later. “As long as these elements are in there, we’re happy with this first step,” Shahin said.

The UNSC resolution authorised a multinational force that Trump’s plan says will be temporarily deployed to Gaza to stabilise the territory.

The resolution’s text also says member states could join a “Board of Peace” that would oversee reconstruction and economic recovery inside Gaza. Monitoring Desk