https://arab.news/w5ya3
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is expected to meet President Donald Trump before the end of this month at the president’s Mar-a-Lago Florida resort, where Hebrew media predict Iran’s nuclear and long-range missile programs will feature prominently on the agenda.
Earlier this week, representatives of the US, Qatar, Egypt, and Turkey met in Miami to discuss moving to phase two of Trump’s Gaza peace plan. The mediators hailed the success of the first phase and urged Israel and Hamas to exercise restraint and avoid returning to war.
Netanyahu has come under US pressure to accept moving to phase two, which includes the formation and deployment of a stabilization force in Gaza, establishing a board of peace, and initiating reconstruction plans, as well as disarming Hamas and other Palestinian factions. He recently hinted that “the second phase was close,” but was vague on details.
Israeli officials have responded that there can never be a phase two before Hamas disarms fully — something to which the Islamist group, which remains the de facto ruler of less than half the strip, has refused to commit. Egypt, as a mediator and one of the guarantors of Trump’s plan, has held meetings in Cairo to discuss ways to deliver on that complex condition, but Hamas has been unrelenting, arguing it will not hand over its weapons until Israel withdraws completely from Gaza. Hamas has also accused Israel of violating the ceasefire agreement by bombing Hamas-controlled areas daily.
