Why Hamas will never accept Trump’s 20-point Gaza plan

Trump’s Gaza Peace Plan Ensures Israel Gains, Hamas’ Destruction

Editorial By Advocatetanmoy

Donald Trump’s freshly minted 20-point sop — enthusiastically kissed by Benjamin Netanyahu and rolled out with the theatricality of a late-night infomercial — is less a peace plan than a managerial coup dressed in humanitarian drag. Israel’s public nod to the proposal makes the choreography official: an American-authored, Israeli-endorsed script meant to freeze battle lines, gussy up reconstruction, and puncture Hamas’s muscle while preserving Israel’s strategic latitude.

Read the document and the mood becomes obvious: immediate ceasefire, hostage returns in a prescribed 72-hour window, massive prisoner swaps on terms skewed to one side, blanket exclusion of Hamas from governance, conditional amnesties only if fighters “decommission,” and Gaza handed temporarily to a technocratic, internationally supervised committee — with a “Board of Peace” chaired by Trump and populated by Western notables. The language is explicit: disarmament, destruction of tunnels and military infrastructure, and no role for Hamas in any guise. The whole thing smells of technocratic tutelage — investment and water-pump rhetoric lacquered over an institutional squeeze on Palestinian self-determination.

Hamas has not been anointed a party to this negotiation; it has been presented with terms that demand its extinction as a political and military actor and asked to accept a lopsided swap under the glare of camera crews. Officially, Hamas is “studying” the proposal — a diplomatic euphemism that masks skeletal political reality: no organization that built its legitimacy by combining governance, social services, and armed resistance can credibly accept an offer that requires disarmament, public emasculation, and the surrender of its bargaining chips while leaving its core political grievances unresolved. In short: studying ≠ consenting.

The plan’s fatal omission is structural: it punts the question of Palestinian statehood into an indefinite future and ties any meaningful political horizon to a long, contingent reform process of the Palestinian Authority — a body that Gaza’s population and Hamas alike view with deep suspicion. In effect, the document divorces the immediate cessation of violence from the deeper, territorial, and legal questions that animate Palestinian politics; it offers rehabilitation and reconstruction without homeland, procedure without parity. That is not a recipe for acceptance by a movement defined in part by the absence of a sovereign outlet for Palestinian national aspirations.

Beyond the ideological incompatibility, the plan is pragmatically poisonous for Hamas. The offer’s conditional amnesty — “give up your arms and we’ll spare you” — is the political equivalent of asking a tiger to be measured for a leash. Even if some fighters take the safe-passage option, the organization’s leadership would be decapitated as a political force, humanitarian infrastructure would be rebuilt under foreign supervision, and security architecture would be recast so that any future deviation could be labeled “terror” and crushed anew. Why would a movement that survived decades of siege, blockade, and military pressure accept an arrangement that hands its enemies the institutional tools to monitor, detain, and, if they judge it useful, re-suppress Gaza with impunity? The calculus for Hamas is survival and relevance; this plan asks it to trade both for the doubtful promise of reconstruction.

Yes, a chorus of regional capitals — from Cairo and Doha to Riyadh and, ambiguously, Islamabad — have publicly circled close to the American tent, offering muted praise or conditional support as diplomatic cover. Some Muslim-majority governments may sign on for damage limitation, to accelerate aid, or to shore up regional stability; others will mouth cautious reservations. But state endorsements from distant ministries don’t translate into grassroots legitimacy in Gaza, nor do they blunt the visceral political cost Hamas would pay at home for appearing to capitulate. External acquiescence is not an internal mandate.

Finally, the plan assumes compliance from an adversary that has historically viewed disarmament demands without reciprocal, iron-clad guarantees as fatal naiveté. The promise that Israel “will not annex Gaza” and that troops will withdraw is couched in conditionality and overseen by actors whose credibility in Palestinian eyes is low. Asking Hamas to disarm first — before a credible, verifiable, and enforceable political settlement to the broader occupation question exists — is asking the besieged to disarm into irrelevance. That’s not a peace offer; it’s a surrender brief.

So, will Hamas accept? No. The logic is unsparing and simple. The plan demands the organization’s political euthanasia in exchange for limited, conditional benefits; it sidelines the fundamental Palestinian demand for statehood (and does so indefinitely); it places Gaza under a puppet-ready technocratic regime whose accountability will be measured to donors, not to Gazans; and it relies on regional governments and international supervision to police a peace that has no durable political anchor. For Hamas, acceptance would mean handing its constituency a fate worse than continued armed struggle: political oblivion. That is not an outcome any movement built on survival instincts is likely to choose. The document below, therefore, reads less like a bridge to peace and more like a blueprint for enforced pacification — and Hamas will reject it, precisely because it would destroy the one thing Hamas still possesses: leverage.

Thursday, October 2, 2025

Image: The Times of Israel

Text of Trump’s 20-point Gaza peace plan (29th Sept 2025)

Gaza will be a deradicalised terror-free zone that does not pose a threat to its neighbours.
Gaza will be redeveloped for the benefit of the people of Gaza, who have suffered more than enough.
If both sides agree to this proposal, the war will immediately end. Israeli forces will withdraw to the agreed upon line to prepare for a hostage release. During this time, all military operations, including aerial and artillery bombardment, will be suspended, and battle lines will remain frozen until conditions are met for the complete staged withdrawal.
Within 72 hours of Israel publicly accepting this agreement, all hostages, alive and deceased, will be returned.
Once all hostages are released, Israel will release 250 life sentence prisoners plus 1,700 Gazans who were detained after 7 October 2023, including all women and children detained in that context. For every Israeli hostage whose remains are released, Israel will release the remains of 15 deceased Gazans.
Once all hostages are returned, Hamas members who commit to peaceful co-existence and to decommission their weapons will be given amnesty. Members of Hamas who wish to leave Gaza will be provided safe passage to receiving countries.
Upon acceptance of this agreement, full aid will be immediately sent into the Gaza Strip. At a minimum, aid quantities will be consistent with what was included in the 19 January 2025 agreement regarding humanitarian aid, including rehabilitation of infrastructure (water, electricity, sewage), rehabilitation of hospitals and bakeries, and entry of necessary equipment to remove rubble and open roads.
Entry of distribution and aid in the Gaza Strip will proceed without interference from the two parties through the United Nations and its agencies, and the Red Crescent, in addition to other international institutions not associated in any manner with either party. Opening the Rafah crossing in both directions will be subject to the same mechanism implemented under 19 January 2025 agreement.
Gaza will be governed under the temporary transitional governance of a technocratic, apolitical Palestinian committee, responsible for delivering the day-to-day running of public services and municipalities for the people in Gaza. This committee will be made up of qualified Palestinians and international experts, with oversight and supervision by a new international transitional body, the “Board of Peace,” which will be headed and chaired by President Donald J. Trump, with other members and heads of state to be announced, including Former Prime Minister Tony Blair. This body will set the framework and handle the funding for the redevelopment of Gaza until such time as the Palestinian Authority has completed its reform programme, as outlined in various proposals, including President Trump’s peace plan in 2020 and the Saudi-French proposal, and can securely and effectively take back control of Gaza. This body will call on best international standards to create modern and efficient governance that serves the people of Gaza and is conducive to attracting investment.
A Trump economic development plan to rebuild and energise Gaza will be created by convening a panel of experts who have helped birth some of the thriving modern miracle cities in the Middle East. Many thoughtful investment proposals and exciting development ideas have been crafted by well-meaning international groups, and will be considered to synthesize the security and governance frameworks to attract and facilitate these investments that will create jobs, opportunity, and hope for future Gaza.

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A special economic zone will be established with preferred tariff and access rates to be negotiated with participating countries.
No one will be forced to leave Gaza, and those who wish to leave will be free to do so and free to return. We will encourage people to stay and offer them the opportunity to build a better Gaza.
Hamas and other factions agree to not have any role in the governance of Gaza, directly, indirectly, or in any form. All military, terror, and offensive infrastructure, including tunnels and weapon production facilities, will be destroyed and not rebuilt. There will be a process of demilitarisation of Gaza under the supervision of independent monitors, which will include placing weapons permanently beyond use through an agreed process of decommissioning, and supported by an internationally funded buy back and reintegration programme all verified by the independent monitors. New Gaza will be fully committed to building a prosperous economy and to peaceful coexistence with their neighbours.
A guarantee will be provided by regional partners to ensure that Hamas, and the factions, comply with their obligations and that New Gaza poses no threat to its neighbours or its people.
The United States will work with Arab and international partners to develop a temporary International Stabilisation Force (ISF) to immediately deploy in Gaza. The ISF will train and provide support to vetted Palestinian police forces in Gaza, and will consult with Jordan and Egypt who have extensive experience in this field. This force will be the long-term internal security solution. The ISF will work with Israel and Egypt to help secure border areas, along with newly trained Palestinian police forces. It is critical to prevent munitions from entering Gaza and to facilitate the rapid and secure flow of goods to rebuild and revitalize Gaza. A deconfliction mechanism will be agreed upon by the parties.
Israel will not occupy or annex Gaza. As the ISF establishes control and stability, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) will withdraw based on standards, milestones, and timeframes linked to demilitarization that will be agreed upon between the IDF, ISF, the guarantors, and the United States, with the objective of a secure Gaza that no longer poses a threat to Israel, Egypt, or its citizens. Practically, the IDF will progressively hand over the Gaza territory it occupies to the ISF according to an agreement they will make with the transitional authority until they are withdrawn completely from Gaza, save for a security perimeter presence that will remain until Gaza is properly secure from any resurgent terror threat.
In the event Hamas delays or rejects this proposal, the above, including the scaled-up aid operation, will proceed in the terror-free areas handed over from the IDF to the ISF.
An interfaith dialogue process will be established based on the values of tolerance and peaceful co-existence to try and change mindsets and narratives of Palestinians and Israelis by emphasizing the benefits that can be derived from peace.
While Gaza re-development advances and when the PA reform programme is faithfully carried out, the conditions may finally be in place for a credible pathway to Palestinian self-determination and statehood, which we recognise as the aspiration of the Palestinian people.
The United States will establish a dialogue between Israel and the Palestinians to agree on a political horizon for peaceful and prosperous co-existence.