Don’t uncork your champagne quite yet, but President Donald Trump’s Gaza peace plan is taking some surprising steps forward. This push comes as Hamas’ patrons in Tehran are under siege at home, containing a national protest movement only by flooding every city’s streets with heavily armed troops. That standoff may present the chance to force the terrorists to finally give up their grip on Gaza.
This week, Trump and envoy Steve Witkoff announced “the launch of Phase Two” of the peace plan, including Hamas’ “demilitarization” and the creation of “a transitional technocratic Palestinian administration in Gaza” headed by Ali Shaath, a former Palestinian Authority deputy minister.
On Friday, the President named European diplomat Nickolay Mladenov as High Representative for Gaza, under the Board of Peace that’s to oversee the transitional government, as well as members of a Gaza Executive Board that’s to assist Shaath.
All of this offers hope for a path to eventual full peace in Gaza, but it’s a minefield-packed journey. For starters, Hamas has yet to return the remains of the last hostage, Ran Gvili, taken in the October 7 assault on Israel that massacred more than 1,200 innocents. That’s far from the terrorists’ only failure to meet their Phase One obligations.
They have also refused to disarm, instead focusing on rebuilding their ranks, tunnels, and bunkers. Cash from Qatar, Iran, and new taxes on beleaguered Gazans lets Hamas keep paying thousands of fighters and even recruit new ones. Trump himself admitted last week that “it’s not in [Hamas’] nature to disarm.”
Meanwhile, the group has staged repeated attacks on Israel and its military, including a failed rocket launch just last week, violating the cease-fire and sparking IDF reprisals. With the terrorists prepping for renewed fighting, not peace, Israel has had no choice but to plan for a fresh offensive in the Hamas-controlled portion of Gaza.
You see why no one is volunteering troops for the International Stabilization Force that’s supposed to take over security throughout Gaza so the IDF can fully withdraw.
Yet Trump insists he’ll “secure a COMPREHENSIVE Demilitarization Agreement with Hamas, including the surrender of ALL weapons, and the dismantling of EVERY tunnel,” whether it’s done “the easy way, or the hard way.”
What’s up? We suspect the President sees an opening to make this happen while the Iranian regime is tottering. That not only leaves Hamas without its accustomed direction and support, but it should also have the group’s leaders hedging their bets against a revolution or coup in Iran that could leave them high and dry.
Some of them may now see wisdom in retreating safely from Gaza while they still can.
No question: true peace in the territory hinges completely on fully disarming Hamas or having it exit completely. Otherwise, any transitional government would be working with terrorist knives at its throat and in constant fear the war would restart.
Every day the terror group remains armed and in control of much of Gaza, the road to peace grows steeper. Making it yield amid the crisis in Iran could prove a stroke of genius.
https://nypost.com/2026/01/16/opinion/trumps-gaza-peace-plan-moves-ahead-as-israel-hamas-prep-for-new-war/
