\n
On the face of it, the announcement of phase two of President Donald Trump’s peace plan for Gaza would seem like progress.<\/p>\n
But there remains a huge lack of clarity and detail about the future of the strip and the 2.1 million Palestinians who live there.<\/p>\n
Furthermore, there are many pitfalls.<\/p>\n
First, Trump’s plan demands that Hamas, as well as other groups in Gaza, agree to disarm.<\/p>\n
Announcing phase two of the deal, the US Special Envoy to the Middle East, Steve Witkoff, said failure to do so would “bring serious consequences”.<\/p>\n
But Hamas has so far adamantly refused to give up its weapons, which it sees as tools of resistance to Israel’s decades-long military occupation.<\/p>\n
If it maintains that position, there are already far-right members of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition government who are champing at the bit to resume the war and “finish the job”.<\/p>\n
While massively diminished militarily, US intelligence has long estimated that Hamas has likely recruited more new members in Gaza than have been killed by Israel during the war.<\/p>\n
The ceasefire, which has been in place since October last year, is already fragile at best.<\/p>\n
Both sides have accused each other of repeated violations.<\/p>\n
More than 450 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli strikes since it came into force, according to the Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza. <\/p>\n
The Israeli military says three of its soldiers have been killed in attacks by Palestinian armed groups during the same period.<\/p>\n
Secondly, there is little clarity over to what extent Israel will be required to withdraw its forces from Gaza.<\/p>\n
It has given no indication that it is willing to pull back completely, insisting it needs to maintain a strong security presence in Gaza.<\/p>\n
Israel officials talk of “a new reality” in Gaza, insisting that the strip will never go back to the way it was before Hamas launched its deadly attack on 7 October 2023.<\/p>\n
So, there could be continued wrangling over how far Israeli forces withdraw.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\n
Then there is the issue of governance.<\/p>\n
Who will run Gaza, if not Hamas, which came to power after winning Palestinian elections almost exactly 20 years ago?<\/p>\n
Who will provide policing, security, schools, hospitals?<\/p>\n
For more than a year now, there has been the idea that some sort of International Stabilization Force could provide security in Gaza.<\/p>\n
Egypt, Turkey, the UAE, Qatar and Saudi Arabia, as well as the West Bank-based, Palestinian Authority, have all been suggested as potential countries that would make up this force.<\/p>\n
But none have committed and, again, the detail is unclear.<\/p>\n
Anyone seen as “riding in on the back of Israeli tanks” is likely to meet a frosty reception from Palestinians in Gaza.<\/p>\n
Under Trump’s peace plan, Gaza will supposedly have three levels of governance.<\/p>\n
As the lowest level, the strip will be run by a new government of technocrats made up of figures from civil society within Gaza.<\/p>\n
The names of its members were announced on Wednesday, with Hamas having agreed to have no role in the government.<\/p>\n
Above that will be an Executive Committee based outside Gaza to oversee the new government’s work.<\/p>\n
It is likely to be made up of non-Palestinians, with former British prime minister Tony Blair said be among those who will sit on the committee.<\/p>\n
Blair is widely distrusted by Palestinians, being seen as too close to Israel, and for his role, alongside former US president George W Bush, in the second Iraq War launched in 2003.<\/p>\n
Finally, above the Executive Committee will be the Board of Peace, with Trump as its chairman.<\/p>\n
The current British Prime Minister, Keir Starmer, Italy’s leader Giorgia Meloni, and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan are rumoured to be among the board’s proposed members.<\/p>\n
Many Palestinians say having foreigners in effect running Gaza smacks of colonialism.<\/p>\n
The question is: do they have a choice?<\/p>\n
And all the while, the humanitarian situation in Gaza remains utterly bleak.<\/p>\n
Since the ceasefire was announced last October, more aid has been allowed into the strip, but aid agencies say it is still nowhere near enough.<\/p>\n
Hundreds of thousands of Gazans remain homeless and are living in makeshift tents.<\/p>\n
The last few months in the region has seen grim winter weather, with torrential rain, high winds and temperatures below 5C (41F).<\/p>\n
Gaza has experienced severe flooding, with buildings collapsing and tents blown away.<\/p>\n
Most children have had little or no education for more than two years.<\/p>\n
What does the future hold for them?<\/p>\n
So, while phase two of the peace plan may seem like progress, there remain many reasons for pessimism.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\n
Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On the face of it, the announcement of phase two of President Donald Trump’s peace plan…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":81584,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[711,190,4447,298,1377,8683,1798,1240],"class_list":["post-81583","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-top-stories","tag-enters","tag-gaza","tag-loom","tag-peace","tag-phase","tag-pitfalls","tag-plan","tag-trumps"],"yoast_head":"\n
Pitfalls loom as Trump's Gaza peace plan enters second phase - Gulf Times | News by the minute<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Gulf Times: Latest news across the GCC from UAE, Bahrain, Qatar, Oman, Yemen, Saudi Arabia\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/news\/articles\/cp3z7441nz7o?at_medium=RSS&at_campaign=rss\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Pitfalls loom as Trump's Gaza peace plan enters second phase\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Gulf News| UAE's Largest News aggregator site\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/news\/articles\/cp3z7441nz7o?at_medium=RSS&at_campaign=rss\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Gulf Times | News by the minute\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/100084981843786\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-01-15T12:31:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/e06c00c0-f208-11f0-b5f7-49f0357294ff.avif\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1024\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"576\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"gulftimes\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@Gulftimesuae\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@Gulftimesuae\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"gulftimes\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Pitfalls loom as Trump's Gaza peace plan enters second phase - Gulf Times | News by the minute","description":"Gulf Times: Latest news across the GCC from UAE, Bahrain, Qatar, Oman, Yemen, Saudi Arabia","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/news\/articles\/cp3z7441nz7o?at_medium=RSS&at_campaign=rss","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Pitfalls loom as Trump's Gaza peace plan enters second phase","og_description":"Gulf News| UAE's Largest News aggregator site","og_url":"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/news\/articles\/cp3z7441nz7o?at_medium=RSS&at_campaign=rss","og_site_name":"Gulf Times | News by the minute","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/100084981843786","article_published_time":"2026-01-15T12:31:00+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1024,"height":576,"url":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/e06c00c0-f208-11f0-b5f7-49f0357294ff.avif","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"gulftimes","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@Gulftimesuae","twitter_site":"@Gulftimesuae","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"gulftimes","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/news\/articles\/cp3z7441nz7o?at_medium=RSS&at_campaign=rss#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/?p=81583"},"author":{"name":"gulftimes","@id":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/#\/schema\/person\/4c5b0f90aae48bb43165ee6e39ddc977"},"headline":"Pitfalls loom as Trump’s Gaza peace plan enters second phase","datePublished":"2026-01-15T12:31:00+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/?p=81583"},"wordCount":772,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/news\/articles\/cp3z7441nz7o?at_medium=RSS&at_campaign=rss#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/e06c00c0-f208-11f0-b5f7-49f0357294ff.avif","keywords":["enters","Gaza","loom","peace","phase","Pitfalls","plan","Trumps"],"articleSection":["Top Stories"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/news\/articles\/cp3z7441nz7o?at_medium=RSS&at_campaign=rss#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/?p=81583","url":"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/news\/articles\/cp3z7441nz7o?at_medium=RSS&at_campaign=rss","name":"Pitfalls loom as Trump's Gaza peace plan enters second phase - Gulf Times | News by the minute","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/news\/articles\/cp3z7441nz7o?at_medium=RSS&at_campaign=rss#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/news\/articles\/cp3z7441nz7o?at_medium=RSS&at_campaign=rss#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/e06c00c0-f208-11f0-b5f7-49f0357294ff.avif","datePublished":"2026-01-15T12:31:00+00:00","description":"Gulf Times: Latest news across the GCC from UAE, Bahrain, Qatar, Oman, Yemen, Saudi Arabia","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/news\/articles\/cp3z7441nz7o?at_medium=RSS&at_campaign=rss#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/news\/articles\/cp3z7441nz7o?at_medium=RSS&at_campaign=rss"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/news\/articles\/cp3z7441nz7o?at_medium=RSS&at_campaign=rss#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/e06c00c0-f208-11f0-b5f7-49f0357294ff.avif","contentUrl":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/e06c00c0-f208-11f0-b5f7-49f0357294ff.avif","width":1024,"height":576},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/news\/articles\/cp3z7441nz7o?at_medium=RSS&at_campaign=rss#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Pitfalls loom as Trump’s Gaza peace plan enters second phase"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/#website","url":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/","name":"Gulf Times | News by the minute","description":"Largest News Aggregator in the Gulf","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/#organization"},"alternateName":"Gulf News Aggregator","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/#organization","name":"Gulf Times","url":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"","contentUrl":"","caption":"Gulf Times"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/100084981843786","https:\/\/x.com\/Gulftimesuae"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/#\/schema\/person\/4c5b0f90aae48bb43165ee6e39ddc977","name":"gulftimes","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/a8f9c2e07a9cd7e7e7c302c8c7ce8d5e0865a0bbcc732793d6e761588fd10b03?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/a8f9c2e07a9cd7e7e7c302c8c7ce8d5e0865a0bbcc732793d6e761588fd10b03?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/a8f9c2e07a9cd7e7e7c302c8c7ce8d5e0865a0bbcc732793d6e761588fd10b03?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"gulftimes"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/gulftimes.ae"],"url":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/?author=1"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81583","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=81583"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81583\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/81584"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=81583"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=81583"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=81583"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}