‘We turned things around’: Netanyahu takes credit for making Trump plan align with Israel’s positions

Two key achievements were no full IDF withdrawal from the Strip and Hamas’ complete disarmament.

By Batya Jerenberg, World Israel News

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said his meetings with President Trump and his team just before its release led to changes aligning the plan more closely with Israel’s positions.

“Instead of Hamas isolating us, we turned things around and isolated Hamas,” he said.

“Now the whole world, including the Arab and Muslim world, is pressuring Hamas to accept the conditions that we set together with President Trump – to release all of our hostages, both living and dead, while the IDF remains in most of the Strip.”

“Who would have believed it?” he added.

Hamas had insisted from the very beginning of negotiations that an end to the war meant that the IDF had to withdraw from every inch of the Gaza Strip, and the initial version of the proposal had been vague regarding where the line of withdrawal would be.

The published plan says: “Israeli forces will withdraw to the agreed-upon line,” with the accompanying map showing three progressive lines of withdrawal.

The initial retreat, in exchange for the release of all the hostages, shows the IDF in control of slightly less than half the Strip.

These battle lines “will remain frozen until conditions are met for the complete staged withdrawal,” Point 3 of the plan states.

These conditions are outlined in Points 15 and 16.

The first describes how an International Stabilization Force (ISF) will be established in all areas cleared of Israeli forces, to provide “long-term internal security,” help secure border areas and prevent the inflow of weaponry.

The second says that “as the ISF establishes control and stability, the 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.”

There are no deadlines in the plan regarding the ISF gaining security control or ensuring Hamas’ demilitarization, which had been a key Israeli precondition to ending the war but one that Hamas officials have rejected, both before and after being presented with the plan.

This leaves the possibility of the IDF staying well inside Gaza for a lengthy period of time, as even the next line of control shown on the map “when ISF mobilized per standards set” leaves the Israeli army ensconced in over a third of the Strip.

Even when the ISF is fully established, the map shows that after a third withdrawal there will be a “security buffer zone” around the entire enclave, including the critical southern border through which Hamas smuggled in tons of weapons, tunnel-building materials and explosives for well over a decade.

That “security perimeter presence” of the IDF “will remain until Gaza is properly secure from any resurgent terror threat,” the plan now states.

These changes have become the Americans’ final position, with no alterations possible, according to a report Wednesday in The Jerusalem Post, which cited a “senior Israeli official” as its source.