Trump urges Netanyahu to advance Gaza plan after Israeli elections: Report
US President Donald Trump urged Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to take steps toward implementing his Gaza plan following Israel’s parliamentary elections, Israeli media reported. Trump delivered the message during a phone conversation with Netanyahu on Thursday, Israel’s Channel 12 said Sunday, citing two sources familiar with the discussions. The US president wants progress on the plan, which includes the transfer of administration in Gaza to a Palestinian technocratic committee, and placing weapons under international supervision alongside a phased Israeli withdrawal and reconstruction efforts, regardless of which government takes office in Israel, the report said.
According to the outlet, implementation of the plan had been largely frozen for months because of Israel’s election campaign, as Washington sought to avoid turning the issue into a politically sensitive matter. A senior US official said the Trump administration now expects Israel to approve steps that had been delayed for domestic political reasons. “We want to move forward cooperatively, and we need full cooperation and full partnership from the Israeli government,” the official said.
The official added that Gaza’s reconstruction would not begin without progress toward disarming Hamas, stressing that the process would be gradual and subject to verification. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Trump’s envoys Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff also participated in Thursday’s call, which reportedly addressed the conflict with Iran. The report said former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, a senior member of Trump’s Board of Peace, visited Israel the following day and met Netanyahu and opposition leader Gadi Eisenkot to encourage support for the plan.
The first phase of Trump’s Gaza plan, announced in 2025, included a ceasefire and the release of Israeli hostages and Palestinian prisoners. The second phase envisages the transfer of administration in Gaza to a Palestinian technocratic committee, deploying an international stabilization force and placing weapons under the responsibility of the National Committee for Gaza Administration under international supervision, alongside a phased Israeli withdrawal and reconstruction efforts.
Left out here: Drops what it reported before
S10 says the plan's first phase included a ceasefire but never says that Israeli attacks and killings in Gaza have continued under that ceasefire. A reader could come away thinking the ceasefire ended the killing and that only the second phase is in question. Anadolu's own reporting weeks earlier put the toll since the ceasefire at more than 1,500 Palestinians. S12 gives the cumulative toll since October 2023, so the gap does not hide the wider scale.
How we know
- Anadolu Agency (English) wrote earlier“At least 1,511 Palestinians have been killed and 5,375 injured in Israeli attacks since the ceasefire, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry.”Palestinian girl killed by Israeli army fire in central Gaza (opens in a new tab)
- Anadolu Agency (English) wrote earlier“Israeli ceasefire violations have killed 1,493 Palestinians and injured 5,299 others since the agreement took effect”1 Palestinian killed, others injured in Israeli drone strike in Gaza (opens in a new tab)
Since October 2023, the Israeli army has killed more than 74,000 people, injured over 175,000 in a deadly assault on Gaza that has left the entire territory in ruins. The latest US push comes as Israel faces uncertainty over the formation of a new government following its Oct. 27 parliamentary elections.
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