* Trump is pressing for key decisions and announcements that he believes will counter a perception that his Gaza peace plan is failing.
* Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will likely continue to resist U.S. pressure to withdraw from additional areas of Gaza when he meets with Trump at Mar-a-Lago at the end of the month.
* U.S. officials assess that extensive U.S. involvement in implementing the peace plan will give regional leaders the confidence to provide personnel to the International Stabilization Force (ISF), which is to secure post-war Gaza.
* To encourage regional and global leaders to contribute forces to the ISF, Trump plans to appoint a senior U.S. military leader as the force’s nominal commander, and the U.S. military will hold a conference on Tuesday to brief potential donor countries on the scope of the ISF’s mission.
It has been two months since President Donald Trump and regional leaders signed his 20 Point Plan for Gaza peace in Sharm el-Sheikh, and one month since the plan was endorsed by UN Security Council Resolution 2803. But implementation has not advanced beyond its “Phase One” provisions — a release of Israeli hostages and Palestinian prisoners, a ceasefire, and a partial Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip. The ceasefire remains relatively intact since it took effect on October 10, although regional officials have cited U.S. officials for “green-lighting” — or at least overlooking — continued Israeli attacks on Hamas militants throughout the enclave. On Saturday, an Israeli strike killed a senior leader of Hamas’ military wing (https://thesoufancenter.org/i
such as tents, into the Strip.
Nor has the politico-military complexion of Gaza unfolded as the Trump peace plan envisions. Israeli forces remain in control of about half of Gaza — areas which only a small percentage of the population inhabits. Global officials report that Hamas has largely reasserted political and security control in the areas of Gaza evacuated by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), including Gaza City. In early December, one of Hamas’ top political leaders, Khalid Meshaal, publicly restated the group’s position that it will not agree to disarm voluntarily, even though disarmament is a core feature of the Trump plan. Last week, the Chief of the IDF General Staff, Eyal Zamir, said Israel would not yield its current military positions in Gaza, including agricultural land and the border crossing with Egypt, essentially establishing a “new border” with Gaza. The statement seemed to signal a hardening of Israel’s position and suggested that U.S. officials are having difficulty securing Israeli Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu’s (https://thesoufancenter.org/i
The Hamas and Israeli statements, coupled with a lack of movement on postwar arrangements, have prompted Trump to force key decisions in order to counter a perception that his plan is stalled or failing outright. Trump and his team plan to announce, by early 2026, a series of appointments crucial to fully implementing the Gaza roadmap as designed. Trump’s team calculates that advancing the plan requires extensive direct U.S. involvement in all aspects of the Gaza peace process. Yet a perception of extensive U.S. control risks alienating U.S. partners in Europe, the Arab and Muslim world, including the Palestinians — all of which demand input into the plan’s implementation. A failure to incorporate significant buy-in, particularly from the region, risks the collapse of the Trump plan, a restart of the Israel-Hamas conflict (https://thesoufancenter.org/i
During their upcoming meeting, Trump is likely to urge Netanyahu to cooperate with his efforts to move into Phase II of the plan, which outlines postwar security and governance arrangements. To govern Gaza on an interim basis, a committee of approximately a dozen Palestinian technocrats, who are not affiliated with Hamas, is to be appointed. The governing body would be supervised by an international “Board of Peace,” nominally led by Trump himself. Phase II envisions an International Stabilization Force (ISF) (https://thesoufancenter.org/i
postwar elements of the plan has prompted Netanyahu and other Israeli leaders to argue that Israel cannot implement its commitments under Phase II unless all parts of Trump’s plan, which guarantee Israel’s long-term security, are fully agreed and implemented.
To instill momentum in the process, U.S. officials are reportedly working to advance two lines of effort ahead of the Netanyahu visit later this month — establishing the Board of Peace and securing personnel contributions to the ISF. Trump told reporters on Wednesday he plans to fill out the membership of the Board of Peace in the first weeks of 2026 — a delay from the initial plan to establish the body before the Christmas holiday. He is expected to name his top advisers, such as Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff and his son-in-law and adviser Jared Kushner, as members of an “international executive board” of the body. Global figures such as former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair are expected to be named as well. It is not clear that U.S. officials will respond to Palestinian appeals to include Palestinian figures. On Thursday, U.S. officials proposed that Nickolay Mladenov, a Bulgarian diplomat and former UN Middle East envoy, be appointed as the Board’s on-the-ground representative in Gaza.
In such a role, Mladenov would supervise a future Palestinian technocratic government, which is to run the enclave until the West Bank-Palestinian Authority (PA) (https://thesoufancenter.org/i
However, even if Board appointments are filled out, experts note U.S. officials have offered little clarity on how the Board and the interim Palestinian governing committee would actually govern Gaza — or, more consequentially, how it can operate while armed Hamas terrorists remain in control of much of the enclave. Aaron David Miller, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, questioned the lack of clarity in comments to journalists, asking: “Is [the Board of Peace] the overriding executive authority that has the final say in Palestinian governance and security? If that’s the case, it’s going to fail because none of these members of the Board of Peace have the time or inclination to make those decisions.”
Trump and his team are also planning to announce decisions aimed at encouraging regional leaders to pledge military personnel to the ISF. Potential force donors (https://thesoufancenter.org/i
Trump’s appointment of a U.S. military leader to head the Civil Military Coordination Center (CMCC) (https://thesoufancenter.org/i
officials that having an American general in charge of the ISF should give Israel confidence that the force will operate according to appropriate standards.
As part of its effort to line up ISF troop contributions, two U.S. officials told journalists, on background, that on Tuesday, U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) (https://thesoufancenter.org/i