Trump’s Gaza peace plan gets support from regional leaders
Daily News Article — Posted on September 26, 2025
(Compiled from France24, Times of Israel, Axios & JNS) – US President Donald Trump presented his plan for ending the Gaza war, releasing remaining hostages and rehabilitating the Gaza Strip under non-Hamas rule during a multilateral meeting with the leaders of eight Arab and Muslim countries at the United Nations General Assembly in New York on Tuesday.
US envoy Steve Witkoff, who has been involved in months of mediation efforts seeking an end to the nearly two-year war, said Trump had detailed a “21-point plan for peace in the Mideast and Gaza” in Tuesday’s meeting.
“We’re hopeful, and I might say even confident, that in the coming days we’ll be able to announce some sort of breakthrough,” Witkoff told a summit on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly.
The plan “addresses Israeli concerns as well as the concerns of all the neighbors in the region,” he said, without elaborating on the 21 points.
The main principles include:
- freeing all of the remaining hostages
- a permanent ceasefire
- gradual Israeli withdrawal from the Strip
- a post-war plan for governance that does not include Hamas
- a security force including Palestinians and soldiers from Arab and Muslim countries
- funding from Arab and Muslim countries for administration and reconstruction
- and “some involvement of the Palestinian Authority”
Leaders attending included senior officials from Saudi Arabia, The United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Egypt, Jordan, Turkey, Indonesia (which has the largest Muslim population in the world) and Pakistan. According to two sources, the leaders presented Trump with several conditions for supporting his plan:
- Israel will not annex parts of the West Bank or Gaza
- Israel will not occupy parts of Gaza
- Israel will not build settlements in Gaza
- Israel will stop undermining the status quo at the Al-Aqsa Mosque
- Humanitarian aid to Gaza will immediately increase
Trump made it clear to the Arab and Muslim leaders that he would not allow Israel to annex parts of the West Bank (Judea and Samaria), two sources said. (Israel was said to be considering annexing parts of the West Bank in response to multiple Western countries recognizing a Palestinian state).
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said later that Israel was not bound by multiple new government recognitions of a state of Palestine, including by Australia, Britain, Canada and France.
“The shameful capitulation of some leaders to Palestinian terror does not obligate Israel in any way. There will be no Palestinian state,” he said.
A senior Israeli official told The Times of Israel on Monday that the Trump administration has privately cautioned Israel against annexing the West Bank (Judea and Samaria) in response to the decisions by Western countries to recognize Palestine in recent days.
However, Jerusalem does not feel that the warning marked “an end to the discussion” and Netanyahu plans to discuss the matter with President Trump during their White House meeting next Monday, the Israeli official said.
Parts of the plan presented by the president at the Tuesday meeting are based on a proposal crafted by former UK prime minister Tony Blair, which was revealed by The Times of Israel last week.
While the Blair plan focuses on the post-war management of Gaza, the plan presented by Trump also outlines how the war itself would end, envisioning a ceasefire of several weeks during which all of the remaining 48 hostages would be released, one of the Arab diplomats said.
The participating countries were briefed on the US proposal ahead of time and presented a position paper that welcomed Trump’s plan, a source familiar with the matter said.
In addition to the conditions listed above, other points were: welcoming the proposal for a comprehensive end to the war in Gaza; stressing the importance of bringing back the hostages, ending the war; committing to be part of a peaceful solution for the region based on Trump’s vision; and calling out continued Israeli strikes [targeting Hamas terrorists who are] in countries in the region, including the recent attack on Hamas terrorist leaders in Qatar.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan described the meeting with Trump as “very fruitful” and that he was “pleased” with the outcomes of the meeting, but did not elaborate. He told reporters a joint declaration from the meeting would be published.
In the joint statement published Wednesday, the leaders of seven of the Arab and Muslim countries wrote:
“We reaffirm our commitment to cooperate with President Trump and emphasize the importance of his leadership in order to end the war and open horizons for a just and lasting peace.”
Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi issued a separate statement in support of Trump’s plan.
“I appreciate the efforts of President Trump to stop the ongoing war in the Gaza Strip in particular, and his pursuit of peace in the Middle East at large. I value the proposals he presented during his meeting yesterday in New York with a number of Arab and Islamic leaders, which I view as an important foundation upon which we can build further in the coming period to achieve peace,” al-Sisi said.
Emirati state news agency WAM, meanwhile, reported that the meeting focused on ending the ongoing war in Gaza and reaching a permanent ceasefire. The news agency said releasing all hostages and taking steps toward addressing the worsening humanitarian crisis in the war-torn enclave were also discussed as priorities.
Trump told the Arab and Muslim leaders that the next step is discussing the plan with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to secure his support. Trump is expected to meet with Netanyahu on Monday at the White House. The Israeli premier will address the U.N. General Assembly on Friday morning [Sept. 26].
Compiled from reports at France24, Times of Israel and Axios on Sept. 24 and JNS on Sept. 25.
Background
What happened on October 7?
On October 7, 2023, thousands of armed Hamas terrorists tore down large parts of the Gaza security fence using tractors, RPGs and explosives and invaded southern Israel. Simultaneously, Hamas terrorists in Gaza fired thousands of rockets toward Israel.
Some 1,500 terrorists successfully broke through the fence in vehicles and by foot. Some used motorized paragliders to fly over the fence, and others attempted to invade through the sea, aiming for Israel’s Zikim Beach.
The terrorists split up and made their way to a number of Israeli towns and IDF bases surrounding Gaza. That is when the massacre began. They invaded the towns, shooting everything in sight. They broke into civilian homes, shooting, burning, raping and beheading. Over 1,300 civilians were murdered, and over 200 were abducted. Hamas terrorists briefly took control of about 10 Israeli towns, terrorizing and brutalizing their residents.
Simultaneously, additional terrorists drove on to the Nova Music Festival, which took place in a nearby open area. Partygoers were waking up to the sound of sirens and attempting to evacuate due to the threat of rockets. Many of them did not reach safety. The terrorists fired indiscriminately at the thousands of civilians who came from all over the world to celebrate peace through music.
They massacred hundreds, raped young women, brutalized bodies, and abducted many. 260 bodies were later found in the area of the festival, most of them belonging to young men and women—innocent youth.
IDF forces operated to neutralize the terrorists and thwart their infiltration; however, the terrorists were also ambushing IDF bases, killing soldiers and hurling grenades and explosives. Still, field observers used a sniper sighting system, tanks fired shells, and combat helicopters and special forces were deployed to the scene.
The State of Israel has never encountered such a large-scale, calculated attack on the Gaza front.
Many were lost not only during the initial attacks but also during the prolonged, bloody battles to regain control of the towns and bases surrounding Gaza, clear them from terrorists and rescue as many hostages held in Israeli territory as possible. When forces were able to regain control of the towns, they were faced with grotesque sights of Hamas’ pure violence that were left behind.
Cribs and baby carriers were found bloodstained. Families were found embracing each other, lifeless. Pets were left behind, among them a dog refusing to leave a child’s bed, waiting for its owners who will never return.
October 7th will forever be remembered as a dark day in Israel’s history and in humanity’s history. A reminder that there are humans capable of utterly inhumane things. (from idf.il/eng)
On October 7, 2023, as part of the Hamas-led attack on Israel, Hamas and other Palestinian militant groups abducted 251 people from Israel to the Gaza Strip, including children, women, and elderly people. In addition to hostages with only Israeli citizenship, almost half of the hostages are foreign nationals or have multiple citizenships. Some hostages were Negev Bedouins. The precise ratio of soldiers and civilians among the captives is unknown. The captives are likely being held in different locations in the Gaza Strip. (from wikipedia)