Editor’s Note: This essay first appeared at John Spencer’s Substack, Urban Warfare. You can subscribe to it here.
President Donald J. Trump’s 20-point plan is the most comprehensive proposal put forward to date for both ending the war in Gaza and setting durable conditions for peace. Where other initiatives have been narrow, vague, or aspirational, this plan stands out for its clarity, scope, and grounding in the realities of the conflict. It directly achieves Israel’s core objectives in the campaign against Hamas: the immediate release of all hostages, the demilitarization and deradicalization of Gaza, the establishment of a Hamas-free governing structure, and long-term security assurances for Israel. No previous plan has offered so concrete a mechanism for both ending hostilities and preventing the return of Hamas’s war-fighting capacity.
What sets this plan apart is that it does not stop at Israel’s security goals. It also offers a genuine path to peace for Palestinians, anchored in tangible steps rather than empty rhetoric. It explicitly addresses the real concerns of the Palestinian people, including assurances against forced displacement, a credible pathway for governance, and international support for rebuilding Gaza into a place that offers hope rather than despair. The framework envisions transitional governance by a technocratic Palestinian committee overseen by an international “Board of Peace,” with external funding and expertise directed toward reconstruction. Importantly, the Palestinian Authority is excluded until it undergoes meaningful reform, a recognition that failed leadership cannot simply be recycled. This conditionality is critical because it links the prospect of legitimate Palestinian self-rule to demonstrated governance reform, abandonment of terrorism, and other condition-based initiatives that no prior proposal has seriously enforced.
The plan also goes further than others by bringing in Arab, Muslim, and international partners. It calls for the deployment of an International Stabilization Force to assume security responsibilities inside Gaza, working with vetted Palestinian police and supported by regional actors with experience, such as Jordan and Egypt. Immediately following the joint press conference by President Trump and Prime Minister Netanyahu, a joint statement by the foreign ministers of Qatar, Jordan, the UAE, Indonesia, Pakistan, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, and Egypt endorsed the plan. That statement alone marked a breakthrough. It leaves Hamas isolated and also signals which countries may contribute to the International Stabilization Force and the peace committee.
The International Stabilization Force provision is central. It removes the burden from the Israel Defense Forces to serve as a long-term stabilizing presence, while at the same time preventing Hamas from exploiting its central survival strategy of embedding within Gaza’s civilian population. It also ensures that Gaza’s borders are secured against rearmament while aid and reconstruction flow at scale.
The question then becomes, what will Hamas do? This is another critical feature of the plan. If Hamas accepts the terms, the war ends immediately. If Hamas delays or refuses, the war continues with Israel now having the support and assistance of all those who approved the plan. That recognition of Hamas’s well-established rejectionism enhances the credibility of the proposal. The text explicitly anticipates the possibility that Hamas will refuse to accept its terms, and it builds in mechanisms for progress to continue in the absence of Hamas’s cooperation. This acknowledgment of reality prevents the plan from collapsing at the first obstacle and makes it more resilient than past proposals that depended entirely on Hamas’s good faith. In this respect, the plan does not fall into the trap of wishful thinking but instead confronts Hamas’s track record directly.
Of course, many questions remain. Who will sit on the proposed “Board of Peace”? What nations will commit troops and resources to the International Stabilization Force? Which regional partners will guarantee Hamas’s disarmament and compliance? Who will validate that the Palestinian Authority has genuinely reformed before assuming responsibility for governance? These uncertainties are real and deserve close scrutiny. Yet they should not distract from the fact that, for all the questions it leaves open, the 20-point plan answers far more than any other proposal on the table. It outlines a comprehensive vision that simultaneously guarantees Israel’s security, provides Palestinians a path forward, and creates a framework for international participation and accountability.
Central to this is the plan’s requirement for Gaza to undergo a process of deradicalization. Schools, mosques, and media institutions would need to be stripped of incitement and reoriented toward education, tolerance, and coexistence. Curricula would be rewritten, foreign-funded extremist networks dismantled, and new programs introduced that emphasize economic development, civic responsibility, and peaceful engagement. By linking reconstruction funds and governance reform to this process, the plan ensures that rebuilding Gaza does not simply recreate the conditions that allowed Hamas to thrive, but instead produces a society equipped to reject terrorism and embrace stability.
At its core, Trump’s plan is not just about stopping the current war. It is about breaking the cycle of repeated wars that have defined Gaza for decades. By tying reconstruction to deradicalization, security to governance reform, and coexistence to tangible steps rather than abstract hopes, the plan offers a pathway that is both strategic and pragmatic. Whether it can be implemented will depend on the political will of all parties involved, but there is no denying that it sets the most detailed and realistic foundation for peace yet presented.
John Spencer is the executive director of the Urban Warfare Institute and co-author of Understanding Urban Warfare.
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