The Gaza ceasefire and the US 20-point plan

The challenge

On 7 October 2023 the terrorist organisation Hamas led a terrorist attack in Israel together with other armed groups. Civilians were deliberately murdered and hostages taken. According to Israeli government figures, the attackers killed about 1,200 people and took 251 hostages to the Gaza Strip.¹

According to a tally by the news agency AFP cited by Human Rights Watch, 1,195 people were killed, 815 of them civilians, among them at least 282 women and 36 children. At least 364 civilians were killed at the Nova music festival, and the attackers struck at least 19 kibbutzim, five moshavim and the towns of Sderot and Ofakim.²

In the war that followed, Israeli military operations in Gaza killed, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, at least 67,869 Palestinians up to the ceasefire, 20,179 of them children.¹ The ministry's count does not distinguish civilians from combatants.³ According to UNRWA, citing Gaza's health authorities, the count had reached 73,914 by 24 September 2026.⁴ In January 2026 a senior Israeli military officer was reported to have put the toll at about 71,000; the military said this was not an official figure.⁵

About 78% of the buildings in the Strip were damaged or destroyed, and 468 Israeli soldiers were killed after the ground offensive began.¹ Two earlier ceasefires, in November 2023 and January 2025, did not hold.⁶

The road there

1. 7 October 2023The Hamas-led terrorist attack on southern Israel; the war in Gaza begins.¹
2. 29 September 2025Donald Trump presents the 20-point plan, alongside Benjamin Netanyahu.⁶
3. 3 October 2025Hamas accepts the release of the hostages and handing Gaza's administration to a Palestinian body.⁶
4. 8 October 2025After indirect talks in Sharm el-Sheikh, Trump announces agreement on the first phase.⁶
5. 10 October 2025The ceasefire takes effect; Israeli forces pull back to the “yellow line” and remain in about 53% of the Strip.⁷
6. 13 October 2025The 20 living hostages come home.⁷ The United States, Egypt, Qatar and Turkey sign a guarantee document; Israel and Hamas do not.⁸⁹
7. 17 November 2025The Security Council adopts Resolution 2803 by 13 votes, with China and Russia abstaining.¹⁰
8. January 2026Phase two is announced; the Board of Peace and a committee to run Gaza are set up.¹¹ By 26 January the bodies of all the hostages have been returned.⁷
9. 31 July 2026The Board of Peace announces that Hamas has accepted a 15-point roadmap for handing over its weapons in stages.¹²⁴
10. 9 August 2026Netanyahu rejects the roadmap and demands that Hamas be disarmed before any Israeli withdrawal.¹³

The people

Led

Benjamin Netanyahu

Mediated

Donald Trump

Proposed

Donald Trump

What the plan provides

• An immediate end to the fighting, Israeli forces pulling back to an agreed line, and frozen battle lines until a full withdrawal in stages.¹⁴
• All hostages, living and dead, released within 72 hours; Israel releases 250 prisoners serving life sentences and 1,700 Gazans detained after 7 October 2023.¹⁴
• Hamas has no part in governing; the Strip is demilitarised under independent monitoring. Hamas members who commit to peaceful coexistence get amnesty, and those who wish to leave get safe passage.¹⁴
• Transitional governance: a technocratic, non-partisan Palestinian committee runs the Strip under the oversight of a “Board of Peace” chaired by Trump, until the Palestinian Authority completes its reforms.¹⁴
• A temporary International Stabilization Force secures the borders, trains a Palestinian police force and helps demilitarise; the Israeli army withdraws by demilitarisation milestones and meanwhile keeps a security perimeter.¹⁴
• Full humanitarian aid; no one is forced to leave, and those who leave may return. Israel will not occupy or annex Gaza.¹⁴
• A Palestinian state: after Palestinian Authority reform and reconstruction, the conditions may exist for a credible pathway to statehood. No timetable, no commitment.¹⁴⁷

Read the document

The geography

The hard decisions

• The order of steps is the heart of the dispute: Israel demands that Hamas be fully disarmed before it withdraws, and Hamas demands an Israeli withdrawal before it gives up its weapons.¹⁵
• The plan sets no date for completing the Israeli withdrawal, and Netanyahu opposes a role for the Palestinian Authority in running the Strip.⁷
• Even allies are wary of the Board of Peace: no other G7 state has joined, and the United Kingdom cited Russia's possible membership and a mandate reaching beyond Gaza. Its US-appointed executive board includes Tony Blair and Jared Kushner.¹¹

Where accounts differ

According to The Israeli government

There will be no withdrawal until Hamas is genuinely disarmed, and the roadmap is unacceptable;¹⁶¹³ according to Chatham House, Israel wants the weapons destroyed rather than stored.¹⁵

According to Hamas

The organisation is willing to hand over its weapons for storage by the Palestinian committee of technocrats but rejects the term “disarmament”,¹⁶ and will take no step unless Israel meets its obligations.¹²

According to China and Russia (according to Security Council Report)

The main obstacle to implementation is Israel's opposition to the 15-point roadmap.⁴

According to The United States (according to Security Council Report)

States should support the Board of Peace, the National Committee and the Stabilization Force.⁴

According to The International Court of Justice (South Africa v. Israel, provisional measures orders, January–May 2024)

In 2024 the court ordered Israel to take action to prevent acts of genocide in Gaza and to do more to help civilians, without ordering a general ceasefire.¹⁷ In May, by 13 votes to 2, it ordered a halt to any offensive in Rafah that could bring about the physical destruction of Gaza's Palestinians as a group, and told Israel to keep the crossing open for aid.¹⁸ Netanyahu called the genocide charge false and outrageous, and said Israel is fighting Hamas, not civilians.¹⁷

According to The International Criminal Court (Pre-Trial Chamber I, 21 November 2024)

Arrest warrants for Benjamin Netanyahu and the former defence minister Yoav Gallant, on suspicion of starvation as a method of warfare and of crimes against humanity, and for the Hamas military commander Mohammed Deif, on suspicion of crimes including murder, rape and hostage-taking.¹⁹ An arrest warrant is not a conviction. Israel rejects the charges as false and absurd and calls the court a biased political body.²⁰

According to The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), the international system for monitoring hunger (22 August 2025)

Famine was taking place in Gaza governorate, which includes Gaza City, with more than half a million people in catastrophic conditions. COGAT, the Israeli military body that coordinates aid, said the report rested on partial and unreliable sources; the Prime Minister's Office called it an outright lie.²¹

According to The UN Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory and Israel (report of 16 September 2025)

Israel is responsible for genocide in Gaza, and Netanyahu, President Isaac Herzog and Gallant incited it. The commission, chaired by Navi Pillay, does not speak for the United Nations as a whole. Israel's Foreign Ministry rejected the report as distorted and false.²²

What changed in real life

• After about two years in captivity the living hostages were back with their families, and on the other side nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners and detainees went home.⁷¹
• The killing has not stopped: Israeli fire has killed, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, at least 1,400 Palestinians since the ceasefire, many of them women and children. Israel says its strikes targeted Hamas operatives trying to rearm.¹⁶
• According to the IDF, Palestinian terrorists have killed five Israeli soldiers since the ceasefire took effect, in attacks and in fighting.¹⁶
• More than 1.2 million people in the Strip still face acute hunger. Up to May an average of 227 aid trucks entered each day, against the 600 set in the plan; Israel says about 600 enter daily.¹⁶
• In the West Bank, according to Security Council Report, more than 1,600 settler attacks were recorded in 2026 up to mid-September, and thousands of settlement housing units were advanced.⁴

What remains open

• This is a ceasefire, not peace: the plan deals with Gaza and does not decide borders, Jerusalem, settlements or refugees.¹⁴ No permanent-status negotiations are under way.⁴
• Hamas announced on 6 July 2026 that it was dissolving its government emergency committee and handing its powers to the committee of technocrats,²³ but that committee is still outside the Strip.¹⁶
• Two elections are close: Israel's on 27 October 2026,¹⁶ and Palestinian legislative elections on 28 November, decreed by Mahmoud Abbas. Candidates must accept the PLO's programme, including recognition of Israel, a condition The Times of Israel calls a non-starter for Hamas.²⁴
• Compare the New York Declaration, a different, international path, and the disengagement from Gaza of 2005.

Photos, videos and quotes

2025Watch here: Biden on the ceasefire and hostage deal

Biden on the ceasefire and hostage deal

15 January 2025 · U.S. Department of State

The deal brought staged releases of hostages and prisoners and a pause after fifteen months of war.

2025Watch here: The first three hostages come home

The first three hostages come home

19 January 2025 · Sky News

A moment of relief and pain that shows how an agreement can bring people back to their families.

2025Watch here: The last living hostages are freed

The last living hostages are freed

13 October 2025 · Reuters

The release was a key stage of the plan to end the war, alongside freeing Palestinian prisoners and letting in aid.

2025Watch here: President Trump addresses the Knesset

President Trump addresses the Knesset

13 October 2025 · The Knesset

The speech linked the end of the Gaza war with widening the Abraham Accords and became a defining moment of the year.

2025Watch here: The Sharm el-Sheikh peace summit on Gaza

The Sharm el-Sheikh peace summit on Gaza

13 October 2025 · رئاسة جمهورية مصر العربية

Egypt, the first state to make peace with Israel, was again a central stage for mediation.