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21-point US Plan for Ending War Encourages Palestinians to Remain in Gaza

Smoke rises following an Israeli military strike in Gaza City, as seen from the central Gaza Strip, Friday, Sept. 26, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
Smoke rises following an Israeli military strike in Gaza City, as seen from the central Gaza Strip, Friday, Sept. 26, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
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21-point US Plan for Ending War Encourages Palestinians to Remain in Gaza

Smoke rises following an Israeli military strike in Gaza City, as seen from the central Gaza Strip, Friday, Sept. 26, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
Smoke rises following an Israeli military strike in Gaza City, as seen from the central Gaza Strip, Friday, Sept. 26, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

A US proposal for ending the war in the Gaza Strip encourages Palestinians to remain in the enclave and provides for the creation of a pathway to a future Palestinian state, according to a copy of the plan obtained by The Times of Israel.

The 21-point document shared by the US with a handful of Arab and Muslim countries earlier this week on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly also contains clauses that have been staples in various proposals crafted by different stakeholders in recent months - from the release of all hostages to Hamas’s removal from power, the newspaper said.

But the decision to explicitly encourage Palestinians to remain in Gaza capped off a major evolution for the US administration on the issue, given that President Donald Trump in February shocked much of the world with talk of the US taking over Gaza and permanently relocating its entire population of roughly two million people.

The proposal’s envisioning of a potential pathway to a future Palestinian state after Gaza’s redevelopment has advanced and the Palestinian Authority’s reform has been completed also appears to be a major departure from the Trump administration’s policy to date, given that it has avoided expressing backing for a two-state solution, the report said.

The plan obtained by The Times of Israel - and authenticated by two sources familiar with the matter - even sees the US establishing a dialogue with Israel and the Palestinians to agree on a “political horizon” for “peaceful coexistence.”

The proposal crafted largely by US special envoy Steve Witkoff also includes clauses that Israel has long demanded.

Those include a commitment for Hamas to disarm, the demilitarization of Gaza and the establishment of a process to de-radicalize the population.

What are the 21 points?

The following are the contents of the plan that have been paraphrased at the request of the sources who provided it.

1. Gaza will be a de-radicalized, terror-free zone that does not pose a threat to its neighbors.

2. Gaza will be redeveloped for the benefit of its people.

3. If both sides agree to the proposal, the war will immediately end, with Israeli forces halting all operations and gradually withdrawing from the Strip.

4. Within 48 hours of Israel publicly accepting the deal, all living and deceased hostages will be returned.

5. Once the hostages are returned, Israel will free several hundred Palestinian security prisoners serving life sentences and over 1,000 Gazans arrested since the start of the war, along with the bodies of several hundred Palestinians.

6. Once the hostages are returned, Hamas members who commit to peaceful coexistence will be granted amnesty, while members who wish to leave the Strip will be granted safe passage to receiving countries.

7. Once this agreement is reached, aid will surge into the Strip at rates no lower than the benchmarks set in the January 2025 hostage deal, which included 600 trucks of aid per day, along with the rehabilitation of critical infrastructure and the entry of equipment for removing rubble.

8. Aid will be distributed — without interference from either side — by the United Nations and the Red Crescent, along with other international organizations not associated with either Israel or Hamas.

9. Gaza will be governed by a temporary, transitional government of Palestinian technocrats who will be responsible for providing day-to-day services for the people of the Strip. The committee will be supervised by a new international body established by the US in consultation with Arab and European partners. It will establish a framework for funding the redevelopment of Gaza until the Palestinian Authority has completed its reform program.

10. An economic plan will be created to rebuild Gaza through the convening of experts with experience in constructing modern Middle East cities and through the consideration of existing plans aimed at attracting investments and creating jobs.

11. An economic zone will be established, with reduced tariffs and access rates to be negotiated by participating countries.

12. No one will be forced to leave Gaza, but those who choose to leave will be allowed to return. Moreover, Gazans will be encouraged to remain in the Strip and offered an opportunity to build a better future there.

13. Hamas will have no role in Gaza’s governance whatsoever. There will be a commitment to destroy and stop building any offensive military infrastructure, including tunnels. Gaza’s new leaders will commit to peaceful coexistence with their neighbors.

14. A security guarantee will be provided by regional partners to ensure that Hamas and other Gaza factions comply with their obligations and that Gaza ceases to pose a threat to Israel or its own people.

15. The US will work with Arab and other international partners to develop a temporary international stabilization force that will immediately deploy in Gaza to oversee security in the Strip. The force will develop and train a Palestinian police force, which will serve as a long-term internal security body.

16. Israel will not occupy or annex Gaza, and the Israeli army will gradually hand over territory it currently occupies, as the replacement security forces establish control and stability in the Strip.

17. If Hamas delays or rejects this proposal, the above points will proceed in terror-free areas, which the Israeli army will gradually hand over to the international stabilization force.

18. Israel agrees not to carry out future strikes in Qatar. The US and the international community acknowledge Doha’s important mediating role in the Gaza conflict.

19. A process will be established to de-radicalize the population. This will include an interfaith dialogue aimed at changing mindsets and narratives in Israel and Gaza.

20. When Gaza’s redevelopment has been advanced and the PA reform program has been implemented, the conditions may be in place for a credible pathway to Palestinian statehood, which is recognized as the aspiration of the Palestinian people.

The clause doesn’t provide details regarding the Palestinian reform program and is not definitive regarding when the pathway to statehood can be established.

21. The US will establish a dialogue between Israel and the Palestinians to agree on a political horizon for peaceful coexistence.

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Arab World

Lebanese Fear Another Occupation as Israel Threatens to Use Gaza Tactics in the South

Israeli military vehicles maneuver on the Lebanese side of the border, as seen from the Upper Galilee in northern Israel, 25 March 2026. EPA/ATEF SAFADI
Israeli military vehicles maneuver on the Lebanese side of the border, as seen from the Upper Galilee in northern Israel, 25 March 2026. EPA/ATEF SAFADI
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Lebanese Fear Another Occupation as Israel Threatens to Use Gaza Tactics in the South

Israeli military vehicles maneuver on the Lebanese side of the border, as seen from the Upper Galilee in northern Israel, 25 March 2026. EPA/ATEF SAFADI
Israeli military vehicles maneuver on the Lebanese side of the border, as seen from the Upper Galilee in northern Israel, 25 March 2026. EPA/ATEF SAFADI

As Israel trades fire with Hezbollah, calls for mass evacuations and sends ground troops deeper into Lebanon, its leaders have hinted at a long-term occupation modeled on the devastating conquest of much of Gaza after Hamas' Oct. 7, 2023, attack.

Israel says it needs to establish a zone of control in the depopulated south to shield its own northern communities, which have faced daily rocket attacks since the Iran-backed militant Hezbollah group joined the wider war. Many in Lebanon fear that could mean the open-ended displacement of over a million people, the flattening of their homes and a loss of territory.

Israel's Defense Minister Israel Katz said this week that it would create a “security zone” up to the Litani River, some 30 kilometers (20 miles) from the border in some places. He said troops would destroy homes, which he claimed were being used by militants, and that residents would not return until northern Israel is safe.

The campaign would mirror the one in Gaza, in which Israeli forces flattened and largely depopulated the eastern half of the Palestinian territory, Katz said on Tuesday. Israel has said it won't withdraw from the enclave until Hamas disarms as part of a US-brokered ceasefire deal.

“We have ordered an acceleration in the destruction of Lebanese homes in contact-line villages to neutralize threats to Israeli communities, in accordance with the model of Beit Hanoun and Rafah in Gaza,” Katz said, referring to border towns that were largely obliterated.

From one war to the next

After a 2024 ceasefire halted Israel's last war with Hezbollah, Israeli forces gradually withdrew from southern Lebanon except for five strategic hilltops along the border.

Lebanese returned to find that homes, infrastructure, and some entire villages destroyed. Israel said it had dismantled Hezbollah infrastructure that could have been used to launch an Oct. 7-style attack, and it continued to strike what it said were militant targets on a near-daily basis after the truce.

Hezbollah resumed it attacks after Israel and the United States launched the war with Iran on Feb. 28, accusing Israel of having repeatedly violated the ceasefire. Israel accused Lebanon's government of failing to carry out its pledge to disarm Hezbollah, despite its unprecedented steps toward criminalizing the group.

In the latest fighting, Israel has launched blistering air raids across Lebanon, killing more than 1,000 people — mostly outside of the border area — and displacing over a million. It has warned residents to evacuate a wide swath of the south, extending from the border to the Zahrani River, some 55 kilometers (34 miles) away.

The Israeli military says it has launched a limited ground operation. Political leaders speak of more ambitious plans.

Bezalel Smotrich, Israel's far-right finance minister and a member of its Security Cabinet, said this week that the current war must end with “fundamental change.”

“The Litani must be our new border with the state of Lebanon,” he said.

Echoes of an earlier occupation Israel invaded southern Lebanon in 1982 during the country's civil war. Hezbollah, established that year, waged a guerrilla campaign that eventually ended the Israeli occupation in 2000.

This time around, Israel has bombed seven bridges over the Litani, the northern edge of a UN-patrolled buffer zone established after previous conflicts. Israel says Hezbollah was using the bridges to move fighters and weapons, and that its military will control the remaining crossings.

Heavy fighting has meanwhile erupted in the town of Khiam, the fall of which would cut off the south from Lebanon's eastern Bekaa Valley, another area with a large Hezbollah presence.

After the bridges were bombed, Lebanese President Joseph Aoun accused Israel of seeking to sever the south from the rest of the country “to establish a buffer zone, entrench the reality of occupation, and pursue Israeli expansion within Lebanese territories.”

UN peacekeepers say the bombing of the bridges and ongoing clashes have hindered their operations and put personnel at risk.

“This is the closest fighting activity we have seen to our positions,” said Kandice Ardel, spokesperson for the UN mission known as UNIFIL. “Bullets, fragments, and shrapnel have hit buildings and open areas inside our headquarters.”

Ardel said peacekeepers at observation points have seen a growing presence of Israeli troops and “engineering assets,” though they have not seen any new military positions built yet.

‘Different shades’ of control

Mohanad Hage Ali, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Middle East think tank in Beirut, said Israel has already established “different shades” of control.

“The first line of borders is a no-man zone. This is basically a large parking lot that is facing Israel,” he said. “There is nothing there, no movement, nothing at all.”

Lebanese movement is restricted farther north. During last year's olive harvest, farmers struggled to reach their groves because of regular Israeli strikes and had to be accompanied by Lebanese troops and UNIFIL peacekeepers, who coordinated with Israel.

Sarit Zehavi, the founder and president of the Alma Institute and a retired Israeli military officer, said Israel will likely establish a more extensive area of control stretching farther north.

She acknowledged that Israel was unlikely to defeat Hezbollah and was at risk of having to maintain a long-term presence in southern Lebanon.

“But the other alternative is to take the risk that we will be slaughtered. It’s as simple as that,” she said.

No diplomatic offramp in sight

Lebanon's government has broken a longstanding taboo by proposing direct talks with Israel. It has also taken action against Hezbollah since the last war, criminalizing its activities and claiming to have dismantled hundreds of military positions.

But neither the US nor Israel has shown any interest in such talks as they focus on the wider war with Iran.

If negotiations occur, Israel could demand major concessions in exchange for relinquishing territory taken by force — an updated version of the decades-old “land for peace” formula.

Israel seized parts of Syria after the overthrow of Syrian President Bashar Assad and is in talks with the new government in Damascus about an updated security arrangement. In Gaza, it has vowed to keep half the territory until the militant Palestinian Hamas group lays down its arms, as each side has accused the other of violating the truce reached in October.

Lebanese who fled their homes are meanwhile in limbo — and some fear they may never return.

Elias Konsol and his neighbors fled the Christian border village of Alma al-Shaab with UNIFIL's help. He was reunited with his mother, who cried in his arms, at a church near Beirut where funeral services were being held for a resident killed in an Israeli strike.

Konsol said there were no weapons or Hezbollah fighters in his village, but it was forced to evacuate anyway.

“We no longer know our fate,” he said. “We don’t know if we will see our homes and village again.”

Arab World

Lebanon: Hezbollah Claims Targeting 10 Israeli Merkava Tanks

Israeli tanks near the Israeli side of the border with Lebanon, amid escalating hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah, as the US-Israeli conflict with Iran continues, in northern Israel, March 25, 2026. REUTERS/Tyrone Siu
Israeli tanks near the Israeli side of the border with Lebanon, amid escalating hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah, as the US-Israeli conflict with Iran continues, in northern Israel, March 25, 2026. REUTERS/Tyrone Siu
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Lebanon: Hezbollah Claims Targeting 10 Israeli Merkava Tanks

Israeli tanks near the Israeli side of the border with Lebanon, amid escalating hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah, as the US-Israeli conflict with Iran continues, in northern Israel, March 25, 2026. REUTERS/Tyrone Siu
Israeli tanks near the Israeli side of the border with Lebanon, amid escalating hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah, as the US-Israeli conflict with Iran continues, in northern Israel, March 25, 2026. REUTERS/Tyrone Siu

Lebanon's Iran-aligned Hezbollah group said Thursday that it struck10 Israeli Merkava tanks in three southern towns along the border.

In a series of separate statements, Hezbollah said that its members targeted the advanced Israeli tanks with guided missiles in the towns of Deir Siryan, Debel, and Al-Qantara, and achieved confirmed hits.

Earlier, Hezbollah said it targeted the headquarters of the Israeli Ministry of War in the center of Tel Aviv, and the Dolphin barracks of the Military Intelligence Division north of Tel Aviv with a number of missiles.

The Israeli military said an Israeli soldier was killed in fighting in south Lebanon after the army announced it was conducting ground operations against Hezbollah.

"Staff sergeant Ori Greenberg, aged 21, from Petah Tikva, a soldier of the Reconnaissance unit, Golani Brigade, fell during combat in southern Lebanon," the military said.

In total, three Israeli soldiers have been killed in fighting in south Lebanon since Hezbollah drew the country into the Israel and US war on Iran by launching rocket attacks against Israel on March 2 to avenge the killing of Iran's supreme leader Ali Khamenei.

Israel is responding by launching large-scale raids on Lebanon, while its forces have advanced into southern Lebanon.

After the Lebanese Presidency repeatedly announced its readiness to open direct negotiations with Israel in order to end the war, Hezbollah announced its refusal to negotiate "under fire."

Its Secretary-General, Naim Qassem, said Wednesday in a statement: "When negotiating with the Israeli enemy under fire is proposed, it is an imposition of surrender and a deprivation of all of Lebanon's capabilities."

He called on the government to "reverse its decision to criminalize resistance and the resistance fighters," after announcing a ban on the party's security and military activities, as part of a series of unprecedented measures it has taken since the outbreak of the war.

Arab World

At Least 28 Civilians Killed in Sudan Drone Strikes

Displaced Sudanese families from Kurdufan at a football stadium in the town of Kadugli, south of the region (AP)
Displaced Sudanese families from Kurdufan at a football stadium in the town of Kadugli, south of the region (AP)
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At Least 28 Civilians Killed in Sudan Drone Strikes

Displaced Sudanese families from Kurdufan at a football stadium in the town of Kadugli, south of the region (AP)
Displaced Sudanese families from Kurdufan at a football stadium in the town of Kadugli, south of the region (AP)

Two drone strikes in Sudan, one at a market in Darfur and the other along a road in Kordofan, killed at least 28 civilians, health workers told AFP Thursday.

The three-year war between Sudan's army and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) has seen a recent uptick in near-daily drone strikes that kill dozens at a time.

On Wednesday, a strike hit a market in North Darfur state's Saraf Omra town, killing "22 people, including an infant, and injuring 17 more", one health worker at the local clinic told AFP.

"The drone hit a parked oil truck, which caught fire along with part of the market," said Hamid Suleiman, a vendor at the market, which serves Saraf Omra and the surrounding towns in the remote Darfur area.

Some 800 kilometers (500 miles) east of the RSF's strongholds in Darfur, another drone strike set fire to a truck travelling on a North Kordofan road in army territory.

"Six bodies arrived at the hospital yesterday, three of them charred, in addition to 10 wounded," a medical source at the local hospital in El-Rahad told AFP, blaming the RSF for the attack.

The civilians were travelling between the army-controlled towns of El-Rahad and Um Rawaba.

Drones from both sides have repeatedly attacked Sudan's central east-west highway, which runs through North Kordofan state capital El-Obeid and connects Darfur to the army-controlled east.

Sudan's war has killed tens of thousands and left some 11 million displaced, in the world's largest hunger and displacement crisis.