AILSA CHANG, HOST:
The second anniversary of the October 7 Hamas attacks on Israel is drawing closer. And today, President Trump rolled out a new plan that he said would end the conflict that has devastated Gaza since then. He was joined by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who said that he agreed to it, at least for now. The plan calls for a quick end to the fighting, the return of all hostages and a new governance structure for Gaza that does not involve Hamas. But Netanyahu said he was ready to keep fighting if Hamas does not agree to all the terms, and Hamas has not yet publicly responded to the proposal. NPR White House correspondent, Danielle Kurtzleben, joins us now with more. Hi, Danielle.
DANIELLE KURTZLEBEN, BYLINE: Hey there.
CHANG: OK, so let's start with this plan. What are some of the key features of it?
KURTZLEBEN: Well, there's a lot here. There are 20 points, and among those are a plan for governing Gaza. It would be headed by a committee of what the plan calls qualified Palestinians and international experts. And that committee itself would be overseen by what's called a board of peace, which would be chaired by President Trump. And like you said, Hamas would have no role in this. Besides that, all hostages still held by Hamas would be returned, and in turn, Israel would return a number of prisoners and detainees that it has been holding. Beyond that, Gaza would be opened up to aid, and that is important given the dire need for food and medical supplies there.
CHANG: Right. And who exactly would pay for Gaza to recover, I mean, after two years of military strikes there?
KURTZLEBEN: Well, there would be what the plan calls a Trump economic development plan to rebuild and energize Gaza. Now, we don't know more about what that would look like, but this is something Trump has had on his mind before. You'll recall that earlier this year, Trump shared an AI-generated video of a - kind of a Gaza that looked a lot like a resort...
CHANG: Yeah.
KURTZLEBEN: ...Complete with businesses called Trump Gaza. But again, we don't know what this would look like. But aside from all that, the Israeli military would progressively withdraw from the area, eventually leaving a security buffer zone, it says, around the Gaza region. And that would remain in place until - again, what the plan says is until Gaza is properly secure from any resurgence terror threat.
CHANG: OK. Well, what happens, Danielle, if Hamas does not agree to any of this or some of this?
KURTZLEBEN: Well, Trump said he thinks Hamas is on board, and his team has been working with Qatar, a key intermediary to make this happen. In fact, today he got Netanyahu to phone the prime minister of Qatar during their meeting to apologize for recent strikes on Hamas leaders who were in Qatar. But again, Trump was blunt today. He said, if Hamas does reject this plan, the U.S. will back Israel.
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PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: If Hamas rejects the deal, which is always possible - they're the only one left. Everyone else has accepted it. But I have a feeling that we're going to have a positive answer. But if not, as you know, Bibi, you'd have our full backing to do what you would have to do.
KURTZLEBEN: And similarly, Netanyahu - he had a slightly different way of putting it, but nevertheless, threatening.
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PRIME MINISTER BENJAMIN NETANYAHU: But if Hamas rejects your plan, Mr. President, or if they supposedly accept it and then basically do everything to counter it, then Israel will finish the job by itself. This can be done the easy way, or it can be done the hard way. But it will be done.
CHANG: The easy way or the hard way. OK. Well, Danielle, what are the biggest sticking points right now to this plan actually working?
KURTZLEBEN: Well, Palestinian statehood stands out. One of the last points in this plan is a pledge to look for a pathway to a Palestinian state, but there are preconditions here. First of all, that redevelopment - economic redevelopment must be underway, and also, that the Palestinian Authority, which is the internationally recognized Palestinian leadership in the West Bank, that that must reform itself. And then after all that, conditions may finally be in place for a pathway to statehood. So it's a lot of conditions and nothing certain.
Really, this plan just raises a lot of questions. And point - notably, the president and prime minister did not take questions from reporters today. Now, that's partially 'cause President Trump had to meet with congressional leaders about a potential shutdown, but it also means he didn't have to answer tough questions about how all of this would work.
CHANG: That is NPR's Danielle Kurtzleben at the White House. Thank you, Danielle.
KURTZLEBEN: Of course. Thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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