Killings have continued, relief trucks have been blocked. Yet, despite compelling evidence, Witkoff fails to address Israel’s ongoing genocide and failure to meet its obligations as an occupying power and signatory to the Trump plan
Steve Witkoff, the United States President Donald Trump’s special envoy to the Middle East, has announced the launch of the second phase of a US-brokered plan to end Israel’s genocidal war against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. However, the tone and content has already led to questions about process which is increasing being rigged in favour of Israel.
In a segment broadcast on Al Jazeera, the broadcaster’s senior political analyst Marwan Bishara, questioned how the US-led plan to end the Israeli war on Gaza would be successful, noting that it is “rigged in favour of Israel”.
Bishara noted that the freedom and rights of the Palestinians have largely been ignored throughout the entire process.
“How can you have a just process moving forward if one party is favoured all the time against the other party?”
“The people in Gaza continue to suffer … while President Trump and his entourage are celebrating [and] are ‘peacemakers’ as it were,” he said.
“Israel is not interested in leaving Gaza. The United States is not interested in pressuring Israel. And so I think that phase two, we’ll be stuck [there] for a very, very long time.”
Steve Witkoff said in a social media post on Wednesday that Trump’s plan is “moving from ceasefire to demilitarisation, technocratic governance, and reconstruction”.
The second phase will establish a transitional administration to govern over the bombarded Palestinian territory and see the “full demilitarization and reconstruction of Gaza”, Witkoff said.
“The US expects Hamas to comply fully with its obligations, including the immediate return of the final deceased hostage. Failure to do so will bring serious consequences,” he said.
However, Witkoff’s silence about the ongoing killings being perpetrated by the Israelis speaks volumes of the one-sided approach to the resolution.
Israel has violated the US-brokered ceasefire more than 1 190 times since it came into effect in October, according to the Gaza Government Media Office, killing more than 400 Palestinians and blocking critical humanitarian aid from entering the enclave.
Hamas, which has condemned Israel’s repeated ceasefire violations, did not immediately comment on Witkoff’s announcement.
In a statement shared on social media, Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said the Israeli prime minister had spoken with the parents of Ran Gvili, a former Israeli police officer whose body is still in the Gaza Strip.
“The prime minister made it clear that Ran’s return is our top priority,” the statement said, adding that plans to establish the technocratic committee to run Gaza “will not affect efforts” to get Gvili’s remains back to Israel.
It has been broadly accepted that the hundreds of thousands of tons of builders rubble from the Israel’s bombings has made the task of finding the last body very difficult. This task has been made all the more challenging by Israeli restrictions on machinery to clear the rubble.
The 20-point US proposal, initially put forward in September, also includes the establishment of a “Board of Peace” chaired by Trump and the deployment of an “international stabilisation force” to oversee Gaza security.
Mediators Qatar, Turkiye and Egypt welcomed the formation of the Palestinian technocratic body, which they said would be headed by Ali Abdel Hamid Shaath.
“The mediators express their hope that the formation of the committee will pave the way for the implementation of the second phase of the ceasefire agreement in the Gaza Strip,” they said on Wednesday.
They also stressed that all parties must “fully commit to implementing the agreement in order to achieve a sustainable peace and create the appropriate conditions for the reconstruction” of Gaza. However, they made no reference to Israel’s failure to keep to its Phase One deliverables.
Meanwhile, the UN and leading humanitarian groups working in Gaza continue to call on Israel to allow unimpeded deliveries of aid into the territory, including food, shelter supplies, and equipment needed to clear rubble and rebuild homes.
Legal experts have noted that the continued restrictions violate Israel’s obligation, as the occupying power in the Gaza Strip, to provide for the needs of Palestinians in the territory under its control.
They also contravene the US-brokered ceasefire agreement, which ordered Israel to allow 600 aid trucks into the enclave daily.
Against that backdrop, hundreds of thousands of Palestinian families have sought shelter in ill-equipped tent camps and other makeshift shelters.
DAWN’s executive director Sarah Leah Whitson, said the organisation welcomed any step that brings relief to Gaza’s devastated population, but the absence of any mention of further Israeli withdrawal beyond the so-called Yellow Line did not inspire confidence. DAWN is a nonprofit organization that supports democracy and human rights in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA)
“Phase Two will be meaningless if the United States does not demand and enforce a complete Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, as envisioned in the 20-point plan, and that it hand over and open Gaza’s borders for Palestinians to return home,” said Whitson.
“The 20-point plan required Israel to progressively hand over security control of Gaza to an international force, a key component of any territorial withdrawal under the plan,” said Michael Schaeffer Omer-Man, Israel-Palestine director at DAWN. “With the failure to assemble a stabilisation force, the omission of any mention of withdrawal from the Phase Two announcement reads like an attempt at gaslighting the world into forgetting that an actual ceasefire requires Israeli troops to leave Gaza.”
“The Trump administration cannot credibly announce Phase Two while ignoring Israel’s systematic refusal to meet Phase One’s most basic requirements, namely suspending the bombardment of Gaza and restoring aid to the levels required in the January 2025 agreement,” said Charles Blaha, senior advisor at DAWN and former State Department official.
“On the contrary Israel continues to block aid delivery to Gaza which is a blatant violation of the terms of the agreement. Pursuant to Section 620I of the Foreign Assistance Act, the administration should suspend security assistance and arms to Israel until humanitarian assistance reaches the agreed-upon levels.”
“The 20-Point Plan commits to full humanitarian access and reconstruction, something that cannot happen as long as Israeli troops occupy half of Gaza,” said Raed Jarrar, DAWN’s advocacy director.
“Before celebrating Phase Two, the administration should answer a simple question: how can Palestinians in Gaza rebuild their lives when Israel has blocked aid, banned humanitarian workers, and kept the Rafah crossing closed since May 2024?”
UN Monitoring has show that Israel has only allowed the delivery of 17-43% of the agreed 600 trucks a day during phase one. Since the October 10 ceasefire, Israeli forces have killed over 440 Palestinians, suspended 37 humanitarian organisations and demolished at least 2 400 buildings.
Despite these facts being verified, other than demanding the demilitarisation of Hamas, none of the principles or mediators have questioned the ongoing genocide by Israel. Worse, they continue to support Israel by claiming the Zionist state has met its obligations in terms of the peace plan. In reality this is not the case and the numbers are there to prove Israel is continuing is genocide with impunity.