Gaza Held Hostage: Netanyahu, Washington, and the Battle Over Gaza’s Future

By Elijah J. Magnier –

Trump’s announcement of a transition to the second phase of his Gaza peace plan was never treated by Israel as a genuine pathway to ending the war. Instead, it was approached as a mechanism to manage, reframe, and politically contain a conflict that had already inflicted deep military, diplomatic, and moral damage after two years of devastating fighting. Israel’s international standing had sunk to historic lows, and the plan offered an opportunity not for resolution, but for image rehabilitation, both for Israel and for Donald Trump himself.

Almost immediately after the ceasefire announcement, media attention on Israeli actions in Gaza faded, replaced by a new political narrative centred on the promise of a “peace plan”. This shift bore little resemblance to realities on the ground. The contradiction became explicit when US envoy Steve Witkoff announced the launch of the plan’s second phase even though the first phase had neither been completed nor fully implemented. The sequencing exposed the initiative as declaratory and improvised, functioning more as a political signalling exercise than as evidence of a serious effort to end the war.