The Trump administration launches Phase 2 of the Gaza plan. Will peace materialize?

You may have missed it due to the firehose of international news over the last week. But in between the CIA director traveling to Venezuela to meet deposed dictator Nicolás Maduro’s replacement and President Donald Trump’s on-again, off-again flirtation with bombing Iran, the White House made a pretty big announcement on Gaza: The 20-point peace plan negotiated with Israel and Hamas last October is moving to the next phase.

The Trump administration is understandably giddy at the developments. U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff, Trump’s point person on the Gaza file, delivered a declaratory statement through social media on Wednesday celebrating the conclusion of Phase 1, which resulted in some tangible achievements—the release of all living Israeli and foreign hostages from Gaza, an acceleration of humanitarian aid into the territory, a partial pullback of Israeli troops and a significant reduction in the violence.

“For the first time in Gaza in almost a long time, there’s no Palestinian Authority, and there’s no Hamas governing it,” another Trump administration official told reporters. “This really has the potential to be the beginning of a new era.”

The key word here is “potential.” Because as much as the White House would like to proclaim its policy on Gaza as a clear accomplishment, Trump’s entire peace plan still rests on a weak foundation.