Trump presses Netanyahu to advance Gaza plan after election — report

US President Donald Trump urged Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during a phone call on Thursday to advance Washington’s Gaza peace plan now that Israel’s election is over, Channel 12 reports, citing two American sources familiar with the conversation.

Implementation of the plan — which calls for Hamas’s disarmament and the transfer of control in Gaza to a Palestinian technocratic government — was effectively frozen during Israel’s election campaign, with many officials citing the political backlash Netanyahu’s government would face over allowing any reconstruction in Gaza before Hamas is fully disarmed.

Trump, who endorsed Netanyahu for reelection, now wants to see progress on the plan regardless of which government is formed in Israel, the report says. A senior US official tells Channel 12 that Gaza’s reconstruction will be contingent on progress toward Hamas’s disarmament, stressing that Washington needs Israel’s full cooperation, though the source does not specify the required degree of disarmament before reconstruction.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Trump’s senior envoys Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff also participated in the call, the report continues.

A source familiar with the call says that the Trump administration, the US-backed Board of Peace, and Israel all agree that Trump’s 20-point plan is the best way forward, describing the conversation as a positive and constructive one, while adding that the officials also addressed the war with Iran.

In a separate report, Channel 12 says that IDF Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir convened an emergency meeting over the worsening humanitarian situation in Gaza, amid reports of over 70,000 tents being flooded under severe weather conditions, affecting tens of thousands of displaced people.

Unnamed security officials tell the network that the military is concerned about efforts by Hamas to exploit the humanitarian crisis to pressure Israel into beginning reconstruction before the terror group disarms, using images of displaced Palestinians to increase international pressure and buy time to rebuild its military capabilities.

Zamir instructed officials to counter the alleged campaign through public diplomacy efforts while continuing to facilitate the entry of humanitarian supplies that Israel is obligated to provide, according to the report.

The IDF declines to comment on the reported meeting.