Qatar confirms the start of negotiations on the second phase of Trump’s plan for Gaza
Trump’s plan for Gaza practically passed its first phase this Monday after the exchange of the 20 live Israeli hostages in exchange for almost 2,000 Palestinian prisoners, only in the absence of Hamas handing over the remains of the 24 dead captives who remain in the Palestinian territory. This requirement is difficult to meet due to the probable dispersal of remains, mass displacement and destruction.
Now, the plan that has allowed the ceasefire in the Strip that came into force on Friday faces a new and probably more complicated challenge: negotiating its second phase, which includes clauses in which the positions of the parties remain very far apart.
That negotiation has already begun, the spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Qatar, Majed al-Ansari, reported this Tuesday in statements to the conservative American network Fox News.
Al Ansari confirmed what was already assumed, that is, that the discussion of several of those thorny aspects, such as disarmament or the future administration of Gaza, has been postponed until now “to ensure that the first phase [especialmente el canje de rehenes por prisioneros palestinos] will be carried out.”
“Difficult discussions have begun about how it will be [la fase 2] to provide security to Gaza, administer it and ensure that there is no another war,” he added.
In addition to the disarmament of Hamas, which Israel intends to be complete and the militia, partial, this second negotiating round will address the creation of a “technocratic and apolitical” authority of Palestinians and international experts to manage the day-to-day life of the Strip, in which Hamas will not be represented. The group opposes this technocratic authority being subject to the tutelage of the so-called “Peace Board”, an international organization that Trump himself would preside over and in which former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, a very unpopular figure for the Palestinians, would play a predominant role.
