WASHINGTON — US President Donald Trump laid out his plan for ending the war in Gaza during a White House press conference with visiting Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday, declaring that Washington is “beyond very close” to reaching a deal after Jerusalem accepted the proposal, while Arab and Muslim countries committed to disarming Hamas.

“Now it’s time for Hamas to accept the terms of the plan that we put forward today,” Trump said while standing alongside Netanyahu in the White House State Dining Room after the pair met in the Oval Office for over an hour.

Egyptian and Qatari mediators presented Hamas negotiators with the US proposal late Monday night, an Arab diplomat told The Times of Israel. US officials were mum on the timeline for when Hamas might return a response, but the diplomat speculated that it would take “several days, at least.”

Minutes before the press conference began, the White House published its 20-point plan in full, trimming down one point from an earlier version revealed by The Times of Israel last week.

Shortly after the press conference, the foreign ministers of Saudi Arabia, Jordan, the UAE, Indonesia, Pakistan, Türkiye, Qatar, and Egypt issued a joint statement welcoming Trump’s efforts and pledging to engage with the US to advance the implementation of the Gaza peace plan.

Trump went through the main points of the proposal in his prepared remarks at the start of the press conference, which did not include questions from reporters.

“The plan that we put forward today is focused on ending the war immediately, getting all of our hostages back… and creating conditions for durable Israeli security and Palestinian success,” he said.

If Hamas gets on board, all 48 remaining hostages will be released within 72 hours, Trump said. In exchange, Israel will release 250 prisoners serving life sentences; 1,700 Gazans detained after October 7, including all women and children; and 15 bodies of deceased Gazans for every body of an Israeli hostage released. Roughly 20 of the 48 hostages are believed to be alive.

“Under the plan, Arab and Muslim countries have committed — in writing, in many cases… to demilitarize Gaza, to decommission the military capabilities of Hamas and all other terror organizations… immediately,” he continued.

He highlighted the support he had received for the plan from the leaders of the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Jordan, Egypt, Turkey, Indonesia and Pakistan. “We’re relying on the countries that I named and others to deal with Hamas.”

Those countries would ostensibly be part of the International Stabilization Force (ISF) that the Trump plan envisions will immediately deploy in Gaza once the deal comes into place. That force will train and provide support to vetted Palestinian police forces in Gaza, the plan states.

Trump said “all parties will agree on the timeline for Israeli forces to withdraw in phases,” heeding a key Netanyahu demand that the IDF not be required to immediately pull out of Gaza. Still, he stressed that Arab and Muslim countries must be given the space to do their jobs, which will require an Israeli withdrawal from Gaza.

“I never asked Israel to compromise its security,” he noted, adding that “Israeli security is [still] going to be involved” in Gaza once a deal is reached.

“There should not be a shot fired. There will be, I guess, because that’s the way it seems to be,” Trump remarked.

If the Arab and Muslim countries don’t succeed in the effort, “then Israel would have the absolute right, and actually our full backing… to finish the job of destroying the threat of Hamas,” he said.

Turning to Netanyahu, Trump added, “If Hamas rejects the deal… Bibi, you’d have our full backing to do what you would have to do.”

“Everyone understands that the ultimate result must be the elimination of any danger posed in the region, and the danger is caused by Hamas. The tyranny of terror has to end.”

The ISF will also work with a transitional government of Palestinian technocrats, which will be overseen by an international body that the plan dubs the Board of Peace.

“It will be headed by a gentleman known as President Donald J. Trump of the United States. That’s what I want — some extra work to do, but it’s so important that I’m willing to do it,” he quipped, adding that the board would also include former UK prime minister Tony Blair and other prominent individuals to be named later.

Blair played a major role in crafting the US plan, and it borrows heavily from his own proposal to establish a transitional Palestinian governing body to run the Strip after the war, which was first revealed by The Times of Israel.

While the plan envisions the potential creation of a pathway to a future Palestinian state if the Palestinian Authority completes a full reform package, Trump made a point at the press conference to acknowledge Netanyahu’s “very fair” opposition to Palestinian statehood.

“He continuously mentions October 7, and I understand that… but what he’s doing today is so good for Israel,” Trump said, stopping short of agreeing with Netanyahu’s stance on Palestinian statehood.

The US president highlighted the massive protests that have been held across Israel for months, calling for the release of the hostages and an end to the war, and which have urged Trump to intervene in order to advance those aims.

The protests are largely very critical of Netanyahu’s government, viewing him as a repeated obstacle to securing the release of the hostages.

Trump argued that accepting his proposal was a “very popular thing to do,” while recognizing that it might be difficult for Netanyahu “because he’s a warrior. He doesn’t know about getting back to the normal way of life.”

“Israel is lucky to have him, but now the people want to get back to peace. They want to get back to normalization in the truest sense,” Trump said.

“I’ve never asked Israel to compromise its security. But we had a big, strong talk,” he said, indicating that he may have come down hard on Netanyahu during their earlier White House meeting — the fourth since his re-election.

Both statements made a point of stressing the importance of unifying the West Bank and the Gaza Strip under a single political leadership, something that was not mentioned in the Trump plan.

While Washington’s Arab and Muslim partners had pushed for a larger PA role in the post-war management of Gaza, the US plan appears to largely leave Ramallah out of the process until it has completed a series of intensive reforms.

“There are many Palestinians who wish to live in peace… and I challenge the Palestinians to take responsibility for their destiny, fully condemn and prohibit terrorism and earn their way to a brighter future,” Trump said.

“If the Palestinian Authority does not complete the reforms that I laid out in my vision for peace in 2020, they will have only themselves to blame,” Trump said, referring to his peace plan from his first term in office.

That plan envisioned the PA holding elections, strengthening independent judicial institutions, rejecting terrorism and allowing for the unchecked expansion of civil society.

Ramallah has already pledged such steps in recent months and has also begun implementing them, including by reforming its controversial welfare system, which saw security prisoners awarded stipends based on the length of their sentence.

Israel has continued to knock the PA for the policy, without providing proof that it is still actually in place.

Trump maintained that the US is giving the PA “an amazing footprint, and they have amazing support from the leaders of the Arab world and the Muslim world.”

Shortly after the press conference, the foreign ministers of Saudi Arabia, Jordan, the UAE, Indonesia, Pakistan, Türkiye, Qatar, and Egypt issued a joint statement welcoming Trump’s efforts.

But the statement by the eight countries — whose leaders met with Trump last week on the UN General Assembly sidelines to discuss the plan — notably avoided explicitly backing the US plan as a whole.

The statement from the PA adopted the same approach, praising Trump’s efforts while highlighting the reforms that Ramallah has already committed to implementing.

The US president argued that his proposal doesn’t just hold potential for Gaza but for the entire region, by promoting greater cooperation between Israel and its Arab and Muslim neighbors.

“If we can get this difficult problem solved, the opportunities for all within that vast region of this world [are] unlimited,” he said.

Trump made another pitch for countries to join the “Avraham Accords,” using the Hebrew pronunciation for Abraham.

“History has shown us that those who have relations with Israel have thrived, while those who have devoted resources and attention toward the destruction and even annihilation of Israel have languished,” he said.

“Israel’s not going anywhere. They’re going to coexist with other people and countries in the region — from Syria to Lebanon to Saudi Arabia,” Trump continued, naming three potential Abraham Accords candidates.

“The promise of the new Middle East is so clearly within our reach. This is the closest we’ve ever talked to real peace.”

Part of the effort to warm Israel’s ties with its neighbors took place earlier Monday in the Oval Office when Trump orchestrated a trilateral phone call between Netanyahu and Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed Abdulrahman Al Thani during which the Israeli premier apologized to his Qatari counterpart for a largely botched strike in Doha targeting Hamas’s leadership on September 9 that ended up only killing lower level members of the terror group along with a Qatari security guard.

“They had a heart-to-heart… a great conversation. It was productive,” Trump said at the press conference, adding that the sides agreed to form a trilateral mechanism “to enhance mutual security, correct misperceptions and avoid future misgivings.”

Trump went on to thank Qatar’s Emir Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, quipping, “I’m going to be his public relations man because I know him differently than a lot of people know… He wants peace.”

“This is a big, big day, a beautiful day, potentially one of the great days ever in civilization,” Trump declared.

For his part, Netanyahu stressed that Israel’s strike wasn’t “targeting Qatar” and that Jerusalem regrets the killing of the Qatari national.

He hailed the new trilateral commission with the US and Qatar, saying it could be helpful for Jerusalem and Doha to “work out respective grievances.”

“There are quite a few. But if we could try to mitigate them or put it on a different footing, I think that would be good for everyone,” Netanyahu said.

Netanyahu began his remarks after Trump at the press conference by confirming his acceptance of the plan.

But he proceeded to express several stances that may put him at odds with what was expressed in the proposal, as he seeks to maintain the support of far-right coalition partners, who are likely sour over the plan’s creation of a potential pathway to a future Palestinian state and the premier’s decision to apologize to his Qatari counterpart.

“If Hamas agrees to your plan, the first step will be a modest withdrawal,” Netanyahu began, downplaying the extent of the Israeli pullout, which will likely be a major obstacle in the talks with Hamas.

“Israel will conduct further withdrawals linked to the extent of disarmament and demilitarization, but will remain in the security perimeter for the foreseeable future,” he said, appearing to extend the timeline of Israel’s continued presence in Gaza further than what is described in the, albeit sometimes vague, US plan.

The White House released an illustrative map roughly showing the four stages of the withdrawal, which appeared to go much further in Israel’s favor than previous proposals discussed by Israel and Hamas.

More so than Trump or his plan, Netanyahu suggested that an end to the war may not take place in the immediate future, referring to Monday’s development as a “critical step toward ending the war in Gaza.”

Referring to the ISF, Netanyahu said that if it succeeds, “we will have permanently ended the war.”

But the Trump proposal’s third point says, in bolded underline, that “the war will immediately end” once both sides agree to the proposal — meaning before the ISF even has a chance to deploy.

Despite the potential gaps between the US and Israeli positions, Netanyahu declared, “I support your plan to end the war in Gaza, which achieves our war aims.”

“We’re giving everybody a chance to have this done peacefully… But if Hamas rejects your plan, or if they supposedly accept it and then basically do everything to counter it, then Israel will finish the job by itself,” Netanyahu warned.

“We didn’t fight this horrible fight, sacrifice the finest of our young men, to have Hamas stay in Gaza and threaten us again and again and again with these horrific massacres,” he asserted.

Netanyahu proceeded to highlight the five principles adopted by his cabinet for ending the war last month — (1) The terror group’s disarmament; (2) the return of all remaining hostages (3) the demilitarization of the Gaza Strip; (4) Israeli security control over the Gaza Strip; and (5) the existence of an alternative civilian government that is not Hamas or the Palestinian Authority.

When recalling the last principle at the Monday press conference, Netanyahu dropped the explicit red line regarding Ramallah, perhaps because the US plan envisions the PA eventually taking over Gaza if it completes a reform process.

Still, he thanked Trump for coming out against the decisions by Western countries last week to recognize a Palestinian state and claimed that the US president also asserted that the PA can’t have a role in Gaza “without undergoing a radical and genuine transformation.”

“It won’t come as a surprise to you that the vast majority of Israelis have no faith that the PA leopard will change its spots,” Netanyahu continued.

“But rather than wait for this miraculous transformation, your plan provides a practical and realistic path forward for Gaza in the coming years, in which Gaza will be administered neither by Hamas nor the Palestinian Authority, but by those committed to a genuine peace with Israel,” he said, appearing to incorrectly characterize the plan’s expectation for the PA.

Like Trump, Netanyahu was bullish about the potential for expanding the “Avraham Accords.”

“This can be not only a new beginning for Gaza, I think it can be a new beginning for the entire region,” the prime minister said, noting that Muslim countries outside the Mideast are even within the realm of possibility.

“Since October seventh, Israel’s enemies have learned a hard truth. Those who attack us pay a heavy price. But those who partner with us, advance progress and security for their peoples,” Netanyahu said.

“Those who will bless you will be blessed, and those who will curse you will be cursed. And that’s actually what is happening.”

“We want the blessings. We’ve done a lot in the past two years to end the curse. We’re not finished, but we’ve done a lot, and we’ve done a lot together to end the curse,” he added.

Netanyahu was also effusive in his praise for Trump, hailing his “leadership from Jerusalem to Tehran, from the Golan Heights to Gaza.”