US President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reach to shake hands at a joint press conference in the State Dining Room at the White House in Washington, DC, US, Sept. 29, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday endorsed US President Donald Trump’s plan to end the Gaza war, saying in a joint briefing at the White House that it “achieves our war aims,” with the return of the remaining 48 hostages within 72 hours following a “modest Israeli withdrawal” from the Palestinian enclave.

The plan was yet to be accepted by Hamas, Trump said during his remarks at the briefing, but warned that if the Palestinian terrorist group failed to do so, he would endorse the continuation of the war.

“If Hamas rejects the deal, Bibi, you will have our full backing to finish the job of destroying the threat of Hamas,” Trump said, referring to Netanyahu by his nickname.

Qatar’s prime minister and Egypt’s intelligence chief presented Trump’s proposal to Hamas negotiators, who are now reviewing it in “good faith,” according to the Associated Press. 

Michael Oren, the former Israeli ambassador to Washington, hailed the plan for leaving Hamas with no options, saying that Israel had effectively “just won the war.”

“It’s checkmate for them,” Oren told The Algemeiner. “Trump basically said, ‘Either you surrender or give up your guns or Israel’s going to kill you.’ Either they agree with the diplomatic solution, or they reject the diplomatic solution and face the IDF [Israel Defense Forces]. But the IDF is going to have the backing of the president of the United States and regional actors.”

However, Oren went on to predict that Hamas, which had ruled Gaza for nearly two decades, would almost certainly deploy its well-worn delay tactics. “First, they’re going to accept it, but we have questions, then they’ll say but we don’t know where the hostages are.”

Netanyahu warned Hamas against exploiting the process. “If Hamas rejects US President Donald Trump’s plan, or if they supposedly accept it and then basically do everything to counter it, then Israel will finish the job by itself,” he said. “This can be done the easy way, or it can be done the hard way. But it will be done.”

If the plan was heeded, he said, it could end the fighting. “It will bring back to Israel all our hostages, dismantle Hamas’s military capabilities, end its political rule, and ensure that Gaza never again poses a threat to Israel,” he said.

The first step would be “a modest withdrawal” of Israeli forces followed within 72 hours by the release of all remaining hostages, Netanyahu said. A new international body would then be tasked with disarming Hamas and overseeing Gaza’s demilitarization.

If this international body succeeds, “we will have permanently ended the war,” Netanyahu said. He linked any further military withdrawals to progress on disarmament.

The White House outline released a day earlier included a technocratic interim government to administer Gaza, supervised by what it called a “board of peace” chaired by Trump and including former British Prime Minister Tony Blair. The document called for Hamas members who renounce violence to be granted amnesty and allowed to leave the territory. It also pledged a significant increase in humanitarian aid and a Trump economic development plan to rebuild Gaza.

For his part, Netanyahu stressed that the Palestinian Authority could take no role in Gaza in its current form. 

“The Palestinian Authority can have no role whatsoever in Gaza without undergoing a radical and genuine transformation,” he said. That would mean ending payments to families of terrorists who attack Israelis, rewriting schoolbooks that “teach hatred to Jews,” halting incitement in Palestinian media, and recognizing Israel as a Jewish state.

“A Palestinian state,” Netanyahu said, “would reward terrorists, undermine security, and endanger Israel’s very existence.”

Trump, who spoke for nearly half an hour before turning to Netanyahu, criticized governments who have “foolishly recognized a Palestinian state.”

“Let’s not forget how we got here,” he said. “Hamas was elected by the Palestinian people. Israel withdrew from Gaza, thinking they would live in peace.” He added that the Islamist group was “the only one left” not to have accepted the plan. “But I have a feeling we’re going to have a positive answer.”

Oren noted that for Hamas, mere survival would amount to victory. 

“They’re perennial victims. They love death. Hamas loves rubble. It’s the building blocks of their identity. All they need to do to win is to emerge from their tunnels with [a peace sign] and they’ve won the war,” he told radio talk-show host Hugh Hewitt. “For Israel to win the war, we actually have to win the war. For Hamas to win the war, they have only not to lose.”

In his comments, Netanyahu addressed an Israeli strike on Sept. 9 in Qatar targeting Hamas leaders — for which he had apologized in a Trump-hosted phone call to his Qatari counterpart, Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim al-Thani, earlier in the day.

“Israel was targeting terrorists. It wasn’t targeting Qatar. And of course, we regretted the loss of the Qatari citizen. It wasn’t our target,” he said. 

Oren said the apology was necessary after what appeared to be a failed strike. “If Israel had succeeded in eliminating the five heads of Hamas, I think we would have had a different outcome,” he said. 

But pointing to past incidents in which Israel had apologized for failed assassination attempts, including the 1996 elimination effort against Hamas leader Khaled Mashal in Jordan, he went on, “It’s important that Israel, that Prime Minister Netanyahu, called the ruler of Qatar, apologized. It’s fine.”