Carnegie Endowment for International Peace

06/12/2025

Long before October 7, 2023, Israel used its control over access to food, electricity, and other critical needs in Gaza to advance its political objectives. In the aftermath of Hamas’s brutal attack, those policies have been carried to unprecedented extremes. Today, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government is using its power over these essentials—in coordination with its current military offensive—to force Gaza’s civilian population into small enclaves in what many believe to be a prelude to implementing what has come to be referred to as the “Trump plan.”

The Trump Plan

The so-called Trump plan, which was unveiled by U.S. President Donald Trump during Netanyahu’s February visit to the Oval Office, calls for the “voluntary” removal of over 2 million Palestinians from Gaza. The idea, which was presented as a humanitarian gesture to enable Palestinians to escape the devastation of Gaza, is a plan of mass expulsion by another name. When questioned five days later in a Fox News interview on whether he envisioned Palestinians eventually returning to their homes in Gaza, Trump said that Palestinians would have much better housing outside of Gaza and they would not want to return.

Following the brutal October 7 Hamas attack, members of Netanyahu’s far-right coalition saw an opportunity to achieve their oft-stated goals of ending the Palestinian presence in Gaza—and opening the gates for Israeli settlement there. In May, ten weeks after Netanyahu implemented the siege and eight weeks into Israel’s new military campaign, Netanyahu reassured lawmakers in a closed-door session of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee that their goal was on track: Israel was destroying more and more houses in Gaza, and Palestinians would have nowhere to return to, making emigration the “only obvious result.”

The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) may become a part of this plan. It is not “humanitarian” in any respect of the term. The quantity and availability of food provided since the GHF began its operations is grossly inadequate to the enormous need.

The international community and Arab states must act urgently and decisively. They must use all necessary means to secure the immediate opening of Gaza’s crossing points—including Rafah and Kerem Shalom—to the entry of 700 or more aid convoys a day from the United Nations and international humanitarian organizations to prevent further human suffering and put an end to the current mass tragedy unfolding in Gaza.