ANDREW LIMBONG, HOST:
President Trump and Israel's prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, will meet face-to-face tomorrow. They're expected to talk about Gaza, where Israel started a new ground offensive this month and where a U.N. commission recently declared Netanyahu and other Israeli officials were responsible for genocide against Palestinians there. Meanwhile, the U.S. says it's going to present Israel, Palestinian leaders and Arab countries a plan soon to end the war and rebuild Gaza. With us to explain just what is going on is NPR's Emily Feng, who is in Tel Aviv. Hey, Emily.
EMILY FENG, BYLINE: Hello there.
LIMBONG: So what do we know about this plan that the U.S. says it is working on?
FENG: So a person familiar with the plans, but he was not authorized to speak publicly about it, tells NPR that the proposal is to end the war, return all remaining hostages to Israel within 48 hours, and then for the reconstruction of Gaza to be supervised, at first, by a coalition of international partners. And one name that's been floated around to temporarily lead that international mechanism is Tony Blair, the former British prime minister. And his institute confirmed with us that he has been working on a plan for some kind of international transitional body to lead Gaza.
Trump has already presented this plan to several Arab leaders who were in New York last week for the United Nations General Assembly, and we know that the U.S. is now really pushing Israel to end the war. They've asked Israel to give the U.S. a hard deadline for when it's going to stop its war in Gaza, which is something that Netanyahu has been very vague about publicly. U.S. Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff, told reporters that there might be a breakthrough on the plan in the coming days. But we reached out to Hamas negotiators who say they have not yet received any kind of written proposal of this plan. And so the question now is, is there enough pressure on the U.S., on Hamas, on Israel to overcome fundamental disagreements, which have sunk previous ceasefire proposals?
LIMBONG: All right, you mentioned fundamental disagreements. What are those?
FENG: Well, first, I have to mention that earlier this month, Israel launched airstrikes on Qatar, another country where Israel tried but failed to kill negotiators for Hamas. So not to put it too lightly, there is very little trust between everyone. Then there's the fact that right-wing politicians who Netanyahu really needs to maintain his political coalition in Israel - these politicians have been repeatedly calling to displace the 2 million or so Palestinians who live in Gaza and then move them to another country. And they want to even annex the West Bank, which is another Palestinian territory.
This U.S. plan that we're talking about wants Palestinians to stay in Gaza. But Trump's remarks on that front have been very inconsistent. He's previously talked about, for example, building a resort in Gaza. And then finally, there's this issue of Palestinian sovereignty. In this particular U.S. plan and another plan which was endorsed by the United Nations earlier this month, it would be the Palestinian Authority, which currently governs parts of the West Bank, that would also govern Gaza at some point. But Israel's Netanyahu has made it clear he will not accept the PA. Here he is speaking to the U.N. this past week.
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PRIME MINISTER BENJAMIN NETANYAHU: Because you see the Palestinian Authority is corrupt to the core. They haven't held elections in 20 years. They use the same textbooks as Hamas - exactly the same textbooks.
FENG: During that speech, by the way, dozens of diplomats staged a walkout of Netanyahu. And again, there's pressure from the U.S. for Israel to do something. And even in Israel itself, the idea of continuing its war is unpopular.
LIMBONG: Why is that?
FENG: People are tired of war. Next week is the two-year anniversary of October 7. And most importantly, Israelis fear the hostages that are kept there are endangered by its own war. Here's Doron Steinberger speaking at this huge weekly rally for the hostages, which I went to last night. Steinberger was held hostage herself in Gaza, and in her speech last night, she bemoaned how she felt the Israeli government had abandoned them by expanding the war, not ending it. And then she switched from Hebrew to English. And notably, to me, she addressed President Trump, not Netanyahu.
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DORON STEINBERGER: Mr. President, as you meet Prime Minister Netanyahu, please make the hostages your top priority.
FENG: The latest survey of Israelis done just a few days ago shows just over half of people want end to the war so they can get back the hostages.
LIMBONG: That's NPR's Emily Feng in Tel Aviv. Thanks, Emily.
FENG: Thanks, Andrew. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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