How to End the War in Gaza for Good

Oct 13, 2025

Also published in Foreign Affairs
Aerial view of the site of an Israeli-Hamas prisoner-hostage swap in Gaza in January 2025 - source: Reuters
About the Authors
Ambassador Dennis Ross
Dennis Ross

Dennis Ross, a former special assistant to President Barack Obama, is the counselor and William Davidson Distinguished Fellow at The Washington Institute.

Articles & Testimony

The momentum created by phase one of the peace plan will eventually fade, so the Trump administration must work quickly with its partners to present a clear understanding of its twenty points—including on complex issues like disarming Hamas and securing Gaza—and which actors will implement them.

If all goes to plan, by the beginning of Saturday, Israel and Hamas will start observing a cease-fire. Their weapons will fall silent, and Israeli troops will withdraw from their present positions to an agreed-on line further back in Gaza. Hamas, meanwhile will release all the living hostages in exchange for 250 Palestinian prisoners serving life sentences and an additional 1,750 Gazans Israel has captured over the last two years. Humanitarian assistance will immediately flood into the area, and Palestinians will begin attempting to rehabilitate the enclave, remove the rubble, and resume limited commercial activity. But U.S. President Donald Trump’s peace plan is essentially divided into two phases, and these steps are just phase one. And although such measures are obviously difficult (given how long it has taken for Hamas and Israel to agree to them), they are far easier to implement than the proposed elements of phase two... 

Read the full article on the Foreign Affairs website.

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