Executive Summary<\/p>\n
More than two years have passed since the devastating October 7, 2023, attack on Israel by Hamas (a.k.a. Harakat al-Muqawama al-Islamiyya, or Islamic Resistance Movement) and the beginning of the terrorist group\u2019s most recent war with the Israeli military. At the White House on September 29, 2025, U.S. President Donald Trump, alongside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, revealed his 20-point plan for peace in Gaza. Just days later, on October 9, both Israel and Hamas agreed to the first phase of the peace deal, which calls for the release and return of all hostages, a significant increase in humanitarian aid, and a partial Israeli withdrawal from Gaza. While this plan implemented a much-needed ceasefire and established a framework for future negotiations, much skepticism remains about more complicated issues such as postwar reconstruction and governance\u2014as well as whether Trump\u2019s plan can adequately address the needs of both Palestinians and Israelis for security, justice, accountability, and human rights.<\/p>\n
It is in the United States\u2019 interest to make a long-term diplomatic commitment to overseeing and enforcing peace in postwar Gaza. Doing so effectively can address both Hamas\u2019s control over the Gaza Strip and its institutions, as well as Israel\u2019s continued military presence in Gaza. The end goal of the Trump 20-point plan is to facilitate Palestinian self-governance sans Hamas or military occupation. To succeed, the Trump peace plan must effectively (1) create and support new avenues for Palestinian self-governance, (2) present actionable plans for rebuilding Gaza\u2019s critical infrastructure and providing much-needed humanitarian assistance, and (3) maintain a ceasefire in the long term, ending the cycles of ongoing violence. Stability in Gaza also benefits Israel\u2014a key U.S. ally in the Middle East\u2014by preventing additional Israeli casualties on the battlefield, bringing greater stability to the region, and creating a blueprint for future dialogue with neighboring countries.<\/p>\n
It is in the United States\u2019 interest to make a long-term diplomatic commitment to overseeing and enforcing peace in postwar Gaza.<\/p>\n
Although this monumental peace plan has led to the return of all living Israeli hostages and a halt to the fighting, the risk of ceasefire violations runs high. It is therefore imperative for U.S. policymakers to engage with international partners to quickly organize a stabilization force and develop concrete plans for reconstruction and postwar governance. Doing so will ensure that Gaza\u2019s immediate needs are met sustainably, allowing actors to work toward longer-term peace efforts in the future.<\/p>\n
This white paper argues that a restructured social service architecture will be crucial to postwar Gaza\u2019s success. Without reforming the key pillars of Gaza\u2019s social service architecture\u2014in addition to the Palestinian Authority (PA) and other structures of local government\u2014Gazan civilians will be forced to continue to rely on a network of Hamas-run nongovernmental organizations, religious groups, and government ministries for basic needs such as medical care, public safety, and education. This is a recipe for Hamas\u2019s continued dominance, ensuring its consistent access to a population within which it can recruit members and cloak itself.<\/p>\n
While the end goal of the Trump 20-point plan is to facilitate self-governance without Hamas or military occupation, removing Hamas means leaving a significant power vacuum behind. Answering the question of \u201cWho will be in charge?\u201d is key to ensuring that postwar Gaza has a chance at recovery and reconstruction, as is ensuring that Palestinian voices have a role in postwar planning discussions and a say in how their territory is run by a civilian government. Despite the peace deal\u2019s signing, it remains to be seen how the negotiating parties will arrive at an agreement that officially ends the war and disarms Hamas. Gaza still requires billions of dollars of investment and significant on-the-ground assistance to facilitate reconstruction efforts, distribute aid, restructure basic services, provide security, and reform the PA. While meeting these needs is a monumental task, the longer a ceasefire holds without a postwar governance agreement and financial support from the international community, the greater the risk that the conflict resumes.<\/p>\n
Introduction<\/p>\n
On September 29, 2025, U.S. President Donald Trump released a draft of a 20-point plan that\u2014if successfully implemented\u2014would permanently end the war in Gaza, exchange all Israeli hostages for Palestinian prisoners, and establish a \u201ctechnocratic, apolitical Palestinian committee,\u201d overseen by a transitional body chaired by Trump. This \u201cBoard of Peace\u201d would oversee Gaza\u2019s reconstruction and development, as well as monitor reforms to the Palestinian Authority (PA). While this plan placed sufficient pressure on both Israel and Hamas and pushed them to sign onto phase one of Trump\u2019s peace deal, as of the time of this report\u2019s publication, many details remain unresolved. Major sticking points include Hamas\u2019s disarmament and the makeup of the \u201ctechnocratic, apolitical Palestinian committee\u201d that will oversee day-to-day functions in Gaza. Critically, the proposal fails to lay out mechanisms for reforming Gaza\u2019s social services, many of which Hamas still dominates.<\/p>\n
This white paper argues that a successful long-term plan for postwar Gaza must: 1) supplant Hamas charities and welfare organizations with capable and efficient government institutions run by Palestinians who are trusted by Gaza\u2019s populace, 2) restore law and order, and 3) revitalize the PA with a new generation of local leadership. The United States should support a reconstruction effort that prioritizes participation from a generation of young Palestinians that are historically unrepresented by their government and invests in a quality social service infrastructure, thus replacing Hamas institutions and removing major avenues for its future influence over Gazan society.<\/p>\n
Though Trump\u2019s plan garnered major international backing, it still fails to definitively answer the question: What comes after Hamas?<\/p>\n
Implementing a widely accepted postwar governance structure is not without challenges. The PA holds little authority and is deeply unpopular in both the West Bank and Gaza, as well as internationally. Throughout the war in Gaza, both the Biden and Trump administrations have expressed concerns about Ramallah\u2019s ability to assume responsibility for postwar Gaza. Under the Biden administration, policymakers maintained that the PA needs to be \u201crevamped and revitalized\u201d to regain legitimacy and public trust. Statements from President Donald Trump further build upon decades of Washington\u2019s distrust of the PA.<\/p>\n
Throughout the conflict, several governments and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) have published plans that lay out strategies for postwar Gaza, but none attracted widespread support from key stakeholders. Many of those plans presented creative policy solutions, but most also failed to ask Palestinians what they wanted to see in a reformed government. Though Trump\u2019s plan garnered major international backing, it still fails to definitively answer the question: What comes after Hamas? This paper presents one potential solution to that question by proposing a strategic approach to governance focused on restoring stability to Gaza and weakening Hamas\u2019s ideological base. It also articulates additional U.S. policy options to support this approach to postwar planning and regional diplomacy.<\/p>\n
This paper first examines what Gaza means for Washington. It then explains how Hamas has entrenched itself in Gazan society over the past 19 years by fostering local dependency on its network of charities and welfare organizations\u2014a tactic characteristic of the group\u2019s roots in the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood. Next, it briefly reviews polling and demographic statistics from the Gaza Strip, which provide crucial insights into Gazan political opinion and what Palestinians actually want to see in their postwar government. The paper concludes with a series of recommendations for U.S. policymakers and postwar planners to support ceasefire efforts, advance regional peace, and significantly degrade Hamas\u2019s influence over Gazan society through nonmilitary means.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Executive Summary More than two years have passed since the devastating October 7, 2023, attack on Israel by…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":187879,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":{"0":"post-187878","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/187878","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=187878"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/187878\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/187879"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=187878"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=187878"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=187878"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}