ALBAWABA - Sources in the diplomatic community say that U.S. President Donald Trump's ceasefire plan for Gaza, which got Israel and Hamas to agree to stop fighting, may have secret clauses that could start the fighting again under certain conditions.
Western diplomats say that the public version of the plan only talks about three official phases: the exchange of hostages and prisoners, a gradual Israeli withdrawal, and reconstruction. There are also unreleased appendices that are informally called "emergency mechanisms." These secret parts are said to be meant to punish Hamas if it breaks any of the terms of the deal.
The sources say that these secret measures were quietly added to deal with possible violations, like delays in releasing hostages or returning bodies within the 72-hour deadline. In these situations, Israel would be allowed to start limited airstrikes again or go back into parts of Gaza, which would effectively end the ceasefire.
Hamas is skeptical of what Washington says.
The U.S. government has called Trump's plan "clear and complete" many times. Hamas officials, on the other hand, say that any undisclosed annexes are "non-binding" and that they will seek international guarantees to stop "Israeli manipulation."
Israeli officials have admitted that there are "compliance mechanisms" in place, especially for Hamas's disarmament, but they have not given any details. This lack of clarity has led to more rumors that secret enforcement actions could give Israel a lot of freedom to start attacking again.
"Appendix B" and Possible Punishments
Erem News got word from diplomatic sources that the unpublished "Appendix B" of the Trump plan includes a way to punish Hamas without using military force, like freezing their assets abroad or putting targeted sanctions on them through allied states.
It also lets the Israeli military take limited actions if Hamas breaks the terms of the ceasefire. In the worst-case scenario, the mechanisms could let some Israeli troops move back into Gaza, which would effectively start the conflict over again if they don't work.
Several U.S. officials have recently talked about "special enforcement procedures," which has only made people more unsure about how clear the ceasefire plan really is. If these "emergency clauses" really do exist, analysts say they could turn what was said to be a path to peace into a conditional truce that could fall apart at any time.
