Al-Watan Al-Youm News – December 29, 2025
Written by | Hassan Al-Najjar
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is expected to meet U.S. President Donald Trump on Monday at the Mar-a-Lago beach resort in Florida to hold talks that include Israel’s concerns regarding Hezbollah in Lebanon and Iran.
While the U.S. President is expected to press for progress in the stalled ceasefire in Gaza, Israeli officials have suggested that Netanyahu will propose an alternative plan to the American plan for the Gaza Strip, according to the newspaper “Maariv.”
Israeli political sources also considered the meeting to be “another fateful battle” that could determine Netanyahu’s political future.
New Roadmap
Furthermore, the sources expected Netanyahu to propose a roadmap that could slow Trump’s rush to implement his plan for Gaza, or even replace it altogether.
The roadmap or Israeli plan to be presented to the U.S. President calls for Israeli control of up to 75% of the Palestinian sector (noting that Israel currently controls about 53% according to the agreement, and this control expanded this month to 58%), until Hamas actually and finally relinquishes its weapons.
However, this proposal may clash with Trump’s plans, who seeks to move to the second phase of the Gaza agreement, considering that the weapons issue is resolved step by step and gradually, focusing on the issue of reconstruction.
What About Iran?
In the Iranian file, Israeli sources also expected Netanyahu to seek to convince Trump that directing a joint U.S.-Israeli strike on Iran “will lead to better results in the future nuclear agreement and may weaken the regime in Tehran,” according to Israeli media reports.
Netanyahu had announced on December 22 that the talks are expected to address the second phase of the ceasefire in Gaza, as well as Iran and Lebanon.
Washington had mediated the ceasefire on the three fronts, but Israel is concerned about its adversaries rebuilding their forces after being significantly weakened during the war.
It is worth noting that Israel and Hamas had agreed in October on Trump’s plan for a ceasefire in Gaza, which called for Israel to withdraw and Hamas to relinquish its weapons and any role in governing the sector.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio confirmed last week that Washington wants to form the transitional administration stipulated in Trump’s plan, which is a peace council and a body composed of Palestinian technocrats as soon as possible, to manage Gaza before deploying the international security force authorized by the UN Security Council resolution issued on November 17.
However, Israel and Hamas have exchanged accusations of committing major violations of the agreement, and neither appears closer to accepting the more difficult steps expected for the next phase.
Hamas still insists that the weapons issue be resolved on the Palestinian level, while Israel continues to launch raids on scattered areas in the sector despite the truce agreement.
