# Gaza faces permanent displacement as peace plan stalls > A year after a ceasefire, Gaza remains devastated with no reconstruction. Israeli leaders openly discuss forcing Palestinians to leave. - Title: Gaza faces permanent displacement as peace plan stalls - Summary: A year after a ceasefire, Gaza remains devastated with no reconstruction. Israeli leaders openly discuss forcing Palestinians to leave. A ceasefire brokered… - Keywords: gaza, israel, palestine, ceasefire, trump administration, benjamin netanyahu, humanitarian crisis, displacement, middle east, peace process, world, politics - Source: Foreign Affairs — https://foreignaffairs.com/palestinian-territories/end-gaza - Author: Khaled Elgindy - Published: 2026-10-08T08:00:00+00:00 - Read time: 4 min - Topics: gaza, israel, palestine, ceasefire, trump administration, benjamin netanyahu, humanitarian crisis, displacement, middle east, peace process, world, politics ## Ceasefire promised relief that never came The Trump administration negotiated an October twenty twenty-five ceasefire to end the Gaza war. It freed Israeli hostages but reconstruction never started. Israel continues striking targets, killing some three hundred children in the past year. ## Kushner promised services within one hundred days Jared Kushner, U.S.President Donald Trump's son-in-law and point person for the Middle East, promised in January this year that restoration of water, sewage, electricity, hospitals and bakeries would begin within one hundred days. ## Two million Palestinians live in tent cities Gaza's over two million inhabitants remain packed into sprawling tent cities along a shrinking coastline, plagued by disease and rodent infestations, enduring extreme shortages of food, medicine, clean water and basic sanitation. ## Israeli leaders want Gaza emptied The intolerable conditions are enabling the endgame many Israeli leaders want: the eventual eviction of Gaza's over two million Palestinian residents. The status quo seems to suit the Israeli leadership. ## Mladenov identifies the main obstacle Nikolay Mladenov, Bulgarian diplomat serving as high representative of Trump's Board of Peace, revealed where the main obstacle lies. On Israel's commitments, Mladenov noted, is where we are little bit stuck right now. > where we are little bit stuck right now ## Netanyahu's strategy: make Gaza uninhabitable The Netanyahu government's strategy has less to do with stabilizing Gaza or disarming Hamas than with rendering the territory uninhabitable and ejecting its population. Electoral considerations are a factor, but something deeper drives this approach. ## The scale of destruction in three years Two hundred twenty-three thousand tons of explosives dropped on Gaza, roughly equivalent to fifteen times the power of the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima, have killed more than seventy-four thousand Palestinians, mostly civilians, and reduced… ## Infrastructure destroyed: ninety-two percent of housing Israel's assault has wiped out some ninety-two percent of Gaza's housing stock, ninety-five percent of its farmland, all twelve of its universities, and nearly half of its thirty-six hospitals. ## Phase two launched without phase one complete Phase two was formally launched in January even though Israel had yet to meet its phase one obligations.It envisioned stabilization through an international force and Palestinian governing body, coupled with Hamas disarmament and Israeli withdrawal. ## Israel blocks Palestinian governance from entering A full year after the ceasefire, Israel continues to block the entry of Palestinian governing and policing bodies that would allow Hamas to relinquish power and reconstruction to begin. ## Israeli control expanded from fifty to sixty-five percent Since the ceasefire, the Israeli army has unilaterally expanded its control from just over half of Gaza's territory to around sixty-five percent of it. ## July breakthrough quickly rejected by Netanyahu In late July, Trump announced a breakthrough on phase two.After seven months of negotiations, Hamas and the Board of Peace reached a deal on disarmament. ## Mladenov warns Gaza will be gone for good Nikolay Mladenov warned that absence of meaningful progress in Gaza was foreclosing the future of the territory and the possibility of a two-state solution. > If we allow for Gaza to continue in the situation that we have now, Gaza will be gone. It will be gone for good. ## Ben-Gvir proposes seven-year emigration plan Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir unveiled a seven-year plan for the voluntary emigration of Palestinians from Gaza, including moving two hundred fifty thousand Palestinians out of Gaza in the first year. ## Netanyahu privately confirmed destruction strategy Netanyahu privately confirmed in twenty twenty-five to a group of lawmakers that Israel has been destroying more and more houses in Gaza so that Palestinians have nowhere to return. > destroying more and more houses in Gaza so that Palestinians have nowhere to return ## Trump proposed depopulating Gaza as Riviera In January twenty twenty-five, Trump proposed that the United States take control of Gaza and clean out its more than two million inhabitants as part of a vision of turning a depopulated Gaza into a… ## Three steps needed to salvage the plan The United States and partners must recognize Israel's interests run counter to stabilization.Improvements in daily life must be delinked from politics. ## Trump must choose between plan and Netanyahu Trump may want to consider whether it is worth sacrificing his Gaza peace plan, on which he has staked considerable political capital, for an Israeli government that may be on its way out. ## Key takeaway A ceasefire brokered by the Trump administration in October twenty twenty-five has failed to deliver reconstruction or end violence in Gaza, while Israeli leaders pursue a strategy of making the territory uninhabitable to force Palestinian emigration.