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Donald Trump has convened a meeting at the White House with Tony Blair and top officials to discuss a new postwar plan for Gaza, as Israel prepares to launch another invasion of the besieged enclave.
The US president’s special envoy Steve Witkoff said the “large meeting” on Wednesday would focus on a “comprehensive” plan for Gaza, where catastrophic conditions have sparked international outrage and a UN-backed panel last week declared a famine.
“It’s a very comprehensive plan we’re putting together on the next day [for Gaza] that I think many people are going to be — they’re going to see how robust it is and how it’s — how well-meaning it is,” Witkoff told Fox News on Tuesday.
Blair’s attendance at the White House meeting was confirmed by two people familiar with the matter.
Staff from the former UK prime minister’s institute for global change previously took part in a project to develop a postwar plan for Gaza that included a proposed “Trump Riviera” in the besieged enclave.
“For him it’s about getting back to a two-state solution,” said one Blair ally, referring to the meeting. “It is absolutely not and never was about forcible displacement. The whole purpose is to get agreement on “the day after” in order to end the war.
Blair’s office declined to comment.
Israel’s foreign minister Gideon Sa’ar was meanwhile set to meet US secretary of state Marco Rubio on Wednesday, and the pair were expected to discuss developments in Gaza and the occupied West Bank, including efforts towards a ceasefire deal. Israel is simultaneously preparing its forces for a major ground assault in Gaza City.
Witkoff’s announcement of the White House’s efforts to devise a day-after plan came after Trump this week suggested that the war could be over in two to three weeks and that he had told the Israelis to “get it settled soon”.
“We think that we’re going to settle this one way or another, certainly before the end of this year,” Witkoff told Fox News.
Previous efforts by the US, Egypt and Qatar to mediate an end to the fighting have repeatedly stalled, with Israel and Hamas at odds over fundamental aspects of what any deal should include.
Earlier this month, Hamas accepted a proposal for a temporary ceasefire that mediators said was largely similar to one put forward by Witkoff in May and previously accepted by Israel, which would free some of the remaining hostages in exchange for a 60-day truce.
But Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has in recent weeks insisted that Israel is now only interested in a deal that brings home all the hostages in one go.
Witkoff told Fox Tuesday “that’s president Trump’s official position” as well.
Israeli officials have also insisted that they will go ahead with their plans to take over Gaza City, with the military’s Arabic spokesman saying on Wednesday that the evacuation of the city was “inevitable”.
The White House has provided no further details on the Wednesday meeting.
“President Trump has been clear that he wants the war to end, and he wants peace and prosperity for everyone in the region,” a White House official said.
Trump administration officials in recent weeks pushed back against plans by US allies — including the UK, France, Canada and Australia — to recognise Palestinian statehood at the United Nations General Assembly meeting next month.
Trump earlier this year suggested that the US should take control of Gaza, expel the population, and rebuild the shattered territory into a Mediterranean “Riviera” — comments that appeared to shock both the members of his own administration and his Israeli counterparts, but which have since been embraced by Israeli ministers.
Additional reporting by Steff Chávez in Washington
