It’s Wednesday, August 6, and Donald Trump is planning to give a speech in which he proposes the rehabilitation of Gaza under American leadership and with significant U.S. funding—on the condition that Hamas is no longer in power.
The rationale? To create public pressure on Hamas from within the Gazan population.
Important context: One of the most foundational challenges in this war has been separating Hamas from Gazan civilians—both on the battlefield and in plans for the day after, and various ideas have been put forward in attempts to achieve this.
First, there was the plan for voluntary migration, which would allow Gazan civilians seeking to start a life elsewhere to do just that. Then there was the GHF aid plan, which was supposed to create mass-distribution of aid that Hamas could not exploit, thereby weakening its grip over the civilian population, and by extension its rule over the strip.