The U.S., Qatar, Egypt, and Türkiye issued a joint statement on Dec. 21 expressing their support on Dec. 20 for U.S. President Donald Trump’s peace plan for the Gaza Strip following a Dec. 19 meeting in Miami, but a source briefed on the meeting said little progress was made on implementing the U.S. proposal beyond the current truce, [reported the Times of Israel](https://www.timesofisrael.com/gaza-mediators-urge-israel-hamas-to-keep-truce-after-meeting-yields-little-progress/ on Dec. 20. The mediating countries urged both Israel and Hamas—which remains the de facto government of about half the Gaza Strip—to adhere to the peace plan and to exercise more restraint in order to avoid a return to war. The mediators also called for the swift establishment of a so-called Board of Peace as envisioned by the plan and of a technocratic government to oversee the Strip’s postwar management.
Attending the Dec. 19 meeting were U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff, Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed Abdulrahman Al Thani, Egyptian intel chief Hassan Rashad and Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan.
The source briefed on the sit-down told ToI that advancement into the second phase of the ceasefire will require compromises from the leaders of Israel and Hamas regarding the issues of IDF’s withdrawal from Gaza and disarmament.
Speaking separately, on Dec. 20 Turkish Foreign Minister Fidan harshly criticized Israeli violations of the ceasefire, saying they are “creating major risks for transitioning to the second phase,” [reported Turkish news agency Anadolu](https://www.aa.com.tr/en/turkiye/turkiye-s-foreign-minister-says-israeli-violations-complicate-gaza-peace-efforts/3776777#. “The ongoing violations by Israel, in particular, are making the process incredibly more difficult. What we see is that all parties are in agreement on this issue, and we also had various discussions on how to prevent this,” he told reporters, adding that the ceasefire violations by Israel are “endangering the peace plan” put forth by U.S. President Donald Trump.
