Will Trump's Plan to End Gaza War Go Beyond Riviera Fantasy?

Confusion reigns with multiple parties including ex-British PM Blair in the mix

- Jonathan Eyal

LONDON - Officials close to President Donald Trump claim that the US administration will soon unveil a plan to end the war in Gaza.

Washington is certainly buzzing with diplomatic activity. Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar is in the US capital for talks with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, his counterpart.

Mr Ron Dermer, Israel's Minister of Strategic Affairs, who is Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's most trusted political fixer, is also in the US.

And Mr Trump chaired a meeting of his top security advisers at the White House on Aug 27, which, unusually, was also attended by senior Israeli officials, as well as by Mr Jared Kushner, the US President's son-in-law, and Mr Tony Blair, a former British prime minister who is frequently involved in Middle Eastern mediation efforts.

"It is a very comprehensive plan we are putting together," Mr Steve Witkoff, the US President's Middle East envoy, added in his media remarks.

Yet apart from rumors and conjecture, there are no details about what a US peace plan for Gaza may entail.

Nor does a diplomatic breakthrough seem imminent; even Mr Witkoff says that fighting may not stop before "the end of the year".

The Israeli government remains undeterred by accusations that its "systematic obstruction" of the delivery of aid to the people of Gaza — as a UN agency put it — has resulted in a famine.

Mr Netanyahu has dismissed this as a "lie", and the US has joined Israel in rejecting the United Nations' famine determination.

Speaking before the UN Security Council on Aug 27, acting US Ambassador Dorothy Shea claimed that Israel had "enabled an unprecedented amount of more than two million tonnes of aid to flow into the Gaza Strip", and called on the UN to stop "echoing false narratives".