The statements made by U.S. President Donald Trump during the press conference he held with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu yesterday, Monday, at the White House, which included the announcement of the outlines of his plan regarding Gaza, were not free from factually unsupported claims about the sector.
During the conference, Trump raised three pieces of misinformation regarding the Israeli withdrawal from Gaza in 2005, accusations of corruption against UNRWA, and the number of Palestinian fighters who have been martyred since the "Al-Aqsa Flood" attack on October 7, 2023.
Trump has consistently made false statements throughout his two terms in office, whether on social media platforms or in press conferences, which has made many of them the subject of widespread criticism from the media and political figures.
The U.S. president claimed in his speech that the election of the Palestinian Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) marked a turning point that led Israel to withdraw from the Gaza Strip, believing—according to his narrative—that this step would open the door to a phase of calm and peace.
He added that Israel, at that time, told the Palestinians, "Take Gaza, this is our contribution to peace," but he quickly noted that what happened later was not as they expected, as the promised peace was not achieved; rather, it was, in his words, the exact opposite.
However, the truth is that Israel implemented a unilateral disengagement plan from Gaza in 2005, evacuating settlements in the sector and others in the West Bank, while withdrawing Israeli forces from Gaza.
At that time, Israel claimed that the declared goal of this step was to enhance the peace process with the Palestinians, but many observers considered that the withdrawal was not a step toward peace; rather, it was an attempt to reduce Israel's commitments in Gaza without negotiating with the Palestinian Authority, which led to strengthening Hamas's position among the Palestinians.
In 2006, Hamas won the Palestinian legislative elections, leading to the formation of a government under its leadership, but in 2007, clashes broke out between Hamas and the Fatah National Liberation Movement, ending with the former taking control of the Gaza Strip, resulting in a division of the Palestinian Authority between the West Bank and Gaza.
The Israeli withdrawal from Gaza was not driven by direct expectations of peace; rather, it was part of a unilateral Israeli strategy, and Hamas's victory in the elections was unexpected and came after the Israeli withdrawal, not before it, in addition to not being part of an Israeli or American plan to achieve peace.
During his speech at the conference, the U.S. president accused the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) of corruption: "I cut taxpayer funding to the corrupt UNRWA."
Trump announced on February 4 of last year his decision to stop funding the agency at the beginning of his second term in the White House, based on accusations of involvement by some of its employees in an attack carried out by Hamas on Israel.
However, a review of these allegations revealed a more complex picture; the results of an internal investigation conducted by UNRWA showed that the accusations involved 19 employees, while the initial evidence was limited to only nine, and even in these cases, their involvement was not conclusively proven.
As for his description of the agency as "corrupt," it was contradicted by an independent review conducted by three prestigious research centers led by former French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna in April 2024, which concluded that UNRWA "has a more developed neutral approach than the majority of UN bodies and similar NGOs."
The U.S. president noted in his speech what he described as significant losses within Hamas, stating that "more than 20,000 have been killed" and that the time has come for the movement to accept "the terms of the plan" presented.
Trump's statement reflects previous Israeli estimates, but they remain questionable due to the lack of independent evidence of their accuracy and doubts about the Israeli army's ability to distinguish between civilians and fighters.
On the other hand, neither Hamas nor its military wing, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, has issued any official statistics on the number of its fighters who have been martyred since the "Al-Aqsa Flood" operation about a year ago, making any proposed number require independent verification before being accepted as an objective fact.
It is worth noting that the White House revealed in a statement the details of President Donald Trump's plan to end the war in Gaza, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced his support for the plan, while Hamas promised to study it responsibly.
Following the announcement of the
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3 False Claims by Trump in His Announcement of the Plan Regarding Gaza and Hamas