🔗 Share this article

The reprieve resulting from the halt in hostilities in Gaza is immense. Across Israel, the liberation of surviving detainees has sparked extensive joy. Throughout Gaza and the West Bank, celebrations have commenced as as many as 2,000 Palestinian detainees begin their release – although distress lingers due to uncertainty about who is being freed and their eventual placements. Across northern Gaza, people can finally return to search the debris for the bodies of an approximated 10,000 unaccounted-for individuals.

Ceasefire Emergence Despite Prior Uncertainty

Only three weeks ago, the likelihood of a ceasefire looked improbable. But it has been implemented, and on Monday Donald Trump journeyed from Jerusalem, where he was cheered in the Knesset, to Sharm el-Sheikh in Egypt. There, he participated in a prestigious peace conference of in excess of 20 world leaders, including Sir Keir Starmer. The plan for peace begun there is due to be continued at a assembly in the UK. The US president, cooperating with international partners, successfully brokered this deal happen – contrary to, not due to, Israel’s prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Dreams of Independence Tempered by Past Precedents

Aspirations that the deal signifies the opening phase toward Palestinian statehood are comprehensible – but, considering past occurrences, rather hopeful. It offers no clear path to independence for Palestinians and threatens separating, for the foreseeable future, Gaza from the West Bank. Furthermore the total ruin this war leaves behind. The omission of any schedule for Palestinian self-determination in the US initiative contradicts self-aggrandizing references, in his Knesset speech, to the “epochal beginning” of a “age of abundance”.

Donald Trump was unable to refrain from polarising and individualizing the deal in his speech.

In a period of relief – with the liberation of detainees, halt in fighting and renewal of aid – he decided to reinterpret it as a ethical drama in which he solely restored Israel’s honor after alleged disloyalty by past US commanders-in-chief Obama and Biden. This even as the Biden administration previously having attempted a comparable agreement: a truce tied to aid delivery and eventual diplomatic discussions.

Meaningful Agency Essential for Sustainable Agreement

A proposal that withholds one side meaningful agency is incapable of delivering legitimate peace. The truce and humanitarian convoys are to be welcomed. But this is not currently policy development. Without systems ensuring Palestinian engagement and authority over their own institutions, any deal endangers freezing domination under the language of peace.

Relief Imperatives and Recovery Hurdles

Gaza’s people crucially depend on humanitarian aid – and nutrition and medication must be the first priority. But rebuilding must not be delayed. Among 60 million tonnes of rubble, Palestinians need assistance reconstructing homes, educational facilities, hospitals, mosques and other establishments devastated by Israel’s incursion. For Gaza’s interim government to prosper, funding must be disbursed rapidly and safety deficiencies be addressed.

Like a large portion of the president's peace plan, allusions to an global peacekeeping unit and a recommended “peace council” are worryingly ambiguous.

Worldwide Endorsement and Prospective Outcomes

Robust international support for the Palestinian Authority, enabling it to take over from Hamas, is likely the most encouraging scenario. The enormous suffering of the recent period means the moral case for a resolution to the conflict is potentially more pressing than ever. But although the halt in fighting, the repatriation of the hostages and vow by Hamas to “remove weapons from” Gaza should be accepted as favorable developments, the president's track record offers minimal cause to believe he will deliver – or deem himself compelled to endeavor. Short-term relief does not mean that the possibility of a Palestinian state has been advanced.