After two years of unrelenting bloodshed, it is difficult to overstate the significance in West Asia of the events of October 13. In line with the ceasefire signed between Israel and Hamas less than a week ago, Hamas freed all 20 remaining Israeli hostages (with the planned release of 28 dead hostages, only four bodies having been reportedly returned so far). Israeli ministers, in turn, approved a list of over 1,700 Palestinian prisoners for release, some of whom were taken by bus to Gaza and the West Bank shortly after the hostages were freed. This exchange marks an enormously welcome breakthrough — the closest the region has come to a conclusion of the brutal war that has killed at least 66,000 Palestinians and 2,000 Israelis and sparked a famine in parts of the Gaza Strip. At the centre of it all is US President Donald Trump, who flew to Israel and was given a standing ovation in the country’s parliament. The polarising President and disruptor-in-chief is now the unlikely peacemaker in one of the world’s most intractable conflicts. His claim of a lasting peace may be premature but if it happens, it will be a remarkable achievement.
That is where the Gaza Peace Summit, co-chaired by Trump in Egypt immediately after his Knesset visit, will be critical. The next phase of the peace plan depends on the deliberations initiated at Sharm el-Sheikh: Gaza’s governance and reconstruction, the withdrawal of Israeli troops, the future of Hamas, and most importantly, the path towards Palestinian self-determination and statehood. It is immensely heartening that the guns have fallen silent, the hostages have returned home, and the spotlight is on Palestine. Will Hamas disarm and Israel withdraw? If Hamas digs its heels in, that will affect the future of the “stabilisation force,” and give Israel the reason it needs to stay there. A long-term and workable solution to ring in the new requires both sides to discard the old, to ensure that the current ceasefire is not a pause before the next wave of hostilities but the giant first step to peace.
