A fleeting peace
Islamabad—The guns have gone silent in Gaza with the ceasefire coming into effect, as life limps back to what is considered normal in the enclave devastated by 15 months of incessant Israeli bombing.
But the war is far from over with the Zionist regime still unwilling to end its occupation. It’s only the first phase of the three-stage truce process that is being implemented; there are still questions about Israel fulfilling its promise of complete withdrawal.
The Israeli Prime Minister has threatened to resume military operations if the second phase of the truce doesn’t work. There is still no mention of an independent Palestinian state.
It is a tentative peace with hundreds of thousands of Palestinians returning to the rubble that was once their home. There are still dead bodies buried underneath. Each of them has lost a family member or acquaintance in the genocide that has left more than 46,000 people dead and thousands of others gravely injured. Most of them are children.
Yet the resilience of the people who have gone through a genocidal war is indomitable. The spectacle of thousands of people celebrating the ceasefire, waving Palestinian flags on the streets underscores their resolve in the face of adversity. Israel’s military might, backed by the United States, have failed to destroy the resistance.
Hamas was back taking charge immediately after the ceasefire. Thousands of Hamas fighters have reemerged from hiding and have reestablished control over the enclave. It was apparent that despite the horror it has wrought, Israel has failed to achieve its main objective of eliminating the resistance groups.
After months of hectic diplomatic engagements that involved Qatar, Egypt and the United States, the two sides finally reached a ceasefire agreement last week. The main resistance to the truce had come from Tel Aviv, which was not willing to withdraw its forces from the occupied territory. The three-phase deal finally came through just days before the installation of Donald Trump as US president. But there are other factors that seem to have led to the change of stance by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government.
It may be true that pressure from Trump forced the right-wing Israeli government to step back from its hardline position, with Trump threatening that there would be “hell to pay” if the hostages were not released ahead of his Jan. 20 inauguration. And surely the arm-twisting by Trump’s special envoy for the Middle East, Steve Witkoff, helped.
The first phase of the deal began with a six-week ceasefire and the exchange of the first batch of three Israeli hostages taken by Hamas in October 2023, and some 90 Palestinian prisoners by Tel Aviv.
In the second phase, a permanent ceasefire would follow the complete withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza. The third phase envisions a reconstruction process of from three to five years.
It all sounds good on paper but there is a strong suspicion that Israel, under pressure from its far right, would not abide by the agreement in the second phase. Some members of the Netanyahu government are already talking about not extending the ceasefire, which would really mark the effective end of the war.
It remains to be seen how the Trump administration would handle this. Trump, who has claimed credit for brokering the ceasefire, last week declared that he would build up the momentum of the deal to expand the “historic” Abraham Accords.
The US-backed agreements struck during his first term normalized Israel’s relations with several Arab countries, including the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, and Morocco. Trump seeks to broaden the deal to include major Arab power Saudi Arabia. But Riyadh has said it will not consider normalizing relations until Israel commits to a “credible path” to a Palestinian state.
One is not sure that Trump’s Middle East project would work without Israel accepting the two-state solution. In fact, some senior members of Trump’s nominated Cabinet favor a further or even complete Israeli annexation of the West Bank, making a viable Palestinian state almost impossible. In such a situation there is no hope of ending the Middle East conflict.
Indeed, the ceasefire, along with provisions to allow humanitarian aid into Gaza, has provided some relief to the hapless population. But a temporary peace and opening of the food supply cannot heal the wounds of relentless oppression.
The most crucial question is whether the Palestinians would be able to get their rights and have full control over their land and their lives. How can people in Gaza live in peace while being under an everlasting state of siege? Dawn/Asia News Network
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The Philippine Daily Inquirer is a member of the Asia News Network, an alliance of 22 media titles in the region.
