Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Cabinet on Thursday approved the first phase of President Donald Trump’s 20-point peace plan that was rolled out nine days earlier. In exchange for Hamas releasing the rest of the Israeli hostages, 20 of whom are believed to still be alive, the Israel Defense Forces will institute a ceasefire and implement a partial withdrawal from its current positions. The hostages will reportedly be set free by Sunday or Monday, although it may take additional time for Hamas to locate the bodies of those who have died.
Either way, one can’t avoid feelings of relief. The celebrations are hard to miss; for the roughly 2 million Palestinians in Gaza who have been living through hell over the last two years, the ceasefire will provide much-needed respite from a war that has gutted the entire coastal territory, ruined its already dilapidated health care system and destroyed approximately 90% of its homes. In Israel, the families of the remaining hostages who are alive, who have been pressing Netanyahu to sign an agreement that ends the war, will soon have their loved ones back in their arms. Trump, predictably, is quite pleased: “This is a great day for the world,” he said hours after the deal concluded. “This is a wonderful day, a wonderful day for everybody.”
Yet, as understandable as it may be to bask in this success, we shouldn’t get ahead of ourselves. It’s important to reiterate that Israel and Hamas have only come to terms on the first phase of Trump’s peace plan, not the entire thing. And Trump has a tendency to declare historic success and quickly move on to other things. But this approach won’t work on an issue as loaded and fraught as the Israeli-Palestinian file, which means his administration will need to keep up the pressure on all sides if it truly wants to prevent another round of fighting down the line. If Israel, Hamas or both come to the conclusion that they can wiggle out of their commitments, we should expect they most certainly will.
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