Any evaluation of the ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas should, in fairness, start on a charitable note. It’s devilishly difficult to cajole parties that have been butchering one another, and loathe each other deeply, to stop fighting. Besides, there’s no such thing as a perfect ceasefire deal, even in the minds of those who sign it. They haggle as best they can, on the issues that matter to them, deciding how much ground they’ll give on key concerns even as they coerce their rivals to make the bigger concessions. But, in the end, neither side ever gets everything it wants.
More importantly, the agreement has made a huge difference to people’s lives, above all to Gazans. Those still living — at least 48,000 have been killed, even as The Lancet suggests that figure could be much higher — have been stalked daily by death, seen their homeland reduced to 42 million tons of rubble, and been deprived of life’s most basic necessities. That fear has been lifted, and hundreds of trucks laden with humanitarian aid have begun to enter the Strip. As for the family and friends of the hostages snatched by Hamas on October 7, they have waited in agony for the return of their loved ones, even as some know that all they can expect is their loved one’s corpse. Of the 33 hostages who are to be freed by the end of Phase 1 of the agreement, only seven have come home so far. The joy of the families, and of Israelis more generally, has been palpable. If everything goes according to plan, the remaining 61 hostages will be freed in Phase 2 of the agreement.
There’s more. Under the terms of Phase 1, the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) will redeploy to a narrow buffer-zone within Gaza’s border, before withdrawing completely by the end of Phase 2. Hamas is happy about this provision, but so are Gazans generally — it decreases the odds of the war’s resumption. Phase 3 calls for a detailed plan to rebuild Gaza, with satellite imagery showing 60% of buildings damaged or destroyed. Reconstruction, it goes without saying, is crucial if Gazans are to anything resembling normal lives.
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