‘Truce is not peace’: In the media, truce means bombing has stopped, in Gaza it’s a frightened breath and an ache of survival
The truce there is a short breath between two suffocations. And here, the calm feels like betrayal. Words lose meaning when you know the distance between language and reality is measured in pain. I saw a short video of a woman still searching for her son’s body under the rubble – even after the truce. She said: “The war didn’t stop inside me.”
Freed Palestinians prisoners, some in Israeli jails for 20 years, arrive home in Gaza under ceasefire deal
Several thousand people gathered inside and around the Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, awaiting the arrival of freed prisoners, with some waving Palestinian flags and others holding pictures of their relatives.
Sigh of relief to Israeli families as Hamas hands over all living hostages to Israel as Trump declares ‘Gaza war over’
The Israeli military said it had received all hostages confirmed to be alive after their transfer from Gaza by the Red Cross, prompting cheering, hugging and weeping among thousands waiting at “Hostage Square” in Tel Aviv.
How Trump’s family mega-dollar business interests in Qatar kowtowed Netanyahu into signing Israel-Hamas peace deal
Qatar has also played an increasingly critical role in helping the US broker diplomatic deals. In recent years, Qatar played a role in helping Nato and US arrange the withdrawal from Afghanistan, the Iran–US prisoner swap, and the release of Ukrainian children from Russia. More recently, it has been a key mediator and drafter of ceasefire plans to end the genocide in Gaza.
Trump to receive hero’s welcome in Israel’s parliament as fragile Gaza ceasefire holds
The US, along with Egypt, Qatar and Turkey, mediated what has been described as a first phase agreement between Israel and Hamas. The next phase of Trump’s plan calls for an international body – a “Board of Peace” led by Trump.
How Trump bulldozed Netanyahu to apologise to Qatari emir that earned him Hamas trust, peace deal
An important development during the talks was the mediators’ success in convincing Hamas that its continued holding of hostages had become a liability for it rather than leverage, the senior US official and the Palestinian official in Gaza said. Hamas came to a view that continuing to hold hostages undermined global support for Palestinians, and that without them, Israel would have no credibility to restart fighting, the Palestinian official said.
Sissi invites Trump to visit Egypt to witness Israel-Hamas deal signing ‘in a ceremony befitting the occasion’
In Israel’s ensuing offensive, more than 67,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza and nearly 170,000 wounded during the war, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which doesn’t differentiate between civilians and combatants but says around half of the deaths were women and children.
