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The reprieve resulting from the halt in hostilities in Gaza is immense. In Israel, the liberation of captives held alive has led to broad celebration. Throughout Gaza and the West Bank, festivities have commenced as approximately 2,000 Palestinian detainees are being freed – even as concern lingers due to doubt about who is being freed and where they will be sent. Across northern Gaza, residents can at last return to dig through rubble for the remnants of an believed 10,000 missing people.

Truce Development Despite Earlier Odds

Only three weeks ago, the likelihood of a ceasefire looked improbable. But it has been implemented, and on Monday Donald Trump travelled from Jerusalem, where he was cheered in the Knesset, to Sharm el-Sheikh in Egypt. There, he attended a high-level peace summit of over 20 world leaders, among them Sir Keir Starmer. The plan for peace launched at that summit is set to advance at a meeting in the UK. The US president, acting with international partners, did make this deal happen – regardless of, not due to, Israel’s prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Palestinian Statehood Hopes Tempered by Historical Realities

Hopes that the deal represents the opening phase toward Palestinian statehood are reasonable – but, considering previous instances, rather hopeful. It offers no clear path to independence for Palestinians and risks separating, for the immediate period, Gaza from the West Bank. Furthermore the utter devastation this war has produced. The omission of any timeframe for Palestinian self-governance in the US initiative contradicts self-aggrandizing allusions, in his Knesset speech, to the “historic dawn” of a “age of abundance”.

The US president could not resist sowing division and making personal the deal in his speech.

In a period of respite – with the freeing of captives, truce and resumption of aid – he chose to recast it as a lesson in ethics in which he exclusively reinstated Israel’s dignity after supposed betrayal by former US presidents Obama and Biden. This despite the Biden administration previously having tried a similar deal: a truce linked to aid delivery and eventual negotiations.

Substantive Control Crucial for Authentic Resolution

A initiative that withholds one side genuine autonomy cannot produce authentic resolution. The ceasefire and relief shipments are to be embraced. But this is not currently policy development. Without mechanisms securing Palestinian involvement and command over their own organizations, any deal threatens freezing oppression under the language of peace.

Humanitarian Priorities and Recovery Hurdles

Gaza’s people desperately need relief assistance – and nutrition and medication must be the first priority. But reconstruction should not be postponed. Amid 60 million tonnes of rubble, Palestinians need support repairing residences, learning institutions, healthcare facilities, religious buildings and other institutions destroyed by Israel’s military operation. For Gaza’s provisional leadership to prosper, monetary resources must be disbursed rapidly and protection voids be remedied.

Similar to a great deal of Mr Trump’s resolution initiative, mentions to an global peacekeeping unit and a recommended “diplomatic committee” are disturbingly unclear.

Global Backing and Prospective Outcomes

Robust worldwide endorsement for the Gaza's governing body, allowing it to succeed Hamas, is probably the most hopeful scenario. The tremendous pain of the recent period means the ethical argument for a resolution to the conflict is arguably more urgent than ever. But even as the truce, the homecoming of the detainees and commitment by Hamas to “remove weapons from” Gaza should be acknowledged as constructive moves, Mr Trump’s track record gives little reason to have faith he will accomplish – or consider himself obligated to try. Temporary ease does not imply that the likelihood of a Palestinian state has been advanced.