Israel-Hamas truce: Trump’s peace push-dividends or deception?

Palestinian children celebrate yesterday, following news of a new Gaza ceasefire deal. AFP

In wars, there are no victors—only victims. The truth of this statement becomes vivid only when war is viewed through a humanitarian lens. It does not matter whether Israel wins or loses, whether Hamas does, or who outfoxed whom. What matters most are the lives of the war-battered—the hapless and helpless people of Gaza and the Israeli hostages. 

The side that wages peace wins. As the late Pope Francis once said, “To make peace, one needs courage—far more than to wage war.”

Yet the much-celebrated announcement of a ceasefire deal early yesterday, while it brightened the faces of the war-devastated Palestinians, also drew melancholic looks of indifference. In the past two years, they have gone down this path one too many times—only for hopes to turn into misery, lives into hell, and shelters into smithereens.

“Honestly, when I heard the news, I couldn’t hold back my tears of joy. Two years of bombing, terror, destruction, loss, humiliation, and the constant feeling that we could die at any moment. Now, we finally feel like we’re getting a moment of respite,” displaced Gazan Samer Joudeh told AFP.

Exhausted and drained of spirit after enduring Israel’s bloody and inhumane bear-baiting for two long years—with Zionist-worshipping Western governments cheering from the sidelines—the Palestinians in Gaza are now too weak to even utter the word ‘peace’ aloud, let alone bargain for peace with justice. All they want now is respite from Israel’s relentless bombardment—and some food to feed their children and themselves.

Has the turning point the Palestinians have been waiting for over the past two years finally arrived? The coming days and weeks will tell whether they are being led to the haven of freedom or the abyss of perpetual colonial enslavement.

Even as US President Donald Trump proudly announced the breakthrough early yesterday, Israel was exploiting the window between the announcement and the mounting pleas to halt the bombing. In that space, it continued to kill and maim Palestinians and to destroy whatever remained standing in Gaza.

What was reached yesterday at the Egyptian resort town of Sharm al-Sheikh is not a peace deal. It is merely a ceasefire arrangement, aimed at facilitating the release of all Israeli hostages from Hamas custody. In exchange, Israel will release about 2,000 Palestinian prisoners—freedom fighters—and make a partial withdrawal from Gaza. The deal also permits the flow of aid trucks into the Gaza Strip to address the worsening humanitarian crisis.

Peace-loving people across the world hailed the deal yesterday as a major step toward ending the genocide. Its significance cannot be overstated, especially since it came just a day before the announcement of the Nobel Peace Prize, for which President Trump is a contender.

He might have been my choice too, if only he had stopped the war in the very first few days or weeks of his second term in January, instead of unveiling the politically murderous idea of creating a Middle East Riviera in Gaza after evacuating Palestinians from their lands. He appeared more like a real estate tycoon than a peacemaker worthy of global praise. With no takers for his Riviera plan, he extended financial and military support for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu—the butcher of Gaza—to ‘finish the job’, although both Trump and his Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff, knew Israel scuttled the deal every time Hamas agreed to the US plan.

During Trump’s second term so far, Israel has killed more than 20,000 Palestinians, while he and his team pampered Netanyahu and his coterie of extremists. Do peacemakers become complicit in a genocide? As of yesterday, the death toll stood at close to 68,000.

Trump’s credibility as a peacemaker can be proved only if he capitalises on yesterday’s ceasefire deal and guides both sides through a process that not only addresses Israel’s security concerns, but also delivers justice to the Palestinian people, helps them establish a state within the 1967 borders, and does so within a defined timeline—giving no room for Israel to renege on the deal or postpone the Palestinian dream till kingdom come. Are we asking too much of him?

If yesterday’s deal is merely a subterfuge to help Israel secure the release of hostages and then resume its genocidal campaign in the Gaza Strip under the pretext of Hamas’ dishonesty, then Trump will be remembered not as a peacemaker, but as a vile deceiver. A true peacemaker does not take sides. History shows that the US record as a mediator in the Palestinian crisis has consistently failed the test of honesty and impartiality. By contrast, genuine peacemakers insist on peace with justice. Appeasement—often the US default when placating Israel—does not lead to lasting peace.

The deal Israel and Hamas agreed to implement in the coming days constitutes the first part of the 20-point peace plan Trump announced last week. The trickier and yet-to-be-negotiated second phase involves a full Israeli withdrawal, Hamas’s disarmament, and the establishment of new security and governance arrangements in Gaza.

The credit for yesterday’s breakthrough also goes to Qatar, Egypt, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates. This time around, they seem to have used their multitrillion-dollar diplomatic clout strategically and decisively to extract returns on their investments from the Trump administration.

Given that the US rarely proposes anything that goes against Israel’s interests, was there a deeper concern that prompted the Trump administration to push ahead with its peace plan, which Israeli hardliners see as a stab in Israel’s back? Perhaps the pressure on the Trump administration is growing within the Republican Party and across party lines throughout the US. With social media exposing in vivid detail the horrors unfolding in Gaza—coverage that mainstream media often shuns or underreports due to bias—support for Israel has been eroding rapidly.

Across the Western world, mounting calls for peace have compelled Zionist-friendly governments—such as the current British administration—to formally recognise a Palestinian state. As one UN body after another declares that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza, even Germany—long seen as a genocide enabler—has admitted it is no longer in a position to defend Israel. With the breaking point now reached, these governments appear to believe that some form of agreement is necessary to save their beloved Israel from being branded a pariah state.

Following yesterday’s ceasefire deal, self-styled peacebuilder Trump expressed confidence that all hostages would return home by Monday. He announced plans to visit the Middle East on Sunday and pledged to rebuild the war-torn Gaza. 

“This is a GREAT Day for the Arab and Muslim World, Israel, all surrounding Nations, and the United States of America,” he wrote on his social media platform, Truth Social. “BLESSED ARE THE PEACEMAKERS!”

Netanyahu welcomed Trump’s announcement as “a great day for Israel” and was expected to present the deal before the Cabinet yesterday. However, a prolonged ceasefire threatens to end his political career as he faces multiple corruption cases. But how long can he dabble in deception, and how long can he cling to a genocidal war?

The unfolding development seems too rosy to be true.