Amid rare celebrations, the Middle East marked the Gaza peace agreement that could herald an end to one of the most horrific wars humankind has witnessed in recent years. Twenty Israeli hostages held by Hamas and other Palestinian militant groups returned home two years after they were captured, to tears, smiles, dancing and prayers across Israel. Hundreds of Palestinian prisoners — many of them children — held by Israel in its jails, often behind bars without ever being charged, were also released, though Israel has insisted that several of them be sent into exile. Meanwhile, Donald Trump, the president of the United States of America who pushed the peace plan through, soaked in the gratitude — some genuine, some an act — from a region and a world that for the most part have desperately wanted Israel’s war on Gaza to end. Mr Trump addressed Israel’s Parliament to rapturous applause from legislators. Then, he was at the centre of a grand ceremony in Egypt attended by over two dozen world leaders, many of whom personally thanked the US president for a peace agreement that has long evaded the world.
Yet, for the collective sigh of relief that the Middle East has heaved to transform into long-term peace, regional and global powers need to address a series of challenges that could still unravel the agreement signed on Monday. Hamas has agreed to stay out of office in Gaza in the future, but has not yet agreed to disarm, as Mr Trump’s 20-point peace plan has demanded. Israel has opposed a future role for the moderate Palestinian Authority in the governance of Gaza even though that is what Mr Trump’s plan envisages. Israel has also not committed to amnesty for Hamas members who agree to give up arms as Mr Trump’s plan outlines. And, most crucially, Mr Trump’s peace plan is non-committal on a future Palestinian nation-state as part of a two-state solution despite that being the position of most of the world. Without a credible pathway to that Palestinian state, any apparent peace in Gaza will be accompanied by what will effectively be a continued occupation. A board governing Gaza, led by Mr Trump, can never be a substitute for the sovereign right of Palestinians to be
ruled by people they elect themselves. Amid this week’s celebrations, the world must not lose sight of that reality.