Peace may be the outcome of small, even faltering, steps. The first phase of the peace initiative stitched by Donald Trump for Gaza that has been agreed to by Israel and Hamas, the outcome of intense parleys among negotiators from different countries in Egypt after Israel slaughtered over 60,000 people in Gaza in a disproportionate — genocidal — retaliation against Hamas’s brutal attack on it in October 2023, is a testament to the importance of incremental steps. Some of the conditions that are likely to be honoured by the warring sides, if the pact is to hold, include Israel’s withdrawal of troops from a pulverised Gaza and Hamas releasing Israeli hostages. Yet it must be acknowledged that the ceasefire stands on tricky, shifting ground. Several thorny issues can, at any moment, lead to the resumption of bloodshed and displacement in Gaza. For instance, Hamas’s complete disarmament, a key element in Mr Trump’s peace plan, remains a contentious prospect. Consensus on the template for the future governance of Gaza remains elusive as well. There is concern about Benjamin Netanyahu’s commitment to peace in Gaza too. This is because his government not only relies on the support of ultranationalist Jews but Mr Netanyahu, mired in judicial proceedings, has also weaponised the conflict for his political survival.

While welcoming Mr Trump’s peace plan, the Indian prime minister, Narendra Modi, complimented Mr Netanyahu. But this may well be the hour of Mr Trump, who has been putting pressure on both Israel and Hamas to come to the negotiating table. Incidentally, the Nobel Peace Prize — the president of the United States of America has been eyeing it for a while — will be announced today. Would Mr Trump, buoyed by his seeming success in the Middle East, proceed to end that other conflict — the Russia-Ukraine war? The realities are rather complicated in this particular context. The tangled, contested histories and territories, the debris of the Cold War, the US’s commitments to NATO, the West’s fears of Russian expansionism and, most of all, Vladimir Putin’s unwillingness to cede territories that he has usurped in Ukraine — he has rubbed Mr Trump the wrong way already by shunning his overtures for peace after the Alaska summit — among other factors, belie the hope for calm on that front. But Mr Trump and the global stakeholders must not abandon this battlefield.