Foreign Policy provides some needed clarity on Gaza:
More than 20 world leaders gathered in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, on Monday for a summit focused on ending the war in Gaza. Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi described the conference as bringing “a single message to mankind: Enough war. Welcome to peace.”
The summit followed a landmark hostage and prisoner exchange. Yet the emotional scenes as people returned to Israel, Gaza, and the West Bank represent only the end of the initial phase of U.S. President Donald Trump’s 20-point peace plan. (“The phases are all a little bit mixed in with each other,” he conceded in Egypt.) At the end of Monday’s gathering, Trump signed a document with the leaders of Turkey, Egypt, and Qatar—though there weren’t any Israeli and Palestinian representatives present and it is unclear what the document said.
What comes next is even hazier. Michael J. Koplow writes that the deal forces three reckonings that will shape Israel’s future. For Gaza, which lies in ruins, the damage is hard to comprehend: More than 67,000 Palestinians were killed in 700-plus days of war. Just before the cease-fire began, FP’s John Haltiwanger spoke with Mathieu Bichet, a deputy medical director at Médecins Sans Frontières, about the myriad challenges of reconstruction.
Trump remains central to the question of governance in Gaza—if frustratingly opaque as to his intentions. The U.S. president is nominally director of the so-called Board of Peace proposed by the cease-fire agreement, but on Monday, he seemed to hedge, noting that he has many other commitments. As major issues such as Hamas’s disarmament remain unresolved, Palestinians face a dilemma, Omar H. Rahman writes: “Every concession made by Hamas is irreversible, while every concession made by Israel can be undone.”
He said he spoke with Hamas today and they’re totally ready to disarm so it’s all good. Trump Gaza Resort is on the way!
I’m sure they had tears in their eyes.