THERE is a ceasefire finally in effect in the Gaza Strip, where Israel launched a horrific military campaign in response to attacks on the country’s south on Oct. 7, 2023. On that day, Hamas fighters and their fellow militants assaulted Israeli settlements and fortified military outposts. They killed around 1,200 people, and over 251 others were taken hostage, brought to Gaza, and hidden in underground tunnels. About 300 of those killed were Israeli soldiers.
Hamas claims that the attacks were in retaliation for Israel’s brutal and unjust occupation of Palestine. Gaza’s boundaries were drawn up as a result of the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, when it was occupied by Egypt. Egyptian forces were driven out of Gaza in the 1967 Six-Day War and the Strip was occupied by Israel, which then built settlements and placed the enclave’s Palestinian population under military rule.
The release of 20 Israeli hostages who are still alive and the return of about 20 dead is a key demand of Israel in the ceasefire agreement. Since Israeli forces launched its retaliatory campaign in October 2023, at least 887 Israeli soldiers have been killed as of July 2025. The number of dead or wounded Hamas fighters is unknown.
The first phase of the peace agreement includes a total end to the fighting; the release of all remaining Israeli hostages, living or dead; and the release of a large number of Palestinian prisoners in exchange. Also, there will be a partial withdrawal of Israeli forces to an already agreed-upon yellow line and more than 400 trucks of humanitarian aid a day to enter Gaza. An international group will monitor the ceasefire. The second stage of the agreement is under negotiation.
The question now is: can Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his far-right ministers be trusted to maintain the ceasefire, or will they invent excuses or make impossible demands to break it, as they did in the previous truce after 33 hostages were released? Their aim is to continue the war and destroy Gaza to make it uninhabitable and kill all Hamas fighters, drive out the Palestinians, and make the territory a part of Israel.
Israel’s nonstop bombing of Gaza has killed at least 67,000 Palestinians. That is one in every 33 people. But many more bodies — perhaps, a thousand or more — lie buried under the rubble of collapsed buildings that Israel destroyed.
Most of Gaza — about 41 kilometers by 10 kilometers wide, and located on the eastern Mediterranean Sea — is where 2.1 million people are on the edge of starvation, if not already starving. Most of Gaza has been destroyed by Israeli bombing. The United Nations Satellite Center identified 192,812 seriously damaged structures as of July 2025, which translate to 78 percent of all buildings in Gaza at the time. Over 436,000 homes have been damaged or destroyed. (To be continued)/PN
