Hope ceasefire will hold but people in Gaza waiting for official statement war has stopped
Apart from a couple of attacks in Khan Younis and a fighter jet that just flew at a very low level above the central area of Gaza, but that’s about it, at least in the central area of Gaza. I feel more hopeful that this is going to hold this time.
There is a strong reason and support for this to go forward despite the fact that the Israeli military, every time, its pattern of behaviour, is the last-minute ditch that follows in order to ruin any possible agreement.
But it does seem to be holding this time. We are talking about an announcement; from all the sources we have heard from, it’s an announcement that an agreement has been reached, and we are waiting until it takes effect.
Until that moment, there is something missing here because we want to hear that one statement, like everybody else, that the war has in fact stopped, and we are going, effectively, into phase one of the ceasefire – releasing captives, Palestinian prisoners.
That could pave the way for a more solid feeling that this genocide is coming to an end.
These two years have been very difficult, day in and day out. Very traumatising.
Israel’s US envoy says Hamas to release captives within 72 hours after cabinet meeting
Israel’s ambassador to the US, Yechiel Leiter, said that once Israel’s security cabinet convenes later today – in a meeting in which they will approve a list of Palestinian prisoners for release – there will be a 72-hour countdown for Hamas to release the remaining living Israeli captives from Gaza.
If confirmed, that means the remaining living Israeli captives held in Gaza could be freed on Sunday or Monday.
When speaking with US news network CNN, Leiter also cautioned that while Israel hopes the ceasefire will permanently end the war, that will depend on how well its terms are implemented by Hamas.
“We hope it leads to a complete cessation of hostilities and a rebuilding of Gaza for the sake of the Gazans and for the sake of Israel,” he said.
“But it’s the first stage, and we’ve got to see the first stage implemented completely in the next few days,” Leiter added.
International community should be behind Gaza deal, removing reliance on US, Israel
Noura Erakat, a Palestinian American human rights lawyer and professor at Rutgers University, said “we should be extremely cautious” as the deal relies on the US and Israel for success and not the international community.
“We have enough evidence to demonstrate that there has been no fidelity to any agreements. We saw that the last time that Hamas relied on the United States after the release of Edan Alexander, that no agreement was fulfilled. We also know that Israel has not been held to account to any ceasefire agreement,” Erakat said, noting that Israel unilaterally broke the last ceasefire with Hamas in March 2025.
“So we are in a position right now where everyone is welcoming this because we want children, and all Palestinians, to eat and sleep, to rest for a night without being bombarded in makeshift tents, continuing to burn alive, and not having access to basic medical needs. That is the priority first and foremost,” Erakat said.
“What is really disturbing about this moment, that is welcome because of that cessation of bombardment, is that this should have been a multilateral agreement,” she said.
“This should have been something that the international community ushered through and imposed on both the United States and Israel. That they should have made possible through a united show through international cooperation so that it wasn’t left to the United States and Israel to decide whether or not it was going to succeed,” Erakat said.
That lack of input was a “failure of the international system, which means that not only do Palestinians remain at risk but so do other populations all over the world” who are in similar circumstances, she added.
Yes this is what the UNSC was for, Trump has effectively sidelined international law, likely hoping people will forget about the genocide and annexation of the West Bank / East Jerusalem.
