Illustrative image. (Israeli Defense Forces)
After announcing a deal between Israel and Hamas to end the war in the Gaza Strip, United States President Donald Trump said that his plan would promote “peace in the Middle East.”
Trump made the historic announcement on October 8, just over two years after the outbreak of the war in Gaza, saying in a post on Truth Social that Israel and Hamas had signed off on the “first phase” of his plan to release all hostages and end the war.
Later in an interview with “Hannity” on Fox News, Trump said that the whole world come together to push his plan for peace in the Strip.
“The whole world came together, to be honest, so many countries that you wouldn’t have even thought of it, and they came together. The world has come together around this deal, and that’s something I would say that without it, that wouldn’t happen,” he said. “So many countries that you wouldn’t have thought of have wired their best wishes and their commitment to do whatever is necessary. The countries surrounding have all signed, I mean, they’re all signed up, and it’s been, it’s been really an amazing period of time.”
Trump then went on to claim that “this is more than Gaza. This is peace in the Middle East, an incredible thing.” He added that there was a “set of circumstances” that allowed the deal to happen, including the 12-day war with Iran in June, which saw both Israel and the U.S. attacking nuclear facilities in the Islamic Republic.
“Iran was about one month, maybe two months, away from having a nuclear weapon, and if I allowed that to happen, this deal would not have been possible,” he said. “Or if it was, it would have a tremendous cloud over it, because you’d have a country with a nuclear weapon that was not obviously very friendly.”
In a bold claim, Trump said that he believed “Iran is going to be, actually, a part of the whole peace situation” because “countries that frankly didn’t get along, they’re all involved, and it’s brought the whole world together.”
Trump also revealed in the interview that the 48 hostages still held captive in Gaza, including 20 who are believed to be still alive, would “probably be released on Monday [October 13].”
“They [the hostages] are in a terrible situation there. They are deep, deep in the earth,” Trump said, referring to the Hamas tunnels under Gaza. “As we speak, so much is happening to get the hostages freed.”
Before the hostages are released, Israel will withdraw troops from most of Gaza. The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) announced on October 9 that it had begun preparations for the withdrawal.
In a statement, the military said that “per the directives of the political echelon and in accordance with a situation assessment, the IDF has begun operational preparations for the implementation of the agreement.”
“The IDF continues to be deployed in the area and is preparing for any operational development,” it added.
In addition to the withdrawal, a top official within Hamas told AFP that Israel will release nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners in exchange for the living hostages.
Exactly at 12:00 p.m. local time, a ceasefire in Gaza entered into effect, signaling commitment by both Israel and Hamas to the agreement.
As of October 9, the Israeli war on Gaza has claimed the lives of 67,183 Palestinians with more than 169,841 others wounded. On the Israeli side, 2,079 people have been killed and more than 13,500 others have been wounded.
The current agreement covers only the first phase of Trump’s plan. In later phases, the plan demands the disarmament of Hamas, the complete withdrawal of the IDF from Gaza, and placing the Strip under the control of a new Palestinian authority with international supervision. Talks on later phases will likely start shortly.
Trump’s optimism about a wider peace in the Middle East after the end of the war in Gaza is not, of course, without a reason.
Syria has been in talks with Israel for months. While a peace deal between the two countries remains far off, they could sign a security agreement shortly after the first phase of the Gaza deal is completed. Hebrew and Arab media reports from September, before the final talks on Gaza, indicate that the agreement was already nearly complete.
Alongside Syria, Saudi Arabia could also use the end of the war in Gaza to renew its push to normalize with Israel. Preventing a peace deal between the kingdom and Israel was reportedly one of the motives behind the Hamas-led October 7 surprise attack from Gaza that started the war in 20123.
The situation for Lebanon is very different, however. Peace in Gaza will allow Israel to shift its focus back towards Hezbollah. After withdrawing from most of the Strip, the IDF will have enough assets to renew the war in Lebanon with a large-scale ground operation.
The Lebanese government has been responding to pressure from the U.S. and Israel positively, even passing an official plan to disarm Hezbollah in September. Still, there has been no progress in this regard, with the group refusing to give up its weapons. A ceasefire brokered by Washington in November also remains one-sided, with the IDF launching strikes against Lebanon on a near-daily basis.
Taking everything into account, Lebanon is definitely now closer to a war with Israel than to a peace deal, or even a limited security agreement like Syria.
Meanwhile in Yemen, the Houthis, who have been waging a campaign of missile and drone strikes against Israel-linked shipping and the country itself in response to the war on Gaza, could de-esclate. Israel, however, may step up operations against Yemen because, as already explained, the IDF will have more assets on hand with the war over in the Strip.
As for Iran, Trump seems too optimistic. The chances of the Islamic Republic joining any peace efforts are non-existent. Meanwhile, a new Israeli attack on Iran remains very likely. In fact, recent U.S. military movements in the Middle East indicate that an Israeli-American attack may be in the making.
By saying that Iran could join peace, Trump may be in fact hinting at a regime change in Tehran. While this seems too wild of an idea, the same can be said about the first attack on the Islamic Republic in June.
All in all, the end of the war in Gaza will offer a chance for peace, but that’s only for countries who were not involved in a conflict with Israel in the first place. For those who stood with Hamas, like Iran, Hezbollah and the Houthis, war seems much closer.
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without the russian nonsense that lasted 14 years, when putin used syria the training ground to train his men for an attack on ukraine, hts would have been overthrown in a year, as happened in egypt with the morsi government.
putin is a traitor and because of his betrayal, syria is now a wahhabi den that will inevitably threaten the security of china and india.
when the uyghurs strike, i only hope that china strikes back and strikes hard enough to make syria disappear.
mia when will we get mia-front.org?
they create a desert and call it peace. if anyone thinks the jooz will abide by the terms of any agreement, i’ve got a bridge to sell them. people need to be aware that the jooz are taking over the whole of the media, tik tok, cbs, everything. shabbos chumpo is giving tik tok to his joo buddy ellison, to go with all the rest of the joo media, jootube, joobook. the whole of the media is owned by 6 zio billionaires. people need to be aware that every piece of news and information
they receive is censored and controlled by joo gatekeepers and joo stooges like musk. they will just peddle hasbara lies 24/7.
zionism cannot exist in peace. it is land theft, pedophilia, murder and arrogance nonstop. any “peace” deal peddle by ussa is fake and there is trojan horse involved
israel getting gang banged by an 8 front war, the whore of babylon needs needs a rest according to her pimp