The US-brokered ceasefire in Gaza has halted two years of bloodshed, but analysts warn it will only hold if President Donald Trump, his administration and key Middle Eastern mediators remain deeply invested in preventing the conflict from reigniting.
Neither Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu nor Hamas readily agreed to the truce. Rather, observers say they were compelled to comply by Trump and the coordinated efforts of Qatar, Egypt and Turkey.
“They are invested in the ceasefire and prisoner exchange and, for the Palestinians, an influx into Gaza of urgently needed humanitarian aid,” said Barbara Slavin, distinguished Middle East fellow of the Stimson Centre, a Washington-based think tank.
“The rest of the ‘deal’ is much more uncertain,” she told This Week In Asia.
Otherwise, Netanyahu and Hamas have not backed down from their hardened positions on the issues that will ultimately determine the final outcome of the war: Israel’s continued military occupation of much of the Gaza Strip and Hamas’ desire to keep fighting it.
“Both are engaged but hedging,” said Andreas Krieg, an associate professor of defence studies at King’s College London.
