5 d. ago This isn’t a real ceasefire in Gaza – it’s a holding pattern before war returns | Sanam Vakil

Israel’s airstrikes have exposed the fragility of Trump’s ‘peace plan’. Without international support, it risks crumbling altogether Israel’s recent airstrikes in Gaza, which have killed more than 100 people, show just how fragile this arrangement truly is. This is not the first violation since it came into effect on 10 October, but rather one of many over past weeks – showcasing that without stronger enforcement mechanisms and determined planning this is a ceasefire in name only.According to Israel, this round of violence resulted from Hamas fire against IDF forces in Rafah, an area still under Israeli control, resulting in the death of an IDF reservist. Hamas has denied involvement. Israel responded with additional strikes on Gaza City and Khan Younis. With each side interpreting violations to suit its own interests, the ceasefire’s vague structure leaves a wide margin for miscalculation and opportunism.Sanam Vakil is a senior research fellow in the Middle East and North Africa pr...

Events

9 d. ago The war in Gaza is supposed to be over. But be warned: without truth and justice, it will never truly end | Simon Tisdall

A fragile ceasefire is in place, but what’s needed is an international tribunal for resolution and reparation. That’s the only route to lasting peaceDonald Trump insists the war in Gaza is over. No, it isn’t. The violence is much reduced. Yet Israeli forces have reportedly killed about 100 Palestinians and wounded hundreds more since the 10 October ceasefire began. Food aid supplies are still heavily restricted. The occupation continues, in Gaza and the West Bank. US officials fear prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his accomplices may renege on the deal, as in the past.Likewise, Hamas elements and rival gangs have kept fighting. The terrorist group is not disarming; Israeli forces have not fully withdrawn to the agreed lines. US-framed security, governance and reconstruction proposals remain vague, hypothetical and contentious. The war’s root causes, principally the denial of Palestinian sovereignty and statehood, are not addressed. Unless that changes, it will all kick off agai...

Events

2 w. ago ‘Never seen something so extreme’: Palestinian woman nearly clubbed to death by Jewish settler

Afaf Abu Alia, 55, known locally as Umm Saleh, was clubbed over the head on Sunday and has been taken to hospital where she is recovering

Events

2 w. ago Hamas’s aim to retain authority in Gaza involves keeping the guns

With no law, order or any alternative administration under the ceasefire, the group is using violence to deter rivalsThroughout Israel’s two-year war in Gaza, aid officials working in the territory avoided naming Hamas in conversations they suspected might be intercepted, instead referring to the militant Islamist group as the “de facto authority”.This careful euphemism for Hamas, which violently seized power in 2007, captured an important truth. Though the group was a less obvious presence in the last months of the conflict, in the absence of any alternative, it remained the closest the increasingly devastated territory had to a ruler. Continue reading...

Culture

3 w. ago The West Bank's dwindling Palestinian Christian communities, in photos

Christians who are proudly Palestinian and live in the occupied West Bank continue to find hope in Sunday worship as they wish for independence and peace in the Holy Land, even as they struggle with growing violence from Israeli settlers, restrictions on daily life imposed by Israel and fears of growing Islamist radicalization. The village of Taybeh is entirely Christian — Catholics of the Roman and Greek Melkite rites and Greek Orthodox.

Culture

last month A ‘magic pill’ made Israeli violence invisible. We need to stop swallowing it | Diana Buttu

For years, I pressed Palestinian interests in peace talks. The response to Trump’s plan proves the international community hasn’t learned from catastropheFor two years, the world has watched as Israel has systematically destroyed the Gaza Strip, killing tens of thousands of Palestinians and maiming an untold number more. As dangerously, Israel continues to methodically target the healthcare, education, water and sewage systems to ensure that life cannot resume in the Gaza Strip.Western governments’ responses to Israel’s actions have ranged from cheerleading and unconditional support in the first year of Israel’s attack on Gaza after 7 October 2023, followed by statements of concern and handwringing, to, more recently, occasional expressions of consternation and empty threats that continued Israeli attacks may, at some unspecified time, lead to an arms embargo or a drop in trade relations. In the last few months, there have also been the greatly celebrated proclamations of conditiona...

Politics