United Nations human rights chief Volker Turk has denounced Israelโs attack on Gaza and called on the international community to not waste this โopportunity for peace and a path towards a more just and secure futureโ.
โReports that over 100 Palestinians were killed overnight in a wave of Israeli air strikes โ mainly on residential buildings, IDP tents and schools across the Gaza Strip following the death of an Israeli soldier โ are appalling,โ he said in a statement.
โThe laws of war are very clear on the paramount importance of protecting civilians and civilian infrastructure.โ
Turk urged Israel to comply with its obligations under international humanitarian law and to be held accountable for any violations.
โIt is distressing that these killings occurred just as the long-suffering population of Gaza started to feel there was hope that the unrelenting barrage of violence may be at an end,โ he said.
Turk also called on all parties to the war to act in good faith and implement the ceasefire.
On October 4th, 2025, in an interview with Axios, President Trump stressed that one of the main goals behind his Gaza plan was to restore Israelโs international standing. โBibi took it very far and Israel lost a lot of support in the world,โ Trump said. โNow I am gonna get all that support back.โ
Under Trumpโs plan, a supposed ceasefire took effect on October 10th. But Israel only withdrew from less than half of the Gaza strip, and killed at least 93 people in the next two weeks, after killing at least that many per day for the previous two years. Israel has only allowed 15% of the humanitarian aid called for in the plan to enter Gaza, and has kept the critical Rafah crossing from Egypt into Gaza closed. The daily life-and-death struggle to find food, water and shelter carries on unabated for two million people in Gaza.
While the reduction in the daily scale of Israelโs mass murder is obviously welcome, this is not a real ceasefire. Like previous Israeli ceasefires in Gaza, as in Lebanon, this is a one-sided ceasefire that Israel violates at will, on a daily basis, with no accountability.
This is only the first part of Trumpโs plan for Gaza, and there is still no agreement on the other parts, such as the disarmament of Hamas, who provide the only government and police force in Gaza. They now have the added job of protecting their people from Israel-backed criminal gangs and death squads, some with links to ISIS, who prey on them from the Israeli-occupied areas, stealing aid supplies, assassinating local leaders and terrorizing the population.
Hamas is obviously not going to disarm under these conditions, and previously said it would only surrender its weapons once Palestine has an internationally recognized government with its own armed forces. On the other side, Israel has not agreed to other parts of Trumpโs plan, such as its withdrawal from the rest of Gaza, nor to any plan for the future of Palestine.
In the United States, where corrupt politicians and corporate media take U.S. and Israeli lies at face value or even repeat them as statements of fact, some may believe that Trumpโs plan has resolved the crisis in Palestine. The rest of the world is not so naive or easy to manipulate, but many other governments are also beholden to oligarchies that profit from trade, investment and arms deals with Israel, even as the public in those same countries reels in shock at Israelโs mass murder of Palestinians and U.S.-backed impunity for its crimes.
Trumpโs Gaza plan, like much of his foreign policy, cynically exploits the greed and fear of political leaders and their oligarch patrons. Admitting that Israel has โlost a lot of support in the world,โ he offers a shortcut back to โbusiness as usualโ for governments eager to protect โ and even expand โ profitable ties despite Israelโs ongoing atrocities and open contempt for international law.
In his first term, Trump brokered the โAbraham Accords,โ normalization deals between Israel and Bahrain, the UAE, Morocco, and Sudan that included mutual recognition and expanded trade. He now has his eye on the big prize: Saudi Arabia.
But Arab-Israeli relations have long been contested. In the 1949 UN General Assembly vote on Israelโs admission, all Arab and Muslim countries except Turkiye (which abstained) voted against recognizing the state of Israel. Thirty-two mostly Arab and Muslim countries, including some of its closest neighbors, still either donโt recognize Israel or have no diplomatic relations with it.
Despite decades of hostility, Trump persuaded Israel and some of these countries to support his Gaza plan with the promise of future benefits from normalization and trade. But there is still a gaping chasm between Israel and these Arab and Muslim countries over Palestine. They say they will not recognize Israel unless Israel recognizes Palestine, with full sovereignty over East Jerusalem, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.
But the foundational basis of Netanyahuโs Likud Party is its plan for a Greater Israel, to be formed by annexing all of occupied Palestine โbetween the sea and the Jordan.โ And on October 22, during Vice President Vanceโs visit to Israel, the Knesset voted in favor of annexing the West Bank.
Trump unveiled his Gaza plan at the very end of the UN General Assemblyโs annual high-level meeting in New York, where many world leaders spoke out for much stronger international action against Israel. The New York Declaration, which 142 countries voted for, was the result of a conference in July led by France and Saudi Arabia that promised โconcrete, timebound, coordinated actionโ to enforce a ruling by the international Court of Justice (ICJ) in 2024 that the Israeli occupation of Palestine is illegal and must be ended โas quickly as possible.โ
Trumpโs initiative temporarily upstaged and marginalized calls for further action at the UN. But on October 22nd, the ICJ issued a new ruling strongly condemning Israelโs use of starvation as a weapon of war in Gaza, and ruling that, as an occupying power, Israel must ensure that the โbasic needsโ of the population are met, including food, water, fuel, shelter and medicine. The court also ruled that Israel must permit UN staff working for UNRWA to do their work in Gaza, after Israel provided no evidence to the court for its claim that UN staff were members of Hamas or took part in its October 2023 incursion into Israel.
In the wake of the ICJ decision, Norway said it would introduce a resolution in the UN General Assembly to enforce the Courtโs directives, including ensuring the full amount of aid reaches Gaza. Humanitarian advocates hope that this resolution will be introduced in an Emergency Special Session under the โUniting For Peaceโ option, enabling the UN to deliver the โconcrete, timebound, coordinated actionโ it promised in July โ potentially including sanctions such as an arms embargo and targeted trade and investment measures that should take effect within days if Israel continues to block aid.
Trump plainly intended his plan to close the book on Israelโs crimes โ and on U.S. complicity โ and to inaugurate a new phase: normalization of the occupation and Israelโs diplomatic rehabilitation. Yet even before the ICJ condemned Israelโs starvation policy, people worldwide were already mobilizing, urging their governments not to let Israel off the hook.
In Europe, momentum for accountability continues to build. As the British parliament debates a new pensions law, an amendment has been submitted to divest local government pension funds from companies that are complicit in the illegal Israeli occupation of Palestine. Many local councils in the U.K. have already passed individual ordinances to do this, but the amendment to the pensions law would force all of them to divest the $16 billion that their pension funds still have invested in those firms.
In September, the European Union (EU) announced plans to suspend its 25-year-old free trade agreement with Israel and impose sanctions on extremist Israeli cabinet members and settler leaders. On October 20th, it โpausedโ these steps in response to Trumpโs plan, but EU leaders immediately faced strong push-back on that decision.
Over 400 former senior diplomats and officials signed a statement that the EU must take robust action โagainst spoilers and extremistsโ who would jeopardize โthe establishment of a future Palestinian state,โ noting that Trumpโs plan only vaguely addressed that goal. International lawyers advised EU leaders that EU policy must comply with the 2024 ICJ ruling that the Israeli occupation is illegal and must be ended as quickly as possible.
Individual European countries, including Belgium, the Netherlands, Slovenia and Spain, already ban imports from illegal Israeli settlements in Palestine, and Ireland is currently debating a similar trade ban in its Occupied Territories Bill, which should get a final vote by January. The original bill would only affect trade in goods, but activists want trade in services included in the ban, while powerful business interests, including U.S. tech firms with European headquarters in Ireland, are lobbying to kill the bill altogether. It should help that Irelandโs newly elected president, Catherine Connolly, is a strong supporter of Palestine.
In stark contrast to much of the world, which is still grappling with the contradictions of Trumpโs Gaza plan and Israelโs ongoing unlawful occupation, U.S. officials are already trying to turn the page โ moving to fortify and expand Washingtonโs military alliance with Israel.
This alliance is renewed and updated every ten years in a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the two governments, which would normally be negotiated in 2026, before the previous MOU expires in 2028.
Thereโs already a bipartisan bill in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee (S.554) to initiate this process, titled โUnited States-Israel Defense Partnership Act of 2025,โ authorizing joint projects with Israel under categories like โcountering unmanned systemsโฆ anti-tunnel cooperationโฆ (and) war reserves stockpile authority.โ
Conspicuously absent from this policy review is any debate over U.S. complicity in Gazaโs destructionโa debate that should come first and set the terms for any serious re-examination of the U.S.-Israel alliance.
On October 20th, Francesca Albanese, the UN Special Rapporteur on Palestinian human rights, released a new report titled โGaza Genocide: a Collective Crime.โ Here is the summary of her report:
โThe ongoing genocide in Gaza is a collective crime, sustained by the complicity of influential Third States that have enabled longstanding systemic violations of international law by Israel. Framed by colonial narratives that dehumanize the Palestinians, this live-streamed atrocity has been facilitated through Third Statesโ direct support, material aid, diplomatic protection and, in some cases, active participation. It has exposed an unprecedented chasm between peoples and their governments, betraying the trust on which global peace and security rest. The world now stands on a knife-edge between the collapse of the international rule of law and hope for renewal. Renewal is only possible if complicity is confronted, responsibilities are met and justice is upheld.โ
We urge all members of the Senate and House Foreign Relations Committees to read the UN report and to invite UN experts to testify at hearings on U.S. complicity and participation in war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide in Palestine.
To move ahead with consideration of a new MOU or any arms transfers with Israel without first conducting such a serious and objective policy review would only serve to perpetuate the endless wars that all our leaders, including President Trump, keep telling us they want to end.
My Home, My Home! New York Cesar Chelala My home, I want to come back to my home I donโt care how broken it stands; I just want a single wall and I will rebuild it, says the old man, a grandfather of three sons, five grandchildren โI want to restart my family,โ he pleads –he doesnโt know, he cannot knowโ that both his house and his family no longer exist. He sits by the roadside, on a rock beneath a silent sky, and weeps. Exhausted, he curls into sleep, a small bag –all his belongings– clutched to his chest. Yet he is a man of resolve. He will go back and start all over again, but he will have to do it alone, the last survivor of a vanished home. So many dreams crushed, so many lives that are no more.
Cesar Chelala, a New York writer, is a co-winner of an Overseas Press Club of America award, and two national journalism awards from Argentina. Illustration by Paola Bilancieri
According to Haaretz, the US expects to be notified before Israel launches any major airstrikes in Gaza
by Dave DeCamp, Antiwar. com, October 23, 2025 at 8:47 pm ET
Secretary of State Marco Rubio arrived in Israel on Thursday, making him the fourth Trump administration official to meet with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu this week and push for Israel to comply with the Gaza ceasefire deal, which Israeli media is referring to as โBibi-sitting.โ
โ[T]he President has made this a top priority, I think as evidenced by the fact that both Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner were here for much of the week โฆ and the Vice President just left,โ Rubio told reporters after meeting with Netanyahu.
โIโm here now today because this is a priority. Itโs a very important achievement, but thereโs more work to be done and bigger achievements that lie ahead. And so weโre here to work on that, and we feel very positive and confident that weโre going to get there despite substantial obstacles,โ he added. Secretary of State Marco Rubio shakes hands with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu following their meeting at the Prime Ministerโs office in Jerusalem, October 23, 2025. Fadel Senna/Pool via REUTERS
The New York Times reported on Wednesday that, according to several Trump officials, there is concern within the administration that Netanyahu may quit the ceasefire deal and that the strategy is for senior US officials to prevent him from restarting the full-scale bombing campaign in Gaza.
Israel has been violating the deal by not allowing a sufficient number of aid trucks to enter Gaza, and it has continued attacks on Palestinians, killing at least 89 since the ceasefire went into effect, including one over the past day, according to Gazaโs Health Ministry. The US appears to be tolerating the current situation but wants to prevent Israel from launching major airstrikes on Gaza, like the attacks that were seen this past Sunday.
The Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported on Thursday that the US expects to be notified in advance before the IDF โconducts any exceptional military strikes in the Gaza Strip, including airstrikes.โ
The report said: โIsraeli defense sources say that the Americans are not yet presenting this as a demand for a green light from them before any military action. But, in practice, they are making it very clear that they will not tolerate any more Israeli surprises that would jeopardize the cease-fire.โ
Report shows how 63 states, largely European, sustained the genocide against Palestinians while Arab states failed to take โdecisive actionโ
Special rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territories Francesca Albanese speaks during a press conference at the Nelson Mandela Foundation in Johannesburg, South Africa, on 22 October (Wikus de Wet/AFP)
Published date: 22 October 2025 22:01 BST | Last update:18 hours 3 mins ago
A new United Nations report reveals that more than 60 countries are complicit in the “collective crime” of enabling Israel’s genocide against the Palestinians in Gaza.
An advanced version of the report by UN special rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territories, Francesca Albanese, was made available on Monday.
In her second report this year, Albanese called the genocide a โcollective crime, sustained by the complicity of influential Third States that have enabled longstanding systemic violations of international law by Israel”.
“Framed by colonial narratives that dehumanize the Palestinians, this livestreamed atrocity has been facilitated through Third Statesโ direct support, material aid, diplomatic protection and, in some cases, active participation.”
The report shows that without the support of mostly European countries, Israel would not have been able to sustain its full-pronged assault on Gaza.
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She categorised the support into four main categories: diplomatic, military, economic and humanitarian.
No ‘decisive action’ from Arab states
Albanese argues that diplomatic immunity for Israel and failure to hold it to account for violating international laws, particularly in the West, has allowed it to continue its genocide with impunity.
The report says this took place through western media and political discourse, which โparroted Israeli narrativesโ and failed to distinguish between Hamas and Palestinian civilians, and drew on colonial tropes of Israelโs right to defend itself as a “civilised” nation against “savages”.
Albanese highlighted that the US used its UN Security Council veto power seven times to control ceasefire negotiations and provide diplomatic cover for the genocide. But she notes that the US did not act alone. It was helped by abstentions and delays, as well as watered-down draft resolutions from the UK, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Germany, and the Netherlands.
All of these actions helped stymy concrete actions while creating โan illusion of progressโ.
Jewish and Israeli figures urge world leaders to act over โunconscionableโ Israeli acts in Gaza
While she noted that Arab and Muslim states support the Palestinian cause, they failed to take โdecisive actionโ and some regional players โfacilitated land routes to Israel, bypassing the Red Seaโ. Egypt continued to maintain relations with Israel, including energy cooperation and closing the Rafah crossing.
She highlighted notable failures with regard to international courts, including the fact that most western countries failed to support South Africa or Nicaragua before the ICJ and continue to deny that Israel has committed genocide, as well as uphold the ICJโs ruling on the illegality of Israelโs occupation of Palestine.
In addition, her report says that most western countries have undermined the arrest warrants the ICC issued against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other members of the government. Instead, the US has imposed sanctions on the ICC, and the UK has threatened to pull its funding.
Unfettered military support
Despite UN resolutions calling for arms embargoes on Israel since 1976, the report notes that many countries supplied it with military support and arms transfers throughout its genocide, and described the US, Germany, and Italy as โamong the largest suppliersโ.
The US currently guarantees $3.3bn per year in Foreign Military Financing (FMF) and, until 2028, an additional $500m per year for missile defence.
She highlighted the key role that the UK has played in military cooperation with Israel and reported on more than 600 surveillance flights over Israel and intelligence-sharing with its government, which she said suggests โcooperation in the destruction of Gazaโ.
Albanese said 26 states sent at least 10 consignments of โarms and ammunitionโ – the most frequent being China (including Taiwan), India, Italy, Austria, Spain, Czechia, Romania, and France.
Cambridge University to consider divesting from arms industry amid Gaza protests
She said 19 countries, 17 of which have ratified the Arms Trade Treaty, were complicit in supplying components and parts for the โF-35 stealth strike fighter programmeโ that was key to the military assault in Gaza. These include Australia; Belgium; Canada; the Czech Republic; Denmark; Finland; Germany; Greece; Italy; Japan; the Netherlands; Norway; Poland; South Korea; Romania; Singapore; Switzerland; the UK; and the US. Some of these countries continue to supply parts.
While the Arms Trade Treaty does not recognise a distinction between โdefensiveโ or โnon-lethalโ arms sales, some countries used these terms to justify arms trade to Israel.
Some countries, such as Italy, the Netherlands, Ireland, France, and Morocco, permitted the transfer of weapons through their ports and airports.
She noted that Spain and Slovenia had cancelled contracts and imposed embargoes.
Other states continued to buy weapons and military technology produced by Israel, which the report says has been tested on Palestinians under occupation. Exports to the EU more than doubled during Israelโs war on Gaza and accounted for 54 percent of Israeli military exports in 2024. Exports to Asia and the Pacific and Arab countries under the Abraham Accords made up 23 and 12 percent of exports, respectively.
In addition, the report states that thousands of US, Russian, French, Ukrainian, and British citizens who have served in the Israeli military have enjoyed immunity and have failed to be investigated or prosecuted for war crimes in Gaza.
Economic ties and aid
The report says that states’ maintenance of normal trade relations with Israel โlegitimizes and sustains the Israeli apartheid regimeโ.
While Israelโs international trade in goods and services decreased from 61 percent of its GDP in 2022 to 54 percent in 2024, Albanese noted the European Union (Israelโs largest trading partner) continued to provide almost a third of total trade to Israel for the last two years.
Some European countries increased their trade with Israel during the genocide against the Palestinians, such as Germany, Poland, Greece, Italy, Denmark, France, and Serbia.
Gulf states won’t reconstruct Gaza without political settlement, former Jordanian foreign minister says
Arab countries, such as the UAE, Egypt, Jordan and Morocco, also increased their trade.
Only Turkey suspended trade with Israel in May 2024, although Albanese reported some trade continued indirectly.
Albanese said that before the 7 October 2023 Hamas-led attacks on southern Israel, most Palestinians were dependent on aid, with the United Nations relief and works agency for Palestine refugees (Unrwa) providing the bedrock of that aid.
Albanese pointed out that when Israel alleged Unrwa staff were involved in the Hamas-led attacks without citing evidence, 18 states immediately suspended funding without investigating Israel’s claims.
Despite inconclusive investigations, most donors took months to resume contributions to Unwra. The US, its largest donor, passed a law prohibiting US funding to Unwra. When the Israeli Knesset outlawed Unrwa, only a few states took action by seeking an ICJ Advisory Opinion.
The report accuses countries like Canada, the UK, Belgium, Denmark, and Jordan of being distracted from the key issue by parachuting aid in, a move she says was both dangerous and ineffective.
Albanese, who has been one of the most vocal and forceful critics of Israelโs conduct in Gaza throughout its two-year genocide, said that complicit states perpetuate โcolonial and racial-capitalist practices that should have long been consigned to historyโ.
โEven as the genocidal violence became visible, States, mostly Western ones, have provided, and continue to provide, Israel with military, diplomatic, economic and ideological support, even as it weaponized famine and humanitarian aid,โ she said.
โThe horrors of the past two years are not an aberration, but the culmination of a long history of complicity.”
According to a report from The New York Times, the opposite is true, as regional countries are hesitant to send a peacekeeping force into Gaza
by Dave DeCamp, Antiwar. com, October 21, 2025 at 6:22 pm ET
President Trump claimed on Tuesday that many of the USโs allies in the Middle East are willing to send a force into Gaza to fight Hamas, a claim that came as The New York Times reported that regional countries are hesitant to be part of a peacekeeping force in Gaza over fears of potential clashes with Hamas.
โNumerous of our NOW GREAT ALLIES in the Middle East, and areas surrounding the Middle East, have explicitly and strongly, with great enthusiasm, informed me that they would welcome the opportunity, at my request, to go into GAZA with a heavy force and โstraighten our Hamasโ if Hamas continues to act badly, in violation of their agreement with us,โ the president wrote on Truth Social.
While Trump claims Hamas has been violating the ceasefire, he has been silent on Israeli violations, which include continued attacks in Gaza and restrictions on aid entering the Strip. President Donald Trump poses with the signed agreement at a world leadersโ summit on ending the Gaza war in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, October 13, 2025. Yoan Valat/Pool via REUTERS
โThe love and spirit for the Middle East has not been seen like this in a thousand years! It is a beautiful thing to behold! I told these countries, and Israel, โNOT YET!โ There is still hope that Hamas will do what is right. If they do not, an end to Hamas will be FAST, FURIOUS, & BRUTAL!โ Trump said in his post.
The president didnโt mention any countries that were willing to send troops to fight Hamas, but thanked Indonesia in his post for its willingness to be involved in the ceasefire process. โAlso, I would like to thank the great and powerful country of Indonesia, and its wonderful leader, for all of the help they have shown and given to the Middle East, and to the U.S.A. TO EVERYONE, thank you for your attention to this matter!โ he said.
The New York Times report said that representatives of countries that are expected to be a part of a future peacekeeping force in Gaza have said privately that they will not commit troops until there is more clarity on what theyโre expected to do. Their main concern is that they donโt want their troops to be expected to fight Hamas on Israelโs behalf.
The Times report said that recent discussions on the potential for deploying troops to Gaza have included Egypt, Indonesia, Turkey, and Azerbaijan. Israel has expressed opposition to the idea of a Turkish presence. Vice President JD Vance was asked about Israelโs position on the potential of Turkish troops being sent to Gaza and said the US wouldnโt โforceโ anything on Israel.
At least 44 Palestinians killed in Israeli strikes in Gaza on Sunday despite ceasefire
Abdelraouf Arnaout, Rania Abu Shamala, AA. com, 20.10.2025
Israeli premier says 153 tons of bombs dropped on Gaza, admits breach of ceasefire deal Israel begins a series of attacks across Gaza despite the ceasefire, and thick smoke rises from the eastern part of Khan Yunis, Gaza, following the attacks, on October 19, 2025.
JERUSALEM/ISTANBUL
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu boasted Monday that his army struck the Gaza Strip on Sunday with 153 tons of bombs, in what amounts to an admission of violating a ceasefire agreement.
Speaking at the opening of the Knessetโs winter session, Netanyahu faced repeated interruptions from opposition lawmakers protesting his governmentโs policies and its deliberate prolonging of the Israeli war in Gaza.
โDuring the ceasefire, two soldiers fellโฆ We struck them with 153 tons of bombs and attacked dozens of targets across the Gaza Strip,โ he said.
The Gaza government media office reported 80 Israeli ceasefire violations since the US-sponsored agreement came into effect on Oct. 10, resulting in 97 Palestinians killed, including 44 on Sunday alone, and 230 others injured.
Tel Aviv alleged that Hamas had attacked its forces in the southern city of Rafah. The Palestinian group has denied any involvement and reaffirmed its commitment to the ceasefire agreement.
The ceasefire deal was announced on Oct. 10, based on a phased plan presented by US President Donald Trump. Phase one included the release of Israeli hostages in exchange for Palestinian prisoners.
The plan also envisages the rebuilding of Gaza and the establishment of a new governing mechanism without Hamas.
Since October 2023, the Israeli genocidal war has killed over 68,200 people and injured more than 170,200, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.
Oh what a surprise, Goes to Marรญa Corina Machado A supporter of Trump and Bolsonaro, A woman who supports Netanyahu A wanted war criminal. Whatโs wrong with this Norwegian team, It seems they donโt know what โPeaceโ means!
Why was Francesca Albanese overlooked, A woman the world canโt corrupt. She has tirelessly worked to show the truth to the world, But in Norway, has her voice been heard?
Or maybe Greta Thunberg? Who twice has sailed with humanitarian aid. This young woman is so brave. A warrior for peace and justice For the climate and for humanity, that the committee failed to see!
I wonder if they discussed Ms. Rachel? So gentle and mild, has shown love to every child. Another woman who seems more worthy, was she discussed by the committee?
Bisan Owda, a brave journalist, How did the committee miss? Is it because sheโs Palestinian, That she isnโt winninโ?
The prize could have been given to all the Gazan journalists! Did they even make the final list? Or the Global Sumud Flotilla, who bravely sailed, A humanitarian mission, that sadly failed, To arrive on Gazaโs shores, By the Committee were they ignored?
Or how about the Doctors, the nurses and medical workers In Gaza working day and night. Has the committee seen their plight? Or were they afraid of being called antisemitic? If workers in Gaza were to get it?
When one thing is clear, these 5 Norwegians arenโt a Peace committee, They are just part of the Western Hegemony. The Nobel Peace Prize has become a joke, They might as well have given it to the orange bloke! – — From: tassydahlan
President Trump said he may soon travel to the region
by Dave DeCamp, Antiwar. com, October 8, 2025 at 6:44 pm ET
Updated on October 8, 2025, at 10:18 pm EST
President Trump has announced that Israel and Hamas have both โsigned offโ on the first phase of a Gaza ceasefire deal.
โI am very proud to announce that Israel and Hamas have both signed off on the first Phase of our Peace Plan. This means that ALL of the Hostages will be released very soon, and Israel will withdraw their Troops to an agreed upon line as the first steps toward a Strong, Durable, and Everlasting Peace. All Parties will be treated fairly!โ the president wrote on Truth Social on Wednesday night.
โThis is a GREAT Day for the Arab and Muslim World, Israel, all surrounding Nations, and the United States of America, and we thank the mediators from Qatar, Egypt, and Turkey, who worked with us to make this Historic and Unprecedented Event happen. BLESSED ARE THE PEACEMAKERS!โ Trump added.
Drop Site News reported earlier that Hamas and other Palestinian factions had agreed to a framework for a Gaza ceasefire deal. Before his announcement, President Trump said that a deal was โvery closeโ and that he could be traveling to the region this weekend.
According to the Drop Site report, Hamas agreed to a deal that will involve Israeli troops remaining in Gaza after they release all of the Israeli captives. Hamas was initially opposed to a deal that didnโt include a full Israeli withdrawal along with the release of the hostages.
A source told Drop Site that Hamas was now trusting President Trump to guarantee that Israel wonโt restart its genocidal war. โTrusting [Trumpโs] word is the gamble they are taking. If it works, they will be considered geniuses. If it fails, they will be considered fools. Itโs as simple as that,โ the source said.
Israel previously broke a Gaza ceasefire deal that was signed in January and has constantly violated a Lebanon ceasefire deal that it signed in November 2024. After Trumpโs announcement, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that he will convene his government on Thursday to โapprove the agreement and bring all our dear hostages home.โ
Al Jazeera reported that Israeli airstrikes hit Gaza City as Palestinians were celebrating Trumpโs ceasefire announcement. Since President Trump called on Israel to โimmediatelyโ stop the bombing in Gaza on October 3, Israel has killed more than 100 Palestinians in Gaza. Israeli attacks have been less intense over the past two days, but they havenโt stopped.
ย The Palestinian group accused Netanyahu of attempting to โobstruct and thwartโ a deal
by Kyle Anzalone, Antiwar. com, October 7, 2025
Hamas issued its demands for reaching an agreement with Israel to release the remaining hostages and end the war. Israel and Hamas are engaged in indirect negotiations to attempt to reach an agreement under a framework proposed by President Donald Trump.
On Tuesday, Hamas gave its demands for reaching a deal. The Palestinian groupโs positions include a permanent and comprehensive ceasefire, the complete withdrawal of Israeli forces from all of Gaza, the unrestricted entry of humanitarian and relief aid, and the immediate rebuilding of the Strip overseen by Palestinians.
Demanding the full Israeli withdrawal from Gaza may create a barrier to reaching a deal. Under Trumpโs 20-point peace plan, Israel would engage in a phased withdrawal from Gaza but retain a large buffer zone around the Strip.
Additionally, the Presidentโs proposal called for the rebuilding of Gaza to be completed by a trust that includes Trump as the chair and former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair on the board.
Trump unveiled the peace plan in a presser with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu last week. However, after Hamas agreed to release the Israeli hostages on Friday and Trump called for an immediate ceasefire, Netanyahu has continued military operations in Gaza.
Tuesdayโs negotiations between Hamas and Israel, mediated by Egypt and Qatar, were the second day of talks. On Monday, Egyptian and Qatari officials reported the negotiations were โpositive,โ and Trump said the deal had a โgood chance.โ
Netanyahu has remained pessimistic that a deal will be completed, reportedly leading to friction with Trump. On Friday, Axios reports, Trump lashed out at Netanyahu on a call when he expressed skepticism about Hamas agreeing to release the hostages.
Hamas and Trump have said that a ceasefire is critical to facilitating the release of the remaining 48 Israeli hostages in Gaza. Israeli strikes in Gaza continued on Tuesday. Netanyahu says he will not order the IDF to halt operations until all the hostages are returned to Israel.
Hamasโs spokesman, Fawzi Barhoum, said that the group was working to โovercome all obstaclesโ to reach an agreement, but Netanyahu was attempting to โobstruct and thwartโ a deal as he had โdeliberately thwarted all previous rounds.โ
Israel has assassinated multiple Hamas negotiators over the past two years. Last month, Netanyahu ordered the assassination of the Palestinian groupโs leadership in Qatar as they were meeting to discuss a ceasefire and hostage exchange proposed by Trump. The Israeli strikes failed to kill the targeted Hamas official.
On Tuesday, Trump said he had dispatched American negotiators to join the ongoing talks in Egypt.
Kyle Anzalone is the opinion editor of Anitwar.com and news editor of the Libertarian Institute. He hosts The Kyle Anzalone Show and is co-host of Conflicts of Interest with Connor Freeman.
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