Roving Periscope: Amid fragile peace, IDF guns down 5 Palestinians in Gaza
Virendra Pandit
New Delhi: After the hostage-swapping and US President Donald Trump’s departure for Egypt for the peace summit—in which neither Israel nor Hamas participated—the fragile peace in the Gaza Strip threatened to collapse on Tuesday as five Palestinians were shot dead, the media reported.
About 200 US troops are in Israel to monitor the ceasefire. Except for US President Donald Trump, few believe that this ceasefire will prevail for long.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said its troops opened fire on Palestinians, killing five, after they allegedly violated the terms of the ceasefire agreement.
“Several suspects were identified crossing the yellow line and approaching IDF troops operating in the northern Gaza Strip, which constitutes a violation of the agreement.”
The five approached forces in Gaza City’s eastern Shejaiya neighborhood, the IDF said.
“After multiple attempts to distance them, the suspects refused to comply, prompting troops to open fire to remove the threat,” the IDF said on social media.
A Palestinian Civil Defence spokesperson denied the IDF’s claim, telling ABC News that the five people were killed within the safe-zone yellow area.
Clearly, each side suspects the other to violate peace terms, and resume war.
Meanwhile, after hostages and prisoners were freed, complex issues remained for Israel-Hamas ceasefire to hold.
Issues such as whether Hamas will disarm and, if so, who will govern Gaza — and the question of Palestinian statehood — remain unresolved, highlighting the fragility of an agreement that, for now, only pauses the deadliest conflict in the history of Israel and the Palestinians.
For some Israelis, the release of the 20 remaining living hostages brought elation and a sense of closure to a war many felt they were forced into by Hamas, although many pledged to fight on for the return of deceased hostages still in Gaza. But with the living hostages freed, the urgency with which many were driven to call for an end to the war will likely diminish, easing pressure on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to advance the next phases of the agreement.
Four deceased hostages were returned to Israel on Monday, and another 24 are supposed to be turned over as part of the first phase of the ceasefire, which also requires Israel to allow a surge of food and other humanitarian aid into Gaza, the media reported.
While there was an outburst of joy in Gaza for nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners returning from Israel and hope that the fighting may wind down for good, the torment drags on for war-weary people. Gaza has been decimated by Israeli bombardment; there is little left of its prewar economy, basic services are in disarray, and many homes have been destroyed. It remains unclear who will pay for reconstruction, a process that could take years. And what fate awaits most of those 2.3 million Palestinians who became refugees in their own Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip in the last two years.
Netanyahu, who, according to his office, did not join the high-stakes summit in Egypt because of a Jewish holiday, told parliament that he was committed to the agreement, saying it “ends the war by achieving all our objectives.”
Israel had said it would not end the war until all the hostages were freed and Hamas was defeated. Critics accused Netanyahu of allowing the war to drag on for political reasons, which he denied.
The war began with the Hamas invasion of Southern Israel on October 7, 2023, when Islamist terrorists killed 1,200 mainly Jews and took 251 others captives back to Gaza. Israel’s retaliatory campaign that followed killed more than 67,000 people, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which does not differentiate between combatants and civilians in its count.
The war has crippled the Middle East, with conflict erupting between Israel and the Lebanese Hezbollah, Iranian-backed rebels in Yemen and in Iran itself.
Unlike previous hostage releases, Hamas held no ceremonies for the captives before freeing them. Instead, families received video calls from masked militants who allowed them a first glimpse at their loved ones before they came home.
The plight of the hostages had widespread support in Israel, where thousands would join the families for weekly protests demanding Israel secure their release.
The fate of the hostages was a central driver of a movement in Israel to end the war. Many Israelis viewed Netanyahu’s twin goals of freeing the captives and defeating Hamas as incompatible.
Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz said any delay by Hamas in returning the remaining bodies of deceased hostages would be viewed as a violation of the ceasefire deal.
The freed Palestinian prisoners include 250 who served life sentences for convictions in attacks on Israelis, in addition to 1,700 seized from Gaza during the war and held without charge.
In his Knesset speech, Trump told Israeli lawmakers their country must now work toward peace.
“Israel, with our help, has won all that they can by force of arms,” Trump said. “Now it is time to translate these victories against terrorists on the battlefield into the ultimate prize of peace and prosperity for the entire Middle East.”
In Egypt, President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi and Trump attended a summit with leaders from more than 20 countries on the future of Gaza and the broader Middle East. Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas, who administers parts of the West Bank, also attended.
Among the most difficult issues left to resolve is Israel’s insistence that a weakened Hamas must disarm. The terror group, which ruled Gaza with an iron hand, refuses to do that and wants to ensure Israel pulls its troops completely out of Gaza. Some reports indicated that Hamas is regrouping its members and arms.
So far, the Israeli military has withdrawn from much of Gaza City, the southern city of Khan Younis and other areas. Troops remain in most of the southern city of Rafah, towns of Gaza’s far north, and along the length of Gaza’s border with Israel.
The future governance of Gaza remains unclear. Under the 20-point US peace plan, an international body will govern the territory, overseeing Palestinian technocrats running day-to-day affairs. Hamas has said Gaza’s government should be worked out among Palestinians.
The plan envisions an eventual role for the Mahmoud Abbas-led Palestinian Authority — something Netanyahu has long opposed — but it requires the authority to undergo reforms.
The plan calls for an Arab-led international security force in Gaza, along with Palestinian police. Israeli forces would leave areas as those forces deploy. The plan also mentions the possibility of a future Palestinian state, another nonstarter for Netanyahu.
