Winter has not been kind to Gaza. Freezing rain battered the coast, and brisk Mediterranean winds destroyed the tents of Gaza’s nearly two million homeless Palestinians.
There is no peace and no reformation.
The two-year war ended three months ago with a cease-fire, but the fighting has not stopped completely. Since then, more than 450 people have been killed in Israeli airstrikes and fighting with Hamas militants, local health officials said.
Each side blames the other, trapping civilians like Mustafa Abu Jabehn in the middle.
“It’s been a tsunami, our world has been turned upside down.
At least 100 children have been killed in Gaza since a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas broke out in early October, UNICEF spokesman James Elder said. The number represents only cases for which sufficient information is available, and may be much higher, especially as more severe winter weather approaches.
“We need a new government that will cooperate with Israel so that things will improve.”
This is the promise of the second phase of the peace plan proposed by the President of the United States, Donald Trump, for Gaza to move from “conflict to peace and development”. It is a great continuation of the first phase, in which Hamas released 20 hostages alive and all but one of the dead.
But it has seen many violations including Israel’s aid continues to be barred from entering the country. In Gaza and the work of non-governmental organizations and United Nations agencies.
And now the process itself is becoming increasingly controversial.
Carney is among the leaders who take a cautious approach
Trump asked 60 world leaders to sit on his “Peace Board”. “A Brave New Approach to Resolving International Conflicts”. In invitation letters.
Prime Minister Mark Carney has accepted, although in Doha, Qatar on Sunday, he said his officials had not gone through “all the details of the structure, how it would work, what the financing would be, etc.” Other leaders have taken similar precautions.
The board’s invitation letter calls for countries to pay $1 billion for a permanent seat on the board, something a federal official told the CBC that Canada has not been asked to do and will not do.
Prime Minister Mark Carney has been asked by US President Donald Trump to join the ‘peace board’ overseeing the interim administration of the Gaza Strip, a senior Canadian official told reporters accompanying the prime minister on his trip overseas. Karni will accept the invitation, the official added.
“Canada wants money to make a big impact,” Carney told reporters. “We still don’t have unrestricted humanitarian aid for the people of Gaza. He called it a ‘precondition to continue on this.’
Other countries have expressed concern about the charter attached to the Peace Council, a body that appears to see Gaza as the first of many conflicts to sideline the United Nations.
The charter, announced by Trump, called for a “more intelligent and effective international peacebuilding body” and blamed “institutions that have often rejected it.”
US President Donald Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff on Wednesday announced the launch of a second plan to establish a technocratic Palestinian state to end the conflict in Gaza.
In addition to the High Peace Board, Trump has appointed various politicians, diplomats and billionaires to two executive committees tasked with guiding the Gaza process. That includes Turkish and Qatari officials, drawing complaints from Israel, which countries view as highly critical of its military actions in Gaza and too sympathetic to Hamas.
But the real work must be done as a team 15 Palestinian technocratsUnaffiliated with Hamas and vetted by Israel’s Mossad intelligence agency, he was chosen to take over the day-to-day running of the Hamas government – after 19 years of rule by the militant group and five wars with Israel.
In Gaza, 68 million tons of debris survived the war
As chairman of the new National Committee for Gaza Management, Ali Shaat has ambitious plans to dig Gaza out of 68 million tons of war debris within three years.
“If I bring in bulldozers and put the rubble into the sea and build new islands, I can win new land for Gaza,” said a civil engineer in the former Palestinian Authority official in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
Before that happens, however, much must be done — and not just a change in Israeli policy, which restricts bulldozers and other heavy equipment from entering Gaza. Even the metal tent poles were not left because Israel said Hamas could use them for weapons.
Under the ceasefire plan, Hamas must disarm and hand over power.
“Hamas is not involved in governing Gaza,” the group’s spokesman, Hazem Qassem, told CBC News. Regarding disarmament, he said, “There will be internal Palestinian approaches to discuss the issue of weapons of mass destruction.”
A Palestinian-American scholar and activist who has served as a back-channel mediator between Hamas and the United States government says there is reluctance within the militant group based on mistrust of Israel.
“Hamas is saying, ‘Suppose we remove the military, who will guarantee our security?’ Beshara Bahbaah said. “If Israel is going to go after them again, why disarm? There is no incentive.”
The expectations of the ceasefire plan are also unclear, with no list of what weapons are to be provided (rockets and other heavy weapons or light handguns?) and no timetable.
Countries are not willing to join the peacekeeping force
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu appears to have dismissed the leap to the second phase as largely symbolic, calling the establishment of the technocratic committee a “declarative step”. The Israelis resisted moving beyond the first stage to the space body The last hostage He was found by Hamas and returned.
What will happen if Hamas disarms?
Last month Trump said. “There will be hell to pay.” But forcing the issue is complicated, as Israel has been unable to completely defeat the group in two years of war.
The second phase of disarmament is the provision of a new international peacekeeping force. By A The mandate of the United Nations Security CouncilThousands of troops from various countries are to be sent to Gaza to maintain a strict border with Israel, maintain security and train civilian Palestinian police.
But the mandate has been criticized by countries such as China as “vague and opaque”, and worries that the force will come under the US-led peace board rather than under the auspices of the United Nations.
The challenge is threatening the most powerful military forces in the world.
“It’s about confronting Hamas and forcing them to lay down their weapons. I mean, I don’t know of any country that is able and willing to do that,” said foreign policy expert Em2C, CEO of the think tank and professor at Tel Aviv University.
A young Palestinian woman admitted to the University of Regina is still stuck in Gaza. She is one of many Palestinian students who were unable to start their studies in Canada.
In fact, there is no officially registered territory. Egypt, Jordan and Azerbaijan considered it but decided to stay away, with the president of Azerbaijan pointing out that there is no peace yet.
Turkey He has volunteeredBut Israel considers President Riek Machar very close to Hamas.
“Turkey will go in to encourage them, not disarm Hamas,” Navon said.
Funds for the reconstruction of Gaza have been put on hold
All of this uncertainty has eased reconstruction funds. World Bank Assumptions Of the $70 billion needed, the United States, the European Union and the oil-rich Gulf states have pledged to be the main donors.
Canada is “prepared.” An unspecified amount to “support the restoration of essential services, particularly the health sector, once conditions permit.”
But countries are not yet ready to sign the cheques. A Cairo conference to raise funds for Gaza’s reconstruction has been postponed indefinitely due to the ongoing war.
The UAE wants more “political clarity on where this is going” and more certainty on the final Palestinian state in the ceasefire call. he said. Diplomatic adviser to the president in Abu Dhabi.
Although they signed the terms of the cease-fire, Netanyahu has since. announced There will be no Palestinian state.
This is consistent with the political tone in Israel, where 1,200 Israelis have been killed and 251 taken hostage since October 7, 2023, in Hamas attacks on Israel, according to Israeli officials.
Israel’s offensive in Gaza has killed more than 71,000 Palestinians. Health officials in Gaza sayincluding more than 450 since a ceasefire agreement was reached in October.
Netanyahu and his far-right coalition have no interest in reconciliation in Gaza, especially now that all the Israeli hostages have been released. But Trump, who has his own name on this ceasefire, has the final word here.
“The prime minister (Netanyahu) can try to persuade him, try to argue behind closed doors, but the president will do as he is told,” said Nadav Eyal, a foreign policy analyst for Israel’s Channel 13 and an assistant professor and research scholar at Columbia University in New York City.
If there is no deal on Hamas’s disarmament, Eyal’s view from Israel is that this second phase is “saying that we are willing to live with a certain situation.”