The Gaza ceasefire brings hostages home, ending the two-year war. But with leaders at odds over what comes next, is this peace or just a pause?
- Oct 14, 2025
- 3 min read
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For the first time in two years, the phone calls families had only dreamed of are finally coming through. In Tel Aviv and Khan Younis, tears of anguish are turning to tears of joy as the last 20 Israeli hostages and nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners return home. This raw, human relief is the first tangible result of a hard-won Gaza ceasefire, an agreement that has silenced the guns after a brutal conflict that claimed tens of thousands of lives and leveled entire neighborhoods.
At the center of it all is U.S. President Donald Trump, embarking on a victory lap from Jerusalem to Sharm el-Sheikh. Addressing a roaring Israeli Knesset, where lawmakers donned red "Trump the Peace President" caps, he declared the "long and painful nightmare is finally over." Later, flanked by Arab leaders in Egypt and decorated with the nation's highest honor, he signed a declaration cementing the truce, promising that "now the rebuilding begins." For the architect of the deal, the war is unequivocally won and a new dawn for the Middle East is at hand.
Yet, this triumphant narrative glosses over a deep and precarious crack in the foundation of this new peace. While Trump insists the war is "over," his closest partner in the deal, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, has offered no such declaration. Facing immense pressure from far-right coalition members who demand the war continue, Netanyahu has remained publicly committed only to "this peace," a carefully chosen phrase that stops short of Trump's finality. The fundamental disagreement on whether this is a truce or a terminus reveals a fragile accord, perhaps held together more by one manâs sheer force of will than by mutual consensus.
