Trump says Israel-Hamas war is over, but the road to peace is fragile

US President Donald Trump was in an upbeat mood when he and other world leaders in Egypt on Monday signed the first phase of the Gaza ceasefire agreement, which is seen as a precursor to a possible peace deal between Hamas and Israel.

“It took 3,000 years to get to this point, can you believe it? And it will stand, too,” Trump said confidently as he signed the agreement in front of global media.

“We have accomplished what everyone said was impossible — finally at long last, we have peace in the Middle East,” Trump later said during a news conference, flanked by other leaders. “No one thought we could get there, and now we are there,” he added.

While the majority agree that Trump Credit deserves Because it helped bring an immediate end to the devastating war between Israel and Hamas – which saw the return of Israeli hostages after two years in captivity and the release of nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners and detainees – achieving long-term peace is a different matter.

“Ultimately, getting a ceasefire was very important,” Rob Guest Pinfold, a lecturer in international security at King’s College London, told CNBC on Tuesday. “It was important not only for Gaza and Israel, but for the entire region that has been exhausted by this conflict. But it is also the easy part.”

“Both sides have shown some desire to sit at the table and talk and reach some sort of agreement, but the real differences are about what comes the next day,” Guest Pinfold noted.

The peace plan stipulates the establishment of… “Peace Council” headed by Trump To supervise the establishment of a transitional authority to administer Gaza and supervise its reconstruction. It is also unclear how this will be implemented in practice, as well as who will keep the peace.

“When it comes to peacekeepers, we don’t know how many there are, or what countries they’ll be from when they’re deployed, or what their mandate is,” Guest Pinfold said. “All of these questions have been asked along the way.”

Uriel Abuloff, a visiting professor in the Department of Government at Cornell University and professor of politics at Tel Aviv University, agrees. The agreement was signed at the peace summit in Egypt on Monday It was not necessarily a “peace agreement.”

“It is a survival pact for leaders who thrive in conflict,” Abuloff said in emailed comments. “For two years, Netanyahu and Hamas have used this war to consolidate their power, continuing a long-standing dynamic in which each side’s extremism justifies the other’s extremism.”

He added: “This agreement, imposed on them by external sponsors such as the United States and Qatar, is deliberately vague on the core issues, allowing both to claim victory.”

Abolov said that the two sides share an “undeclared goal,” which is to seek to prevent the establishment of a Palestinian authority capable of continuing to rule Gaza. He added, “Therefore, permanent peace is not on the table.”

“The only way forward is through civil renewal, where Israelis and Palestinians replace leaders who see permanent war as necessary to stay in power,” he added.