After 15 months of hell, Israel and Hamas sign a ceasefire deal
Donald Trump provided the X factor by putting heat on Binyamin Netanyahu, who insists the war isn’t over yet
After more than 15 months of war and just five days before Donald Trump is inaugurated as America’s 47th president on January 20th, a ceasefire in Gaza was at last announced. The deal, struck on January 15th, is essentially the same proposal Joe Biden extracted from Israel in May. It took eight months of tortuous mediation and the efforts of both old and new American administrations, Egypt and Qatar, to get Israel and Hamas, Gaza’s Islamists, to accept it. On January 16th Israel said that Hamas was reneging on some aspects but it has not yet been abandoned.
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This article appeared in the Middle East & Africa section of the print edition under the headline “A fragile deal”
Middle East & Africa January 18th 2025
- After 15 months of hell, Israel and Hamas sign a ceasefire deal
- First, the ceasefire. Next the Trump effect could upend the Middle East
- Violent jihadists are getting frustrated by the new Syria
- West African booze is becoming a luxury product
- A hidden refuge in Sudan that the internet, banks—and war—can’t reach
From the January 18th 2025 edition
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