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Donald Trump has delightedly announced an apparent agreement to bring peace to Gaza after two years and two days of conflict.

But is he jumping the gun?

Trump said Israel and Hamas have “signed off on the first phase” of a 20-point peace plan he unveiled last week.

“This means that ALL of the Hostages will be released very soon, and Israel will withdraw their Troops to an agreed upon line as the first steps toward a Strong, Durable, and Everlasting Peace,” he wrote on his social media outlet Truth Social.

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The BBC reckons this means the following:

A ceasefire will take effect. Reports in Israeli media suggest this will happen immediately, although a spokesperson for the prime minister’s office said it would begin within 24 hours of the cabinet’s approval.

The Israeli military will withdraw to a line that will leave it in control of about 53 per cent of the Strip… This is the first of three stages of Israeli withdrawal.

After this, a 72-hour countdown will begin during which Hamas must release all 20 of the hostages believed to be alive. The return of the bodies of the 28 deceased hostages would follow, although it is not clear how long that could take.

Israel would then release about 250 Palestinian prisoners serving life sentences in Israeli jails and 1,700 detainees from Gaza, a Palestinian source told the BBC. Their identities are currently unclear, but a list submitted by Hamas before the agreement was reached included high-profile figures serving multiple life sentences for deadly attacks on Israelis.

Israel will also return the bodies of 15 Gazans for the remains of each Israeli hostage, according to Trump’s plan.

Hundreds of lorries carrying humanitarian aid will also start entering Gaza, where a famine was confirmed by UN-backed experts in August.

If completed, the first phase of Trump’s 20-point plan would be followed by negotiations over the details of the later phases.

There are a lot of moving parts in that summary alone.

No wonder the reaction here in the UK has been extremely cautious.

Prime Minister Keir Starmer has described the agreement as “a moment of profound relief that will be felt all around the world,” acknowledged the suffering endured by civilians and hostages over the past two years and expressed gratitude for the diplomatic efforts of Egypt, Qatar, Turkey, and the United States in securing the deal.

But he stopped short of endorsing Trump’s bid for the Nobel Peace Prize, despite his central role in brokering the deal. Starmer declined to back the nomination, focusing instead on calls for assurances of the deal’s successful implementation.

Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper echoed Starmer, stressing the necessity of immediate action for the safe release of hostages and delivery of aid. She also highlighted the UK’s readiness to support the agreement’s implementation.

Labour’s Scottish leader, Anas Sarwar, welcomed the ceasefire but called for an urgent surge in aid to Gaza and a meaningful pathway to a two-state solution.

Wales’ First Minister, Eluned Morgan, expressed hope that the agreement marks the beginning of a just and lasting peace.

Advocacy groups like Medical Aid for Palestinians (MAP) have welcomed the ceasefire as a vital step but emphasized the need for continued humanitarian access and accountability.

The politicians are presenting the ceasefire as a welcome relief rather than a historic breakthrough.

There’s an almost bureaucratic restraint in their language — all about “implementation,” “humanitarian access,” and “verification.”

Nobody wants to be caught celebrating a peace that collapses within days, as has happened so many times before.

And the public?

After years of protests and calls for stronger action to force a ceasefire, we might be expected to be generally enthusiastic about this – but we’ve seen it all before.

Many believe successive governments – both Tory and Labour – to have betrayed the wishes of the people by refusing to impose sanctions against an Israeli government they believe to have been trying to commit a genocide, and by actively trying to suppress protest against apparent UK support of that nation.

This is a “we’ll believe it when we see it” moment. The United Kingdom, like much of the international community, has seen too many “peace deals” that amounted to little more than a pause in the violence, followed by deeper entrenchment.

So the mood is of déjà vu.

After years of spin and slaughter, nobody is ready to applaud until the guns not only fall silent but are actually put away – along with the verbal recriminations that have so often led to more bloodshed.
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