A major milestone was reached Monday in the campaign for peace in the Middle East, specifically between Israel and the terrorists of Hamas who attacked the democratic nation in 2023, slaughtering 1,200 and kidnapping hundreds more.
The last 20 living hostages were released by Hamas.
It came as part of a multi-point plan developed under the administration of President Donald Trump that called for the release of the hostages. Future points will set up a governing organization to make decisions for Gaza, where Hamas has ruled in recent years.
Trump, in addressing Israel’s Knesset on the agreement between Israel and Hamas, pointed out that previous American administrations, under Barack Obama and Joe Biden, failed in pursuit of that very goal.
“All of the countries in the Middle East that could have what we’re doing now, it could have happened a long time ago, but it was strangled and set back almost irretrievably by the administrations of Barack Obama and then Joe Biden,” Trump said, citing the then-“hatred” toward Israel.
“We had a very weak [Biden] administration. Worst president in the history of our country by far, and Barack Obama was not far behind, by the way,” Trump said.
The violence, however, may not be gone forever.
Previous peace pauses often have been broken up by violence of the Islamists, and some of those groups issued a warning even as the peace deal was beginning to take effect.
“Factions stressed that they have no intention of laying down their weapons, and that they plan to continue military activity to achieve their objectives,” explained a report at the Middle East Media Research Institute.
The statement from various “factions” said, “At this decisive historic moment, we reiterate and emphasize our loyalty to the martyrs, to the prisoners, to the wounded, and to the resistance fighters, and our adherence to our people’s rights to their land, homeland, holy sites, and dignity. [We also emphasize] our determination to continue with the resistance in all its forms until our rights are achieved – first and foremost the removal of the occupation, self determination, and the establishment of an independent state with full sovereignty with Jerusalem as its capital.”
The statement was identified as coming from Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.
They also rejected “foreign guardianship” of the Gaza Strip and demanded to be part of the region’s administration.
That means, the report said, Hamas would be rejecting vital components of Trump’s peace plan, even though they officially had agreed, and had released hostages as part of the bargain.
“Underlining that the factions’ negotiating team was keeping in mind ‘our people’s demands to stop the war of extermination,’ it called this first stage of the ceasefire ‘an essential step towards the urgent demand of our people – a final cessation of the criminal war, an end to the aggression against Gaza, the withdrawal of the occupation, and the lifting of the siege,’” the report said.
The factions suggested that international oversight was only for reconstruction and development.
‘They’re going to look for bodies’: Watch Trump talk about next steps in peace process