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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
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Rajan Menon

Trump’s peace plan is just about holding together, but may be unravelled by two unresolved issues

A family in the Sheikh Radwan neighbourhood of Gaza City begin rebuilding their demolished home, 16 October 2025.
A family in the Sheikh Radwan neighbourhood of Gaza City begin rebuilding their demolished home, 16 October 2025. Photograph: Anadolu/Getty Images

Two years of death and destruction in Gaza ended once Israel and Hamas signed off on Donald Trump’s 20-point peace plan. A ceasefire is in place. Humanitarian trucks have begun to roll in. Hostages and prisoners are being exchanged. Israel has begun a first-phase pullback from the territories it controls, and under Trump’s plan its troops will eventually be deployed in a buffer zone along Gaza’s land border.

Given these developments – all part of the opening phase – dismissing the momentous changes in Gaza is to deny reality. There have already been disputes over the return of the bodies of Israeli hostages, but there are unresolved longer-term problems that could derail the ceasefire and imperil the rest of the Trump plan.

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