{"id":361772,"date":"2025-12-22T13:41:14","date_gmt":"2025-12-22T13:41:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/361772\/"},"modified":"2025-12-22T13:41:14","modified_gmt":"2025-12-22T13:41:14","slug":"gazas-ceasefire-has-stalled-as-both-sides-drag-their-feet-leaving-few-countries-willing-to-step-up-and-help","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/361772\/","title":{"rendered":"Gaza\u2019s ceasefire has stalled as both sides drag their feet, leaving few countries willing to step up and help"},"content":{"rendered":"

Both sides of the miserable war in Gaza are dragging their feet on moving on to the next crucial phase of the ceasefire, leaving Palestinians in the territory to deal with the muck and sometimes deadly cold of winter with few reasons to hope that meaningful progress will come soon.<\/p>\n

\u201cIsreal needs to let us live,\u201d said Mohamed Hassouna, 44,\u00a0who has moved all of his belongings into a tent amid the pulverized concrete of what was once his neighbourhood near Gaza City.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThey can be a country and we can be a country,\u201d he told a videographer working for CBC News.<\/p>\n

The ceasefire’s most contentious issue, the one at the heart of Israeli-Palestinian negotiations for decades, is also the issue that gets the least emphasis in the Oct. 10 agreement \u2014 that\u2019s the conditions for the creation of a Palestinian state at the end of the three-phase plan.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Moving forward without clarity on that long-term goal has jeopardized progress on the other key planks of the agreement.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cPrime Minister Bibi [Benjamin] Netanyahu doesn\u2019t want to end the war for his own political considerations,\u201d former top Israeli commander Major General Yitzhak Brik told a panel on Israel’s Channel 12 recently.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd disarming Hamas will not happen because there is no one who can enforce it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"PanellistsPanellists on Israeli Channel 12 discuss the status of the ceasefire with Hamas, on Dec. 18.
\n (Channel 12 Israel)<\/p>\n

That, in a nutshell, is why the 20-point plan <\/a>agreed to by Israel and Hamas, brokered by U.S. President Donald Trump,\u00a0backed by Qatar, Turkey and Egypt and endorsed by the UN Security Council,\u00a0is now effectively on life support.<\/p>\n

Like the donkey carts trudging along Gaza\u2019s windy, rain-soaked dirt roads, it will take an immense effort by someone \u2014 likely only Trump \u2014 to get things moving again.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Stabilization force, statehood top list of obstacles <\/p>\n

At the top of the list of obstacles\u00a0is the creation of an International Stabilization Force (ISF) for Gaza.<\/p>\n

According to the ceasefire agreement, the ISF is to be a multinational military force tasked with doing most of the immediate heavy lifting in the territory\u00a0\u2014 including providing security to the civilian population, monitoring the ceasefire and crucially, ensuring Hamas\u2019s military capabilities and \u201cinfrastructure\u201d are dismantled.<\/p>\n

WATCH | Challenges of ceasefire were clear even when it was first announced:\"\"<\/p>\n

Can Trump’s Israel-Hamas peace plan last beyond ‘first phase’? <\/p>\n

Chief political correspondent Rosemary Barton speaks with Nathan Brown of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace about the challenges still ahead in the peace deal between Israel and Hamas. Plus, Roger Carstens, former U.S. special presidential envoy for hostage affairs, speaks about what this means for regional stability.<\/p>\n

But thus far,\u00a0Trump\u2019s mediators have been unable to get a firm \u201cyes\u201d from any country that might want to take on this task,\u00a0although at his year-end media briefing, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio suggested such commitments will be forthcoming.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel very confident that we have a number of nation-states acceptable to all sides in this,\u201d said Rubio.<\/p>\n

Turkey has, arguably, been the most amenable \u2014 but Israel has refused<\/a> to let it play any kind of role in Gaza\u2019s future,\u00a0arguing its government is\u00a0both too close to Hamas and too hostile to Israel.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Other Muslim-majority nations, such as Indonesia and Pakistan,\u00a0have indicated they might also be prepared to get involved, but fear their presence would look a lot like another foreign occupation unless it’s part of a transition to a full Palestinian state \u2014 something Netanyahu has categorically refused to consider.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"TentsTents with displaced families line what was once the main street of Al-Rimal, west of Gaza City. (Mohamed El Saife\/CBC)<\/p>\n

The only discussion of Palestinian statehood in the ceasefire document is in one of the final points where, in vague language, it mentions that after Gaza\u2019s redevelopment has advanced, “conditions may finally be in place for a credible pathway” to self-determination and statehood.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s a long way from the definitive \u201ctwo state\u201d solution that has been repeatedly called for by the United Nations \u2014 although notably, not Israel nor the Trump administration.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think the Americans are willing to push the Israelis at the present moment to accept a Palestinian state \u2014 and I think that\u2019s the crucial question here,\u201d said H.A. Hellyer,\u00a0a senior associate with the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI),\u00a0a military think-tank in London.<\/p>\n

Disarming Hamas<\/p>\n

Another major obstacle is Hamas\u2019s refusal to fully disarm \u2014 which the militant group says it won\u2019t do unless a \u201csovereign\u201d Palestinian state is established.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

That means potential foreign forces in Gaza would be responsible for implementing Hamas\u2019s disarmament \u2014 peace enforcing, rather than peacekeeping.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you have a mandate for the International Stabilization Force [that includes] the disarming of Hamas, then nobody is going to join it,\u201d said Hellyer. <\/p>\n

A compromise option repeatedly suggested by the U.K.,\u00a0France and many Arab countries is that the Palestinian Authority,\u00a0which has had limited authority over the occupied West Bank for most of the last three decades, could take temporary control of Gaza.<\/p>\n

But again,\u00a0Netanyahu has refused.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"GroupsTents and partially collapsed buildings in the Al-Rimal area, west of Gaza City. (Mohamed El Saife\/CBC)<\/p>\n

Most analysts <\/a>believe Israel’s Prime Minister wants to keep Palestinian territories divided, as a united government would increase the pressure on Israel to agree to a Palestinian state.<\/p>\n

Hamas, which triggered the war by attacking Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, is believed to want to progress to the second stage of the ceasefire at the same time as it attempts to reassert its authority in the shattered territory.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI think they are aiming for their survival,\u201d said Manal Zeidan,\u00a0a former advisor with the Palestinian Authority in Ramallah, between 2007 and 2013.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

She was speaking as part of an online discussion this week hosted by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace on the future of the Gaza peace plan.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re trying to transform into some kind of political entity. They are aiming for a role the day after.\u201d<\/p>\n

The militant group has returned all of the remaining living hostages captured during its attacks on southern Israel more than two years ago,\u00a0and it has also returned the bodies of 27 others. The body of one Israeli soldier remains in Gaza.<\/p>\n

\u201cEven though people in Gaza don\u2019t like them,\u00a0they would prefer to have one group in charge of overall security,\u00a0as opposed to different gangs or militias duking it out,\u201d said Hellyer of RUSI.<\/p>\n

Israel has also been openly arming<\/a> rival gangs in Gaza,\u00a0further complicating the security situation and making disarming Hamas even more challenging \u2014 which some analysts believe is also part of Israel\u2019s strategy to ensure the territory remains chaotic. <\/p>\n

\"AAhmed Al-Kibriti sweeps up the area near his tent west of Gaza City. (Mohamed El Saife\/CBC)Permanent occupation?<\/p>\n

Just over half of Gaza is now occupied by Israeli troops and the longer both sides remain stuck, the more permanent those borders could become.<\/p>\n

In Gaza,\u00a0many Palestinians believe Israeli troops never intend to leave the areas they now control.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is not a force for stability,\u00a0it’s a force of occupation,\u201d said Ahmed Al-Kibriti of Gaza City, who also spoke to a freelance journalist working for CBC News.<\/p>\n

Like hundreds of thousands of people in Gaza, the 36-year-old lives in a tent and survives off of humanitarian aid.<\/p>\n

\u201cIsrael is against the agreement [negotiators] made.\u201d<\/p>\n

Other Palestinians who spoke to CBC News said while the heaviest Israeli bombardments have stopped with the ceasefire, deadly attacks continue.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe ceasefire is just talk \u2014 there is no real ceasefire,\u201d said Zakaria Shabat, 55.<\/p>\n

\"AZakaria Shabat speaks to a CBC News freelance videographer near Gaza City. (Mohamed El Saife\/CBC)<\/p>\n

In the months leading up to the October ceasefire, aid agencies say Israeli attacks on the territory killed 100 Palestinians on average every day \u2014 with Gaza health authorities claiming up to 70 per cent of those deaths are women and children.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Since the ceasefire,\u00a0400 Palestinians in Gaza have been killed, including five people <\/a>in an Israeli strike on a school-turn-shelter Friday night. The IDF says it is investigating the incident.<\/p>\n

Aid groups<\/a> have also said that while there is no longer a full-blown famine in Gaza, food security remains critical \u2014 a charge rejected by Israel.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The UN has repeatedly accused Israel of blocking food,\u00a0shelter and humanitarian supplies for hospitals, including after the Oct. 10 ceasefire kicked in. COGAT,\u00a0 the Israeli agency responsible for aid deliveries into Gaza, denies those charges.<\/p>\n

The United Nationals Relief and Works Agency <\/a>said at least 16 Palestinians have died of cold and hypothermia in December because of the recent cold weather.<\/p>\n

Push to break the impasse<\/p>\n

In a conference call with international media,\u00a0CBC News asked a spokesperson for Netanyahu how Israel plans to overcome the obstacles that have been blocking progress.<\/p>\n

She suggested Hamas is to blame for the impasse.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe still don\u2019t have our final hostage home,\u201d said Shosha Bedrosian of the National Public Diplomacy Directorate,\u00a0referring to the body of 24-year-old Master Sgt. Ron Gvili,\u00a0an Israeli police officer who was killed on Oct. 7, 2023.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cHamas committed to a ceasefire and the first part of that ceasefire was releasing all of our hostages. Here we are now,\u00a0we still have a hostage in captivity,\u201d said Bedrosian. <\/p>\n

\"AA Palestinian child carries water containers amid a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas in Gaza City on Nov. 19. (Dawoud Abu Alkas\/Reuters)<\/p>\n

Nonetheless, the White House appears to be gearing up for a Christmas-New Year push to try to get the most difficult parts of the deal moving.<\/p>\n

U.S., Qatari,\u00a0Egyptian and Turkish officials are set to meet in Miami \u2014 and a potential meeting in the United States between Trump and Netanyahu after Christmas will likely be crucial to breaking the impasse.<\/p>\n

Speaking on the Carnegie Panel, Marwan Muasher,\u00a0a former Jordanian foreign minister,\u00a0said Arab states are heavily invested in permanently ending the war and giving Palestinians in Gaza and the occupied West Bank a future.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Trump plan is the only game in town,\u201d said Muasher. \u201cTheir position is \u2018We\u2019d better support it \u2026 not because we think it’s a great plan,\u00a0not because it might go beyond phase one, but because it has resulted in a ceasefire, and so it’s better to engage than not.’ \u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Both sides of the miserable war in Gaza are dragging their feet on moving on to the next…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":361773,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,41,39,42,40],"class_list":{"0":"post-361772","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/361772","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=361772"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/361772\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/361773"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=361772"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=361772"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=361772"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}