The war in the Gaza Strip is a brutal and long-lasting armed conflict between Israel and the Palestinian organization Hamas, which has intensified particularly after the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, 2023. Since then, Israeli forces have been conducting an intensive military operation that has led to massive civilian losses, destruction of infrastructure and a deepening of the humanitarian crisis. This conflict has deep political, religious and historical roots.
Previous information regarding the Gaza Strip you will find here.
War in the Gaza Strip. What happens after the truce?
After the ceasefire in the Gaza Strip came into force on Friday at 12, the parties to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict are to begin implementing subsequent points of US President Donald Trump's peace plan. All Israeli hostages imprisoned in the Gaza Strip are to be released within 72 hours of the ceasefire. Hamas should release 20 kidnapped people alive and release the bodies of 28 killed hostages.
As Al-Jazeera reports, “Palestinians in Gaza experienced a night unlike any they had experienced in two years, a night without the sounds of Israeli drones and explosions.”
Palestinians in the destroyed Khan YunusPAP/EPA/HAITHAM IMAD
US troops have begun arriving in Israel to establish a coordination center that will oversee the implementation of the ceasefire agreement in the Gaza Strip, ABC News reported on Saturday, citing officials familiar with the matter.
US soldiers will not enter the Gaza Strip, the sources added. According to one official, the 200 soldiers being sent to Israel specialize in transportation, planning, logistics, security and engineering. They will cooperate with representatives of other partner countries, the private sector and non-governmental organizations.
The team monitoring the ceasefire in Gaza will also include military officials from Egypt, Qatar, Turkey and probably the United Arab Emirates.
The coordination center is seen as a first step in supporting a peace process that will require extensive humanitarian, logistical and security coordination, the ABC noted. Soldiers being sent to Israel to set up the center will arrive over the weekend. Various units fly there from the US and bases in the Middle East.
Adm. Brad Cooper, who oversees U.S. troops in the region as commander of U.S. Central Command based in Tampa, Florida, arrived in Israel on Friday, the American station reported.
Donald Trump: I will go to Israel and then to Egypt
US President Donald Trump announced his visit to the Middle East. As he said, he will first go to Israel, where he will speak at the Knesset, and then he will fly to Egypt. In Cairo, Trump plans a summit of world leaders on the Gaza peace plan. Trump said he would return to the US before Tuesday evening. According to him, Hamas will release the Israeli hostages on Monday.
Donald TrumpPAP/EPA/SHAWN THEW/POOL
“The hostages are coming back on Monday,” Trump told reporters at the White House. He noted that 28 bodies of hostages were also to be returned. “Some of these bodies are being pulled out of the ground right now as we speak,” he added.
When asked if he was confident that the ceasefire in Gaza would last, the president replied: “Yes, I think it will last, they are all tired of the fighting.”
On Thursday, Trump said he planned to travel to the Middle East on Sunday. According to Axios, the president will arrive in Israel on Monday morning and in the afternoon he will go to Egypt, where the peace agreement signing ceremony will be attended by representatives of the countries that are its guarantors: Egypt, Turkey and Qatar. The leaders' summit is likely to be held on Tuesday morning in Sharm el-Sheikh.
Israeli attack on a Hezbollah facility in Lebanon
Meanwhile, the Israeli army announced that overnight it carried out an “attack on Hezbollah's terrorist infrastructure in southern Lebanon.” According to Israeli forces, the facility contained “machinery used by Hezbollah to rebuild terrorist infrastructure, in violation of the agreements between Israel and Lebanon.”
According to Al-Jazeera, one person was killed and seven were injured.
There were also reports that a Palestinian was killed in an attack on the West Bank town of Dura.
