ANY halt in the genocide unfolding in Gaza is welcome.

After nearly two years of relentless bombardment, the prospect of a truce — following Hamas’s conditional acceptance of US President Donald Trump’s peace plan, which includes releasing all hostages and handing Gaza’s administration to a technocratic Palestinian body, and Israel’s readiness to implement its first phase — offers a sliver of hope.

For a population living amid mass displacement, collapsed infrastructure, and the loss of over 66,000 lives, even a pause in the violence carries meaning. Yet history teaches that such truces often collapse under Israel’s obstinacy. If this opening is to amount to more than a tactical lull, it must be anchored in........

© Dawn