The first phase of the U.S.-brokered Gaza ceasefire deal began to move forward this week as Israeli and Palestinian hostages have been released and aid trickles in.

“The crossings were partially reopened, so some aid is coming in — food, water, and medicine — but only a small amount compared to the huge need,” says Intercept contributor Taqwa Ahmed Al-Wawi. “People are surviving, but every day it is still a struggle.”

“There is a pause in the bombing, and I say ‘a pause’ because there are still people being killed,” says James Zogby, the president and co-founder of the Arab American Institute.

This week on the Intercept Briefing, we hear from poet and writer Al-Wawi about what it’s been like in Gaza over the first few days of the ceasefire. Then reporter and host Jonah Valdez speaks to Zogby who, along with a delegation of Palestinian Americans, are meeting with members of Congress to ensure the current ceasefire holds and to push for an arms embargo on Israel.

“We were challenging members of Congress, not just on ending the weapons supplies to Israel because they’ve so abused them — in violation of U.S. and international law — but also to consider what are the needs of those who remain behind, the millions of Palestinians still in Gaza,” says Zogby.

Valdez and Zogby dig into the details — or lack thereof — in Trump’s plan, how Israel is already breaking the ceasefire agreement, takeaways from past efforts to broker peace through the decades, and how the American public can continue pushing lawmakers to achieve lasting peace, healing, and reconstruction that benefits Palestinians.

“Nothing’s going to happen on the Israeli side in terms of concessions, unless there’s a threat of punishment coming from the U.S. or the international community,” says Zogby. “That’s what happened during Oslo [Accords]: The U.S. let Israel get away with murder, and they just kept doing it. If Donald Trump lets them do the same thing — and I fully expect that he probably will — then I don’t expect this to move toward completion.”

Listen to the full conversation of The Intercept Briefing on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen.

Transcript

Jonah Valdez: Welcome to The Intercept Briefing, I’m Jonah Valdez.

The U.S.-brokered Gaza ceasefire deal began to move forward this week with Hamas releasing the remaining 20 living Israeli hostages, and Israel freeing nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners, many of whom were themselves hostages, abducted from Gaza and held with no charges. While Israel has pulled back troops from Gaza, they still control more than 50 percent of the territory.

Donald Trump: As you know, the hostages have been returned and further work goes on having to do with the, sadly to say, bodies. Together, we’ve achieved what everybody said was impossible. At long last, we have peace in the Middle East.

JV: Donald Trump’s plan for Gaza never guaranteed peace. And sure enough, the ceasefire remains fragile. In the last few days, Israeli soldiers have killed Palestinians trying to return to their homes in northern Gaza and in the south, a direct violation of the ceasefire agreement. And Israel at this point is still only allowing 300 aid trucks per day into Gaza. That’s a fraction of what was agreed upon and needed, and a violation of not just the ceasefire, but also international humanitarian law.

To break down the ceasefire plan and where things stand, we’ll speak to Dr. James Zogby, the president and co-founder of the Arab American Institute.

But first, to understand how Palestinians are responding to the ceasefire so far, we turn to Intercept contributor Taqwa Ahmed Al-Wawi, a Palestinian writer and poet from Gaza.

Taqwa Ahmed Al-Wawi: My name is Taqwa Ahmed Al-Wawi. I’m 19 years old and I’m from Gaza, Palestine. I’m a writer, poet, and editor, and I’m studying English literature at the Islamic University of Gaza.

Writing and education have always been my tools, my weapons in a way, to resist and survive through learning and words. I try to make sense of what’s happening around me.

In Gaza, education is not just a school. It is a way to survive, to keep our minds alive and to resist in the face of destruction. Before the genocide, I wrote about my life privately, everything that happened to me, but I never shared or published it. When the genocide began, I realized that telling our stories is no longer optional, it is a duty.

The feelings I experience here are indescribable and the situations we endure are incomprehensible and unbelievable.

The crossings were partially reopened, so some aid is coming in — food, water, and medicine — but only a small amount compared to the huge need. People are surviving, but every day it is still a struggle. So yes, life is a little better after the ceasefire, but it is still hard and challenging and people continue to fight every day to survive.

The biggest fear we have is that Israel will not respect the ceasefire as it has always done before. We hear about agreements. But then Israel breaks them.

It happened just a few months ago. We started to believe, to feel some safety, and then everything collapsed again. This is what worries me the most, that this so-called ceasefire, it’s only temporary that at any moment the genocide can start again.

People here are deeply afraid to trust because the trust has cost us everything before — our homes, our families, our lives.

If this agreement fails, Gaza will face something worse than what we have already endured.

I hope this time things will be different. I hope this time the world will not turn away. If this ceasefire is to last, Israel can’t continue the way of the past.

Everyone here is tired of a promise that are not kept. People need to feel that the ceasefire is real and that their safety is protected. That means no more attacks, no more shelling. Aid must continue to enter Gaza without interruption.

My hope for the next chapter of Gaza is a chapter of safety, life, and freedom. I hope that people can feel safe in their homes, that children can live freely without fear, and the families can rebuild what was destroyed during the genocide.

I hope the streets and neighborhood will be full of life again. I hope there’s real justice and protection, that our rights are respected.

I also hope the world stops staying silent and really supports Gaza with aid, reconstruction, and helping it get back to what it once was. Gaza needs action, not just words.

JV: That’s Taqwa Ahmed Al-Wawi, a Palestinian writer and poet from Gaza and Intercept contributor.

Next, we dig into the details of the ceasefire and Trump’s 20-Point Plan, and what it means for the future of Gaza, with Dr. James Zogby.

But first, a short break.

Break

JV: To unpack the terms of the Gaza ceasefire deal and what remains for the future of Palestinians in Gaza, we turn to Dr. James Zogby. He is the president and co-founder of the Arab American Institute, a Washington, D.C.-based organization which serves as the political and policy research arm of the Arab American community.

His advocacy for Palestinian rights, namely Palestinian statehood, stretches back decades and he has remained an active voice throughout Israel’s genocide in Gaza.

On Wednesday, October 15, he joined a delegation of Palestinian Americans who survived the genocide to Capitol Hill. They met with members of Congress to ensure the current ceasefire holds and to push for an arms embargo on Israel.

We’re speaking to him on Wednesday as they begin those conversations on the Hill.

Welcome to the Intercept Briefing, Dr. Zogby.

Dr. James Zogby: Thank you so much, Jonah.

JV: Yeah. To start, I’m wondering if you could tell us about your meeting with members of Congress.

JZ: Let me first tell you about why we did it.

“Palestinians have been invisible or objectified in a way that the personal was lost.”

It’s because throughout this entire conflict and now especially at the end of the Trump plan and the ceasefire and the returns of hostages and prisoners, Palestinians have been invisible or objectified in a way that the personal was lost. We saw the Israeli families hugging their returned ones. There were interviews with them. They even got to speak at the Democratic convention. Palestinians didn’t get to tell their story.

Today, one of the newspapers had a half page with profiles of the Israeli hostages who had died. And yet there’s no personal profile of the Palestinians who were returned. And let me tell you, the Palestinians who were returned weren’t prisoners — they were hostages. They were people picked up in the early part of this war, held with no charges, no trial — no sense even, in many cases, to why they were being picked up.

JV: Right.

JZ: They were young men, and they were just held in administrative detention, which Israel does, for two years, treated abominably — lost so much weight. People died. There were 70 of these prisoners who died. Their bodies have not been returned by Israel, and yet there’s no fuss in the American press about it. No discussion in Congress. Members of Congress are saying, “Well, it’s over. Now there’s a peace settlement.” There is no peace settlement because as I’ve said, for years now, there is no day after in Gaza.

There’s a generation of kids who have lost everything. And I wanted to get together Palestinians in America who had family in Gaza to be able to tell their story, just as the Israeli family of hostages got to tell their story. And we brought together a group that had very compelling stories to tell to members of Congress. And they’re making visits to members now and into the next week or so to be able to tell who they are, who their loved ones are. Pictures of the cousins and kids who’ve died. The father who died, the house that they’d built that was now rubble. To put a human face on it.

We were challenging members of Congress, not just on ending the weapons supplies to Israel because they’ve so abused them — in........

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