Guest Post: The dead bodies deal

A guest post on Kiwiblog by Lucy Rogers:

It’s headline news: Israel and Hamas have reached what some Western media outlets are having the nerve to call a prisoner swap arrangement. (For example, see NBC News’ article Israel and Hamas reach deal on Gaza ceasefire and hostage release, which says that the deal will “free dozens of hostages held in Gaza, as well as Palestinianis [sic] in Israeli jails” and compares the plight of Palestinians in Israeli jails with that of Israeli hostages held in Gaza).

The terms of the deal

Scott Lucas: Gaza deal - what it means for peace in the Middle East – expert Q&A

After 15 months of bitter conflict on the Gaza Strip, a ceasefire deal has been agreed which promises an end to the fighting and will allow for the access of food and other desperately needed humanitarian aid to the civilian population. Since the Israel Defense Forces launched their ground operation in Gaza in October 2023 in response to the Hamas terror attack of October 7, more than 46,000 Palestinians are reported to have been killed, including 17,492 children. More than 1.9 million of the Gaza Strip’s 2.2 million inhabitants have been displaced and much of the infrastructure and housing has been destroyed or badly damaged.

We asked Scott Lucas, an expert in the Middle East conflict at University College Dublin, to explain the key issues that have led to the agreement and what it means for the future of the region.

Ele Ludemann: The sound of peace

Mediators from Egypt, Qatar and the USA have announced a truce which would result in a ceasefire in Gaza tomorrow.

The truce, announced by mediators Qatar and the United States on Wednesday, would begin on Sunday and involve the exchange of Israeli hostages for Palestinian prisoners, after which the terms of a permanent end to the war would be finalised. . .

Brendan O'Neill: Is this peace or appeasement?

We need to be honest: the ceasefire deal is a boon for Hamas and a blow to Israel.

Here’s a pretty good rule for international affairs: if a deal pleases neo-fascists, it’s probably a bad deal. If an agreement gets an army of anti-Semites dancing in the streets, it’s likely a poor agreement. That was my first thought upon seeing the Jew-killers of Hamas emerge from their tunnels in Gaza last night to celebrate the ceasefire deal struck with Israel: if they like it, then those of us who side with civilisation over the regressive tyranny of such merciless Islamists probably will not.