Peace Deal Promises to Bring Hostages Home
Israel and Hamas have reportedly agreed to the first phase of President Trump’s 20-point peace plan. This means an immediate ceasefire and the release, reportedly by Monday, of all remaining Israeli hostages—thought to be 20 living people and 28 bodies. Trump hailed the agreement as heralding “peace in the Middle East.”
Other terms of this preliminary phase of the deal:
- The Israel Defense Forces withdraw to a designated line in Gaza
- Israel releases around 1,700 to 2,000 Palestinian prisoners
- Unimpeded entry of aid (food, medicine, fuel, commercial goods) into Gaza via all crossings
Assuming everybody lives up to their obligations, this deal is momentous.
- Hamas’s one piece of leverage over Israel—threatening to execute hostages—will now be gone.
- The plan obligates Israel to hand over military control of Gaza to an international peacekeeping force whether Hamas is cooperative or not. So it appears very likely that, whatever happens, Gaza is due for major changes.
Amid all the celebrations, many questions remain, and reservations about the longer-term implications are justified.
Before the war truly ends, Hamas must still commit to disarm and relinquish rule of Gaza, which they have rejected in the past. Nevertheless, Israel will be under immense pressure from the international community to make this peace lasting—even if Hamas finds a way to hold on to a presence in Gaza.
- After two long years, Israel’s war-weary population could also lack the stomach to continue fighting. This could mean an end to the war even if the rest of the peace plan is not implemented.
The Trumpet expects regime change in Gaza soon. This is because of an end-time prophecy in Psalm 83. The psalmist describes a coalition of nations that assemble to cut off “Israel” from being a nation—a coalition that, along with a collection of Arab states and Germany, includes “the Philistines,” a term for the modern-day Palestinians. Gaza was an ancient Philistine city-state. (Read about this in “Another, More Mysterious Alliance,” Chapter 4 of Gerald Flurry’s booklet The King of the South.)
The Trumpet expects Gaza to shift allegiance from Hamas’s Iranian puppet regime (which, as The King of the South explains, belongs to a rival power bloc) to Europe and the “moderate” Arab states. Mr. Flurry writes:
Right now Gaza’s immediate future is unclear. But whoever reconstructs the rubble that is the Gaza Strip, it is clear that the main obstacle to Gaza aligning with Germany—Hamas’s undisputed stranglehold on the territory—is now history. Gaza is no longer a part of Iran’s proxy empire. You can be sure that, whatever unexpected developments affect Gaza, Germany, one way or another, will become Gaza’s new master.
However this peace deal unfolds, expect events in Gaza to play out just as Mr. Flurry—and the Bible—describe.