Time for Gaza peace
The Middle East has stepped back from the brink. The recent ceasefire between Iran and Israel, brokered in part through quiet diplomacy and international pressure - including the efforts of U.S. President Donald Trump - has helped restore a fragile calm in the region. With this major flashpoint stabilized, all eyes must now turn to the far more urgent and humanitarian catastrophe unfolding in Gaza.
More than 56,000 Palestinians have died in the 21-month-long war, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry. Half of the dead are women and children. With food aid barely trickling in, hospitals overwhelmed, and thousands of families living in tent camps or makeshift shelters, the Strip is no longer on the verge of collapse — it is already collapsing. Every day brings new images of devastation: children killed in their sleep, aid seekers shot at, bodies carried to overwhelmed morgues.
Gaza, thus, cannot be treated as a side story. As demonstrated by the ceasefire between Iran and Israel, a diplomatic solution to Israel-Palestine crisis is possible. The United States, which played a role in de-escalating that conflict, must now channel the same urgency and political will into brokering a lasting ceasefire in Gaza. President Trump, who has already hinted that a Gaza truce may be within reach in the coming week, must move from words to decisive action.
There is precedent. Trump’s involvement in Israel-Iran talks has shifted strategic calculations. After Iran’s fierce retaliation to Israel’s unprovoked military aggression, its Prime Minister Netanyahu is likely to have been chastened.This should in all likelihood force him to agree to a ceasefire - despite resistance from his far-right coalition partners. Hamas, for its part, continues to signal readiness to release all remaining hostages in exchange for a permanent halt to the war. And it is time that the international community responds to this offer.
The moment demands bold diplomacy. Gaza’s humanitarian crisis cannot wait for political deadlock to resolve itself. A permanent ceasefire is not only a moral necessity - it is the only path toward regional stability. If President Trump wants to leave a lasting legacy in the Middle East, he must bring the same energy that paused the Iran-Israel conflict into ending the war in Gaza now.
