There is neither real war nor peace in the Gaza Strip at the moment. With their delaying tactics, the Hamas terrorists are torpedoing Donald Trump’s peace plan.
November 2, 2025, 11:04 amNovember 2, 2025, 11:04 am
Kurt Pelda / ch media
Little by little, the Palestinian terrorists are handing over to Hamas the remains of the last Israeli hostages killed or killed in the crossfire. But Israel accuses Hamas of buying time by searching for the remaining bodies.
Israeli tanks on the edge of the Gaza Strip.Image: keystone
Less well-known than the agreement on the exchange of Israeli hostages for Palestinian prisoners is the macabre partial agreement on the exchange of dead bodies: for every Israeli corpse “returned”, the terrorists receive 15 killed Palestinians.
So far, the Israelis have handed over the remains of 225 Palestinians. Of the 28 Israeli hostages who are believed to have died, at least 10 are still missing. Meanwhile, Egyptian search units with heavy equipment are helping Hamas to track down the remaining bodies.
It is said in Jerusalem that the terrorists did not want to fully implement the first phase of Donald Trump’s “peace plan” so that they would not have to negotiate on the really contentious points: The main issues are the disarmament of Hamas and the question of whether the terrorists will give up power in the Gaza Strip.
Contrary to what US President Trump has suggested, the two warring parties have not yet reached an agreement on this. When all hostages and prisoners – living and dead – have been exchanged, the second phase of Trump’s peace plan should actually begin.
Smoke over Gaza after an Israeli airstrike: Will the ceasefire hold?Image: keystone
But not even the agreed ceasefire is actually being adhered to. Jerusalem responded to the killing of an Israeli soldier by Hamas with renewed air strikes on targets in the coastal strip. According to unverifiable Palestinian sources, dozens of civilians were killed.
Violence as a means of maintaining power
With their delaying tactics, the terrorists pursue a simple goal: they use the time to consolidate their power and eliminate competing militias. These are partly supported by Israel. In the end, there will only be one armed group that exercises power in Gaza, namely Hamas and its allies. Hamas representatives abroad have made it clear that they will not allow themselves to be disarmed.
However, the more the terrorists consolidate their power, the less appetite the Arab states have to send peacekeepers to the largely destroyed coastal area. With American help, Arab armies would at most be willing to monitor peace, but not to wage war against Hamas, which is still armed underground.
With its unforgiving attitude, Hamas is trying to torpedo all further steps in Trump’s big peace plan. Because if there will be neither demilitarization nor peacekeepers, Trump’s hyped undertaking has achieved little more than a short-term ceasefire.
What would be the options in such a scenario? The war would probably continue, but this time Hamas would no longer hold any trump cards in the form of hostages. This would allow Israel to act much more ruthlessly militarily than before – with corresponding victims among the terrorists, but also among the plagued civilian population. As is well known, Hamas is concerned about civilian deaths; on the contrary, it abuses the population as human shields and uses the deaths for its propaganda.
But would Trump allow Israel to take action against Hamas again? His peace plan would then have failed. In another scenario, the United States would quietly accept that the terrorists keep their weapons. Then there would probably be no peacekeepers and Israel would continue to occupy around half of the Gaza Strip. New fights would then also be programmed. There are many indications that Trump’s plan was only aimed at quick success stories and was not well thought out. (aargauerzeitung.ch)