Fragile Ceasefire Between Gaza and Israel In Effect

After two years of turbulent brutality between Hamas and Israel during the Gaza War, a ceasefire agreement brokered by the United States has been ordered on the Gaza Strip. Instability in negotiations have since formed.

Since the attack on the Nova music festival on October 7th, 2023, marking the beginning of the Gaza War between Hamas and Israel, a ceasefire arranged by the United States has been made. United States president Donald Trump and Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced the plan at the White House. Alongside an immediate ceasefire, the plan called for demilitarization of the Gaza Strip, exchange of hostages and prisoners, etc.

Trump’s 20-point Peace Plan calls for all hostages, alive or dead to be released, with Israel releasing prisoners held after October 7th for every Israeli hostage released. The ceasefire does not apply to the West Bank, and has shown to be fragile, with cracks forming.

“We want to make sure that it’s going to be very peaceful with Hamas and, as you know, they’ve been quite rambunctious. They’ve been doing some shooting, and I think maybe the leadership isn’t involved in that… Either way, it’s going to be handled properly,” Trump said in response to the rising tensions between Israel and Hamas.

The ceasefire between Hamas and Israel was put into place on October 10th, with Israel withdrawing troops from Gaza, though keeping control of more than half of the Gaza Strip. Six hundred trucks carrying aid and essentials for the Gaza citizens were permitted to be sent by Israel. The Rafah Border Crossing was opened to allow displaced Palestinians to enter the Gaza Strip. 

Violations of the ceasefire between Hamas and Israel led to aid temporarily being reduced to 300 trucks, with the Rafah Border Crossing closing down, though this decision was quickly reversed the next day. IDF (Israel Defense Force) soldiers shot dead five Palestinians who crossed the Yellow Line, marking where Israeli soldiers withdrew from. Hamas-affiliated fighters were seen publicly executing 8 blind-folded men. 

As of October 25th, 2025, Hamas has since said that they would continue to search for more bodies amongst the ruins of the Gaza Strip. A call on the mediators of the ceasefire has been raised for increased aid to 6,000 trucks. Weapons will be relinquished once occupation has ended.

History teacher Edward Carr said he doesn’t expect the peace to last.

“History tells me no,” Carr said.

Sophomore Sophia Nestler, a FAHS student of Jewish descent, said she first heard of the war beginning from her Zionist family. She was displeased with being ignorant earlier.

“It hurts me when I see the kids playing in the rubble,” Nestler said. She is particularly grieved that Gaza is in a stage five famine, the most severe form of famine, involving an extreme lack of food, mass starvation, and death.

Michigan’s Farhan Ahmed, a practicing Muslim, said how he knows this goes deeper.

“I couldn’t eat, sleep, socialize, or focus on my schoolwork. It destroyed me and shattered my heart into a million pieces,” Ahmed said. “This genocide has also affected my dad’s friend, who is Palestinian and whose wife and kids live in the city of Ramallah in the West Bank. They have lost friends and family in Gaza and had to face growing violence by IDF soldiers in their streets and neighborhoods.”

“My grandmother lives in Israel [Tel Aviv],” Nestler said, suggesting that her grandma is not a victim and is instead complicit in genocide. 

“Overall peace has been difficult,” history teacher Dina Heffner said.

Ahmed believes the ceasefire is only temporary peace, and that the end of illegal occupation, with land returned to the Palestinians, would be a first step to true peace. 

Nestler said she felt pessimistic of the ceasefire and how it was merely the bare minimum.  

“My eyes were already open and aware of this dystopian world, but the videos have shown me who is fighting for the right side of history, and who is funding and supporting an ethnic cleansing,” Ahmed said about the rampant proppaganda circulating the globe regarding this conflict.

Nestler herself described the dispute as an ethnic cleansing.