Peace has come to Gaza – and not a moment too soon

Great relief, then, at the Gaza ceasefire, such as it is – but also great sadness.

- SEAN O'GRADY

There is no real reason why this deal, or something very much like it, couldn’t have been concluded when US president Joe Biden and his secretary of state Antony Blinken first put it on the table last May.

The “sticking points” that were obvious then haven’t materially altered in the many months since. But the price of delay has been paid by untold thousands of dead and injured civilians, the continuing pain of the hostages’ families, and the transformation of the poor but busy territory of Gaza into a desolate, uninhabitable moonscape.

The greatest of the tragedies have been inflicted on the children. It seems obvious that war crimes have been committed, just as surely as the series of events that triggered this particular phase of conflict in the Middle East, on 7 October 2023, amounted to a terrorist atrocity and an act of war.

Whatever else may be said about the inevitability of what followed, the state of Israel should never have allowed itself to be in a position whence it could be arraigned on a charge of genocide at the International Court.

The timing suggests that it was Donald Trump who made the difference, even if he was the beneficiary of the many months of frustrating negotiations carried out by the Biden administration. Perversely, Trump’s bluster and threats about the hostages being released by his inauguration day (next Monday) seem to have been the factor that finally got this deal over the line – on Joe Biden’s watch.