The ceasefire in Gaza appears more likely to hold this time, analysts say, as the Israeli regime finds itself more isolated than ever and under unprecedented global scrutiny.
“It is a very important moment in history,” said Tamer Qarmout, associate professor at the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies.
“You see these recognitions happening for Palestinian statehood, Israel so isolated on the international stage, and then you see the Americans rushing to save the Israelis from themselves — from going all the way in this genocidal, bloody project and losing all legitimacy worldwide,” he told Al Jazeera.
Qarmout added that these dynamics have influenced US President Donald Trump’s latest intervention.
“All these factors played into Trump’s calculations to intervene strategically because he wants a reputation as a peacemaker,” he said.
He noted growing alignment among regional actors, including Persian Gulf states, in backing the ceasefire.
In the United States, Arab American backers of Trump expressed cautious relief.
Samra’a Luqman, a Yemeni American and former Democrat who campaigned for Trump in 2024, said she felt vindicated.
“It’s almost an ‘I told you so’ moment,” she told Reuters.
“No other president would have been able to force Bibi to approve the ceasefire,” she said, referring to Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Lebanese American political consultant Mike Hacham, another Trump supporter, acknowledged the ceasefire but questioned its durability.
“I gotta give credit where credit is due,” he said.
“But this isn’t a peace deal. It’s just the end of a bloody war — and those lives that were lost on both sides aren’t coming back.”
For Palestinians, returning to northern Gaza is both an act of survival and defiance against Israel’s settler-colonial project.
“Seventy percent of Gaza’s population descend from Palestinian refugees who left the villages and towns in 1948 and 1967,” Qarmout said.
“Israel is a settler colonial project, so they want the land without the people. Since the onset of this genocidal war, the goal has been to empty Gaza of its people.”
He added that the mass return north symbolizes resilience:
“Palestinians are hanging on to the land, hanging on to their rights, hanging on to everything they believe in.”
Generational trauma continues to shape their struggle.
“Thousands left carrying just their keys, thinking they would return in days or weeks — they never did. This generation inherited that trauma and refuses to repeat it,” he said.
In Gaza City, the aftermath is apocalyptic.
Reporting from the scene, journalist Ibrahim al-Khalili described “joy mixed with devastation and grief.”
Many returning families find nothing left of their neighborhoods — only rubble where homes once stood.
Two years of the Israeli regime’s assault have destroyed livelihoods and stripped people of basic necessities like food, water and shelter.
Hospitals remain overwhelmed.
The Gaza Health Ministry reported that at least 151 bodies and 72 wounded people were brought in over the past day.
Most were recovered from under collapsed buildings.
Since October 2023, Israel’s war on Gaza has killed 67,682 Palestinians and wounded more than 170,000, the ministry said.
As the world looks on, the destruction left behind stands as a grim indictment of Israel’s war — a campaign that has deepened its isolation, eroded its legitimacy, and left Gaza’s people determined never to be erased.