The US-brokered ceasefire between the Palestinian resistance led by Hamas and the US-Israel went into effect on October 10 after days of intense negotiation in Egypt, marking the second ceasefire of the year. The ceasefire represents another great victory of the Palestinian resistance and has come fittingly days after the second anniversary of the heroic Operation Al Aqsa Flood that ignited the region against US imperialism and Zionism and for Palestinian liberation.
Similar to the January 2025 ceasefire, the current agreement has several phases, with the implementation of the later phases remaining an uncertainty. The first phase, which has already begun, includes a partial withdrawal of Israeli troops and return of Palestinians displaced in Gaza, a prisoner exchange, and aid entry. The details of the second and third phase, which supposedly include combined international and local technocratic governance of the Gaza Strip and the deployment of an international armed force amid further Israeli withdrawal, remain vague.
The US said it is deploying up to 200 troops to Israel as part of a multinational force including several Arab countries to oversee the implementation of the agreement.
While Trump threatened “all hell” would break loose if Hamas and the other factions did not agree to the proposal put forward by the US and Israel, the resistance movement ultimately maintained the position it has held since the initiation of Operation Al Aqsa Flood, which was to free Palestinian prisoners while refusing to disarm. The resistance factions have also put out a statement explicitly rejecting any “foreign guardianship” over Gaza.
The prisoner exchange is set to take place within 72 hours of the beginning of the ceasefire. The 20 living Israeli prisoners—all Zionist soldiers—will be released in exchange for around 2,000 Palestinian prisoners, including 250 serving life sentences. The remains of an additional 28 Israeli prisoners of war—killed by Israeli bombardment—will be gradually released.
About 600 aid trucks are expected to enter Gaza daily. The aid will be overseen by international organizations rather than the criminal US-Israeli “Gaza Humanitarian Foundation”, whose “aid” sites served as concentration points to carry out intelligence against resistance forces, massacre starving Palestinians, and carry out forced displacement.
While Israel continued carrying out massacres up until the last moment of the ceasefire, Palestinian resistance fighters succeeded in annihilating and wounding Israeli soldiers in return for their crimes. As expected, Israel has already violated the ceasefire, carrying out artillery and aerial strikes as their forces withdraw.
The Hamas political bureau said in a statement on Friday: “Today, the Palestinian people accomplished the return to the cities of the Strip, as a step on the path of the Great Return, proving that they are the resistance in origin and foundation, the initiator of resistance work, and the guardian of constants. They are the ones who produced the fighters; they were born from the wombs of free women, and the people embraced them, stood firm with them, and strengthened them. The people endured and persevered through the hardships of war. The people cleared the field for the fighters when only weapons spoke, and when the sound of weapons subsided, the resisting people stepped forward to have the final say.”
The resistance movement has already succeeded twice in the prisoner exchange—first in November 2023 and later with the January 2025 ceasefire—and has once again shattered the US-Israeli veil of invincibility, substantially weakening Israel’s position internationally. On the other hand, the US and its attack dog have won nothing through their two years of genocide but the fury of the armed Palestinian people and masses across the world.
Photo: Palestinians in Gaza celebrate the announcement of the ceasefire. Retrieved from Resistance News Network.
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