After a long history of previous ceasefire proposals with varying levels of success, the Israeli government and Hamas have reached an agreement as of the 10th of October for a permanent ceasefire in the Gaza Strip. There have been multiple attempts to negotiate a ceasefire agreement over the past two years of the war, including a successful temporary deal in January of this year, which ended after no real progress was made on a permanent deal during the cessation of hostilities. 

The war has had a drastic impact on the Palestinian population of Gaza, with fatalities being counted at over 65,000, many of whom are women and children, and over 160,000 injuries, as reported on October 7th, 2025, by the Ministry of Health in Gaza. These numbers are generally considered to be undercounted, as the information the MoH provided only includes confirmed fatalities, and it is believed that thousands more lie undiscovered under the rubble.

Israel has significantly fewer confirmed casualties, with around 1,200 fatalities and approximately 5,400 reported injuries from the Hamas attacks on October 7th, 2025. Since then, the Israeli government has reported approximately 466 Israeli combatant deaths and around 3,000 injuries in the conflict zone.

Negotiations between the two warring parties took place the week of the ceasefire’s implementation in Egypt. Talks were mediated by the governments of the U.S., Qatar, Turkey, and Egypt. Notably, the two main parties involved in the war, Israel and Hamas, were not present at these negotiations.

From the discussion, the Trump administration released a 20-point peace plan for the Gaza Strip. Included in this plan is the agreement that Hamas will give up its governing power over the area, and that the Gaza Strip instead “will be governed under the temporary transitional governance of a technocratic, apolitical Palestinian committee, responsible for delivering the day-to-day running of public services and municipalities for the people in Gaza.” The project will be supervised by a “Board of Peace” headed by, among others who have yet to be announced, current U.S. president Donald Trump and former U.K. Prime Minister Tony Blair. 

Blair has previously been involved in development projects in Palestine, including assisting in 2009 with the establishment of a second Palestinian phone operator, Watinya Mobile. The deal made to get the radio frequencies for the project from Israel, however, came with the concession from Palestinian leaders of halting the U.N. investigation of potential war crimes committed by Israel during Operation Cast Lead in 2008.

Later, during his time spent at the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change, he was involved in the planning of a project to turn Gaza into what Trump touted as a “Riviera of the Middle East.”

Another notable point of the plan states that “Hamas and other factions agree to not have any role in the governance of Gaza, directly, indirectly, or in any form,” meaning that all functions of the current governance of the Gaza Strip are likely to be replaced by the new government which will be installed. In addition to these points, the plan also detailed that a “Trump economic development plan to rebuild and energize Gaza will be created,” though the exact details of this remain a mystery

The current agreement is a multi-phase effort that still has the potential to fall through if both parties do not cooperate with the terms. This could potentially be an issue for Hamas, as some of the bodies of hostages they have agreed to release as part of the deal have not been located yet, meaning Hamas may not be able to return the bodies in a satisfying time frame for Israel. The overall fate of the ceasefire remains up in the air, but it will take more time to be able to predict its fate accurately.

Sources:

https://time.com/7321848/tony-blair-gaza-peace-plan-trump-israel-hamas-iraq-history/

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c70155nked7o

https://www.ochaopt.org/content/reported-impact-snapshot-gaza-strip-7-october-2025

https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/details-gaza-ceasefire-agreement-2025-10-10/