17.10.2025

On Monday, after more than two years of war, there was historic jubilation in the Gaza Strip. The last 20 surviving hostages, kidnapped by the terrorist organization Hamas after the massacre on October 7, 2023, were released after two years of inhumane detention – 20 survivors out of an original 253. 28 hostages did not survive their detention. The Gaza Strip itself has been largely devastated as a result of massive Israeli shelling.

This was the first step in Donald Trump's 20-point plan for peace in the Middle East. The US President, who made a significant contribution to this release through his – unusual – cooperation with several countries and pressure on those involved, flew to Israel and let celebrate himself in parliament. Following this, 30 heads of state and government met in Egypt, where an agreement securing the current ceasefire was signed by the US and the mediating countries. Israel and Hamas were not present. "Peace 2025" was written in large letters in front of the table.

The next steps, according to the 20-point plan, are to create a government to rebuild Gaza, the disarmament of Hamas, and the deployment of an international peacekeeping force.

What was this war about, and what is this conflict about, which has claimed countless lives and left its survivors devastated? What makes the Gaza Strip—an area not even half the size of Berlin or Hamburg—a powder keg that has regularly been at the center of world events for decades, yet has failed to come to lasting pacification?

The Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the Gaza Strip

Excerpts from the detailed article and cross-links in Wikipedia: "The current conflict in the region dates back to the increased return of Jews from the 19th century onwards, particularly from European countries, to the territory of historic Israel, where some joined still-existing Jewish communities, others acquired land and founded their own settlements. The main reasons for this immigration were anti-Jewish pogroms and discrimination against Jews in Europe and the Muslim world. During the First World War, Great Britain agreed in the Balfour Declaration to create a "national home" for Jews in the British League of Nations Mandate for Palestine, which was intended to offer Jews protection from discrimination and persecution. As early as 1923, the territory was divided for the first time, into the Arab state of Transjordan on the one hand, and the remaining British territory in the West Bank on the other. In the following years, however, violent, mostly anti-Semitic clashes between Jews and Arabs continued, such as the Hebron massacre. Therefore, in 1947, the United Nations presented a partition plan that would divide the remaining territory into a Jewish and an Arab state. Although the territory allocated to the Jews did not include most of the holy or historically important Jewish sites (such as Hebron, parts of Jerusalem, etc.), the leaders of the Jewish movements agreed and founded the State of Israel in 1948. The Arab states, however, rejected partition and began the Palestine War, which Israel quickly won. The Gaza Strip was then placed under Egyptian administration.

The Six-Day War followed in 1967. At that time, "the Gaza Strip was occupied by Israel, and the Israeli government authorized the establishment of Jewish settlements there. 8,000 settlers lived on 40% of the Gaza Strip in a settlement bloc in the south known as Gush Katif. These settlements were inaccessible to the Arab residents of the Gaza Strip and cut off their access to beaches and fields. A separate road network was built for the Israeli settlers, separate from the Palestinian ones, to provide safe access to their settlements from Israeli territory. In the early 1980s, despite the discontent of the local population, a predominantly peaceful coexistence existed in the Gaza Strip. It was not until December 1987 that the First Intifada began with protests by Arab youth in the Gaza Strip.

Since the Gaza-Jericho Agreement of 1994 (the so-called Cairo Agreement), the Gaza Strip has been largely under Palestinian self-government (Palestinian Autonomous Territories). Only parts of the Gaza Strip initially remained under Israeli control.

On September 28, 2000, the declaration of the Second Intifada (Al-Aqsa Intifada) between Israeli soldiers and Palestinians led to renewed bloody clashes, which spread from Jerusalem and Israel to the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. Unlike the First Intifada, radical Palestinians relied on terrorist attacks in Israel.

The Second Intifada officially ended in February 2005. The Israeli settlements in the Gaza Strip were evacuated by the Israeli army in 2005, and the military also withdrew completely from the area. However, Israel has maintained a blockade along the border and off the coast since Hamas's violent takeover of the Gaza Strip in 2007.

Despite periods of mutual calm, fighting and acts of terrorism continued in the conflict region.

The Gaza Strip developed into a stronghold of the Arab-Islamic fundamentalist Hamas, which operated in opposition to Fatah (PLO) and the Palestinian Authority. Hamas, in particular, which calls for the complete annihilation of Israel, fuels the conflict, among other things, through regular shelling of Israel with Qassam rockets and terrorist attacks. It consists of the paramilitary Qassam Brigades, but also a charitable network and a political party, making it difficult to categorize it clearly. It also belongs to the Muslim Brotherhood, to which former Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi, who recently played a mediating role, also belonged. Internationally, Hamas is classified as a terrorist organization by, among others, the European Union and the United States. Since taking power in the Gaza Strip in 2007, Hamas has repeatedly executed individuals it accuses of collaborating with Israel."

Six conflict sources at once

The passages cited are merely excerpts from the articles, which only incompletely reflect the complexity of this conflict. Even the first movements of Jews back to the area in the 19th century were prompted by antisemitism. Antisemitism and the hatred it engenders are increasingly spreading again today. The Jews who settled there were also migrants in general, and the emotional reactions to migration are also evident in many current discussions. Furthermore, Israel is a state recognized under international law, while Palestine remains in an unresolved state of limbo under international law. Furthermore, different religions also play a role here, and the tension between religions, especially when Islamism plays a role, can fuel hatred. Furthermore, Israel is a democratic state, while in Palestine, a terrorist organization has established a dictatorship, thus creating a systemic conflict. Even if, after the Six-Day War, 8,000 settlers live in 40% of the territory and those living in the other 60% are excluded, this leads to hatred. It doesn't take much imagination to understand that when six sources of conflict intertwine and interact, even more hatred is the natural consequence.

In the years that followed, a situation had developed in which – financed by Iran – three terrorist organizations, Hamas in the Gaza Strip, Hezbollah in Lebanon, and the Houthi rebels in Yemen, share the official goal of destroying Israel. Israel was regularly bombarded with rockets, forcing the country to live under an Iron Dome as a permanent missile defense shield – a unique phenomenon worldwide and no longer worth a headline.

October 7, 2023

On that day, Hamas attacked Israel, specifically at the site of an open-air festival. An attack led by Hamas in which approximately 1,200 Israelis were brutally slaughtered and over 250 hostages were taken. It was disgusting how the massacre was literally celebrated on the streets around the world.

Israel did what any country would have done: it defended itself. The result was at least tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, of deaths. The scale of the war can also be explained by the perfidious situation that Hamas lives hidden in tunnels and hides behind civilians and hostages, so that every strike against it is accompanied by collateral damage. Thus, it is a dilemma between two no-gos: It cannot be that the annihilation of a people is openly, explicitly, and continuously pursued without that people resisting. But it is also unacceptable that the deaths of tens of thousands of innocent people are accepted in order to punish a few.

This dilemma remains unresolved. One can certainly doubt whether the many deaths in the Gaza Strip caused by Israeli shelling were still proportionate. But the unanimity with which the protests were directed against Israel and not against Hamas, which could have released the hostages at any time, can also be viewed critically. The “free Palestine” slogans were also directed at the wrong adressee.

Are we at peace?

As described above, peace in Gaza was celebrated worldwide on Tuesday following the release of the hostages. Indeed, the guns are currently down, and the hostages are back with their families, which is a tremendous achievement. But does that mean peace?

Hamas, which – like Israel – has not signed the ceasefire agreement, has already rejected its disarmament as stipulated in the peace plan. Furthermore, it has announced its intention to continue the fight against Israel unabated. This week, Hamas publicly executed seven men, followed by a comment from the White House that "it's okay."

Contrary to the agreement to release the hostages, Hamas has not yet released the bodies of 19 slain hostages, claiming they cannot find them. Israel has subsequently threatened to continue the fighting. US President Trump has threatened the organization with death.

In return for the release of the 20 Israeli hostages, Israel has agreed to release approximately 2,000 Palestinian prisoners, some of them serious criminals – an absurd ratio. Hamas leader Sinwa, who was killed by Israel in October 2024 and is considered one of the masterminds of the massacre on October 7, 2023, was also released in a prisoner exchange in 2011. The mastermind of October 7, 20XX, may be released these days.

A ceasefire was reached this week – a very fragile ceasefire. Peace stays still far away. The Gaza Strip remains a powder keg.