Israel and Hamas have agreed to an agreement that will stop the war in Gaza and Palestinian prisoners will be released in exchange for the release of Israeli hostages.
The US and mediator Qatar announced this ceasefire agreement. It is being considered an important success in the war that has been going on for the last 15 months. This war has been going on since Hamas attacked Israel on 7 October 2023.
This agreement is being discussed a lot in the media of Iran and Arab countries. In some reports of Iranian media, it is being presented as a victory for the Palestinian armed group Hamas.
At the same time, it is being said in the press of Arab countries that perhaps this agreement would not have reached its destination without the newly elected US President Donald Trump.
Israel’s ‘biggest defeat’
Qatar announced on January 15 that Israel and Hamas had reached an agreement on a ceasefire and exchange of hostages and prisoners.
Qatar’s Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Mohammed bin Abdul Rahman Al Thani said that this agreement will come into effect from January 19. He said that the agreement includes three phases.
Iranian media has published detailed news and analysis on the temporary ceasefire agreement between Hamas and Israel.
On January 15, Iran’s state television channel described the ceasefire as the ‘biggest defeat’ for Israel in its main evening news.
This news said that despite pouring all its resources into the war, Israel has failed to destroy Hamas. At the same time, an analyst described the ceasefire as a victory for Iran’s ‘Resistance Front’.
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On January 16, Iranian radio and TV channels reported that the “resistance’s victory” sparked celebrations from Palestine to Lebanon, Yemen, Iraq, Turkey, and other countries in the region.
Broadcast media and other outlets also reported that senior Hamas member Khalil al-Hayya thanked Iran for its role in helping the group.
The reformist newspaper Arman-e-Emroz said in an article a few hours after the deal was announced that Donald Trump had recently threatened that the hostages would have to be paid a heavy price if they were not released.
These threats may have led Hamas to agree to the deal. The newspaper also said that Trump becoming US president could also be a challenge for Israel.
The state-run daily Iran, citing two political experts, said the deal represented a “strategic defeat for Israel” and the “beginning of the post-7 October era”, in which Israel is weak and ineffective.
The state-run newspaper Jam-e-Zam said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “surrendered”. The Tehran municipality’s newspaper Hamshahri echoed similar sentiments.
Hamshahri also said Israel was “forced to accept” the deal, citing Trump’s ultimatum to Netanyahu and Hamas’ alleged defeat of the Israeli army as the reasons cited.
The conservative daily Farhikhtegan said, “Hamas stopped, but Israel did not become safe”.
The newspaper praised Iran for its threat of retaliation against Israel and its recent military exercises.
At the same time, the radical ideology daily newspaper Quds described Hamas’ attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, as a “blown victory”. At the same time, Watan-e-Imroz has called Netanyahu and the Israeli cabinet ‘defeated killers’.
Noor News, associated with the Supreme National Security Council (SNSC), has described the ceasefire as a significant victory for the Palestinian ‘resistance’. Noor News has said that this agreement is a symbol of a major defeat for Israel’s strategies.
Radical news website Mashreq has called the agreement a ‘humiliating defeat for Israel’.
What is being said on social media?
Supporters of the ‘Axis of Resistance’, a regional network of Iran and its allies, are celebrating the ceasefire deal. Those expressing joy on social media are seeing it as a ‘victory for Hamas’ and the result of efforts by Iran and its regional allies.
Several posts on social media platform X say that Israel has failed to achieve its war goals in Gaza and that the ‘Resistance’ continues to fight against Israel.
A pro-Iran user wrote, “The end of Hamas, the return of hostages, the return of residents of the northern areas to their homes – they did not achieve any of this, so they had to sign a ceasefire.”
Many people on social media also highlighted ‘Israeli crimes’ in Gaza and remembered the Palestinian, Lebanese, and Iranian ‘martyrs’ of the ‘Resistance’.
However, many anti-establishment users said the deal was the result of Hamas being forced to accept a ceasefire in fear of growing US support for Israel under Trump’s presidency.
Some users questioned what Hamas and the Resistance gained from the October 7 attack “other than the deaths of Palestinian women and children, and all the misery that has been inflicted on Hezbollah and Hamas.”
Trump discussed in Arab media
Some commentators in the Arab press and websites on the Gaza ceasefire have argued that the deal could not have happened without the “influence” of US President-elect Donald Trump.
Others hoped the deal would create a political rift within the Israeli coalition government led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. In contrast, others questioned whether the deal meant the war was over forever.
Jamal Zahalka, a Palestinian leader in Israel and former member of the Israeli parliament, wrote in the London-based Arabic newspaper Al-Quds al-Arabi that the agreement could have been reached months ago, but the ‘main obstacle was Benjamin Netanyahu’s position’.
Zahalka has argued that Netanyahu changed his mind and agreed to the agreement only because of Trump’s influence.
He wrote, “Trump influences the Israeli political class. Netanyahu is expecting warm strategic cooperation with Trump and his administration on key issues such as the Iranian nuclear program, normalization of relations with Saudi Arabia, legalization of settlements in the West Bank, the blockade of Yemen, limiting Turkey’s influence in Syria and increasing American investment in Israel’s military industry.”
Veteran Palestinian thinker Munir Shafiq has written something similar on Al-Jazeera’s website.
He wrote, “The Gaza war could probably have been stopped in the first month if there had not been Netanyahu’s ‘criminal stubbornness’ and the Biden administration’s support for the Zionist army and Netanyahu to continue the aggression.” Shafiq wrote, “Netanyahu put his narrow personal interests ahead of avoiding military defeat.” He wrote, “Without fear of Donald Trump, Netanyahu would not have been willing to approve this agreement.” At the same time, the website of Syria’s state TV channel Al-Cairo News has also said that the main reason for reaching this ceasefire deal was ‘international pressure’, especially from Trump. Moroccan commentator Mohammed Ahmed Benis wrote in the Arab-al-Arabi-al-Jadid newspaper that the ceasefire agreement ‘will put Netanyahu in a dilemma regarding his far-right allies in the government coalition.’ Benis wrote, “The ceasefire in Gaza is a political setback for the Zionist right wing, as they wanted to free the hostages without paying a heavy price for Israel’s national security.”
Meanwhile, the UAE’s Sky News Arabia website has argued that the ceasefire deal will stop the war only if its conditions are followed. However, it is not clear whether this agreement will end the war forever or not.
The article says that the ceasefire deal is fragile and any small incident can prove to be a ‘big threat’ to this agreement.
Moroccan academic and commentator Tariq Lisoui wrote on the London website Rai al-Youm, “In the coming days we will see the rapid collapse of Netanyahu’s government, wanted by international courts for war crimes.”
