Much awaited Gaza ceasefire deal comes into effect

CGTN Europe

CGTN Europe speaks to Yossi Mekelberg, Associate fellow with the Middle East and North Africa Programme at Chatham House.

Transcript

00:00Let's now go to Yossi Mechelberg, an associate fellow with the Middle East and North Africa

00:06program at the Chatham House Think Tank in London.

00:10Pleased to have you with us, Professor Mechelberg.

00:13And we were hearing just then, so let me go to that news, that three Israeli hostages

00:18are now being transferred to the Red Cross in exchange for Palestinian prisoners.

00:23How difficult was it to get to this moment?

00:27Well, it's been extremely difficult and, you know, we're talking about hostages there

00:33that were in captivity for 15 months, which probably we'll hear eventually, they'll tell

00:41their stories, but what we know from those who have been released before, it's been horrendous

00:47for them.

00:48I think generally we are talking about a great self-relief today to see that, you know, we

00:55follow the technical, logistical, which is, you know, the ceasefire, or it's too small

01:02than a ceasefire, has started and maybe we can start looking into a better future, and

01:09which, you know, the deaths and devastation and people held as hostages is about to come

01:15to an end.

01:16But we saw, you know, a very similar agreement was on the table back in May of this year

01:22and it still took around seven, eight months to reach this agreement now.

01:27It's a tough one, but we just should hope that it, you know, every stage of it, of the

01:33implementation will be respected by all the sides.

01:37Yes.

01:38How fragile do you think this agreement is then?

01:43I'm afraid it's extremely fragile and we saw it this morning, you know, that the minute

01:49that, you know, there were some doubts on one side, whether the names of the hostages

01:55will be given to Israel, the next thing we saw is the bombardment in Gaza and dozens

02:02of people killed.

02:06Some of the difficulties are practical, logistical ones, because of the situation of Gaza and

02:14you communicate within Gaza and now you release the hostages, but some of them are because,

02:21you know, there are people that really oppose this agreement and we saw that already one

02:28party left the Israeli coalition, left it with a very tiny minority, a majority, forgive

02:36me, of only two members of Knesset, and there is still the possibility that another far

02:41right would leave it and then it will throw the entire Israeli system into chaos.

02:47Yes, and if we move to the people of Gaza now, displaced families hope to return to

02:52their homes, but what's left now?

02:57I think we'll see probably now the full picture of the terrible devastation in Gaza and, I

03:07mean, what the people of Gaza have suffered over the last 15 months is horrendous.

03:15The only thing that we should hope that this is the end of the war and the two faces be

03:21respected and start rebuilding it, not only in terms of physical restructuring, but also

03:28dealing with the huge trauma that so many people, including children, have experienced

03:34over this terrible period, building the institution, looking into bringing the West back in Gaza

03:41under one governance, and this is a long process, so we need special funds to fund all of it.

03:51This will take a long time, we're just in the very, very beginning of a long process.

03:57Yes, a long process, and what does this mean for Netanyahu's government, do you think?

04:03I think at the end of the day, the Netanyahu government needs to go.

04:09This is the government, you know, obviously what Hamas committed on October 7, 2023, was

04:17a horrendous massacre, but everything in Israel's behavior before and after points in one way

04:24that this is not a government fit to govern the country.

04:27It failed to protect its people on October 7, it failed to end the war quickly, to bring

04:34the hostages back, it promised the complete elimination of Hamas, which was an objective

04:40unachievable from the beginning, it promised that the only military pressure would bring

04:45the hostages, and what we saw, that actually hostages were killed during this time, while

04:50only diplomacy can bring home the hostages, and it divides the country.

04:55So, I mean, by any criteria, by any standard of good governance and accountability, this

05:01government should go.

05:02How long it's going to take, I really don't know.

05:05I think it should take, you know, peace quite quickly.

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