Michael Amon

While this is a major breakthrough for peace in Gaza, we still have a long way to go to end this war.

There are a lot of moving parts of this agreement, but this is the first step.

And to make it hold, President Trump is going to have to both pressure Israel to not start the war again if Hamas doesn't follow through right away, and he will have to pressure Muslim world leaders to stay on the back of Hamas to follow through with its own agreements.

Hamas negotiators have confirmed that they will release the hostages.

They've agreed to a prisoner exchange.

And they have also conditioned this on the end of the war.

Now, these are all very vague terms and are going to require a lot of negotiation going forward.

Hamas is not going to give up the hostages without getting something in return.

there are still major obstacles to getting a deal done.

And some of those obstacles have been there for months, if not years, and it's the same things that have bedeviled negotiators.

Among them are, when will the IDF, the Israeli military, withdraw completely from Gaza?

This plan right now leaves that completely vague, and that is a crucial point for Hamas.

Another major point is, will Hamas disarm?

Hamas doesn't want to disarm, and Israel has said that its war aim is to destroy Hamas, or at least to disarm it.

So that is a major point going forward.

Peace cannot happen without some kind of agreement along those lines.