Gaza Peace Plan Hits the Real World
Jordan’s King warns no country will risk “enforcing peace” in Gaza, Israel vetoes Turkish troops, and the Palestinian economy collapses under war’s weight. Who will actually police Gaza?
Countries would reject being asked to “enforce” peace in Gaza if deployed under the Trump ceasefire plan, King Abdullah of Jordan said. “What is the mandate of security forces inside of Gaza? And we hope that it is peacekeeping, because if it’s peace enforcing, nobody will want to touch that,” said King Abdullah in an exclusive interview for BBC Panorama. “Peacekeeping is that you’re sitting there supporting the local police force, the Palestinians, which Jordan and Egypt are willing to train in large numbers, but that takes time. If we’re running around Gaza on patrol with weapons, that’s not a situation that any country would like to get involved in.” The King’s comments reflect concern from the US and other nations about being dragged into a continuing conflict between Hamas and Israel, or Hamas and other Palestinian groups. According to the UN, peace enforcement uses coercive measures including military force, while peacekeeping operates with the consent of the parties to a conflict and troops only use force in self-defence and defence of their mandate. Under US President Trump’s 20-point peace plan, Arab states and international partners are to commit stabilisation forces that “will train and provide support to vetted Palestinian police forces in Gaza, and will consult with Jordan and Egypt who have extensive experience in this field.” Hamas is to disarm and give up political control of the territory. However Hamas has not yet disarmed and has mobilised thousands of fighters to reassert its grip on parts of the territory, Israel has carried out air strikes and other Palestinian armed groups are reportedly operating in parts of Gaza under Israeli control. King Abdullah said he would not send Jordanian forces into Gaza because his country was “too close politically” to the situation. More than half of Jordan’s population is of Palestinian descent, and over decades, the country has taken in 2.3 million Palestinian refugees fleeing earlier wars with Israel - the largest number in the region. Asked if he trusted Hamas to keep its promise to give up any political role in Gaza, he replied: “I don’t know them, but those that are working extremely close to them - Qatar and Egypt - feel very, very optimistic that they will abide by that. “If we don’t solve this problem, if we don’t find a future for Israelis and Palestinians and a relationship between the Arab and Muslim world and Israel, we’re doomed.” - BBC
Israel won’t accept the presence of Turkish armed forces in Gaza under a US plan to end war in the Palestinian territory for good, Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said on Monday. US President Donald Trump’s plan includes an international force in Gaza to help secure a fragile ceasefire which began this month, halting two years of war between Israel and Palestinian militant group Hamas. But it remains unclear whether Arab and other states will be ready to commit troops to the international force. “Countries that want or are ready to send armed forces should be at least fair to Israel,” Saar said at a news conference in Budapest. Once warm Turkish-Israeli relations soured drastically during the Gaza war, with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan lambasting Israel’s devastating air and ground campaign in the small Palestinian enclave. “Turkey, led by Erdogan, led a hostile approach against Israel,” Saar said, speaking alongside his Hungarian counterpart Peter Szijjarto. “So it is not reasonable for us to let their armed forces enter the Gaza Strip and we will not agree to that and we said it to our American friends,” Saar said - Al Arabiya
The Palestinian economy has contracted 29 percent since the Gaza war began in October 2023, according to a new report by the International Labour Organization (ILO). Gaza has borne the brunt, with its economy collapsing by 87.4 percent between 2023 and 2025. The occupied West Bank has also suffered severely, with its gross domestic product (GDP) falling 17.1 percent over the same period. Unemployment has surged to about 32 percent for both men and women, while the number of Palestinians working in Israel has plummeted from 178,000 to just 35,300 – an 80 percent drop - Al Jazeera
“In the West Bank, the intensification of Israeli movement restrictions – including more than 800 checkpoints and gates – has disrupted daily economic life, limiting access to jobs, markets and services. At the same time, a surge in Israeli settler violence, the destruction of parts of Palestinian refugee camps, and the approval of new Israeli settlement construction have further undermined political, economic and social stability and a path toward the two-state solution” - ILO
Vietnam and Russia have reinvigorated their military and political relationship. A New York Times investigation — relying on documents from a Russian defense supplier and interviews with officials from Vietnam, the United States and other countries — has identified a string of Russian military purchases by Vietnam, covert payment systems and a major shift in tone as Hanoi grows distant from Washington and closer to Moscow. Together with high-level meetings and public records, the transactions highlight not just Vietnam’s shifting geopolitics after a period of warming relations with the U.S. under President Biden, but also Russia’s brazen attempt to prove — in China’s neighborhood — that it’s still a major power - NYT
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Argentine President Javier Milei’s party cruised to victory in midterm legislative elections as voters handed him a mandate to keep pushing through his radical overhaul of the economy despite widespread discontent with his deep austerity measures. A relief to Milei, whose poll numbers had sagged in recent weeks, the results are also likely to please U.S. President Donald Trump, whose administration had faced criticism after providing Argentina with a hefty financial bailout. Analysts said the stronger-than-expected showing could reflect fear of renewed economic turmoil if the country abandoned Milei’s austerity policies which, while slashing subsidies long relied on by many Argentines, have succeeded in drastically slowing inflation. “Argentines showed that they don’t want to return to the model of failure,” said Milei, speaking triumphantly before a crowd of supporters at a hotel in Buenos Aires after the results. Gustavo Cordoba, the director of the Argentine Zuban Cordoba polling firm, said he was surprised by Milei’s showing and thought it reflected concern about potentially repeating the economic crises of past governments. “Many people were willing to give the government another chance,” he said. “We’ll see how much time Argentine society gives the Argentine government. But the triumph is unobjectionable, unquestionable.” - Reuters
Prosecutors filed new espionage charges against Istanbul’s jailed mayor on Monday, intensifying the judicial pressure on the opposition politician seen as a top rival to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. The new charges against Ekrem Imamoglu stem from an investigation launched last week into alleged links between his political campaign and a businessman arrested in July for reportedly carrying out intelligence activities on behalf of foreign governments. Imamoglu’s former campaign manager, Necati Ozkan, and journalist Merdan Yanardag were also charged. The state-run Anadolu Agency said Imamoglu — who his already in pretrial detention on corruption charges — is suspected, among other things, of transferring personal data of Istanbul residents as part of an effort to secure international funding for his campaign. Imamoglu rejected the accusations as “nonsense” in a statement posted on social media. “Even the claim that I burned down Rome would have been more credible than this nonsense,” Imamoglu said. “Our struggle against this mindset that has sworn to ruin our nation’s future has now grown even stronger.” - AP
Russia’s ground forces have entered the strategic Ukrainian city of Pokrovsk, with President Volodymyr Zelensky labeling the situation there as “difficult” with “fierce” battles flaring in and around the city. Zelensky, in his October 26 nightly video address, said Russia had concentrated large numbers of forces around Pokrovsk and the nearby Myrnohrad community in the long-fought-over area in eastern Ukraine. Pokrovsk, a city of about 7,000 inhabitants -- down from more than 60,000 prewar -- holds crucial road and rail junctions and has been under threat of encirclement by Russian forces for most of the year - RFE/RL
Several Russian military bloggers claimed that General Staff Army General Valery Gerasimov was lying and that Russian forces had not encircled Ukrainian forces in Kupyansk and Pokrovsk. One stated that there is still a multi-kilometer corridor between Russian groups operating west and north of Pokrovsk, and another noted that Russian fire control over Ukrainian GLOCs does not mean that Russian forces have encircled Ukrainian forces in the area. Bloggers pointed to the porous nature of the front, highlighting the way Russian forces are infiltrating into Ukrainian flanks and rear - ISW
Lithuania’s Prime Minister Inga Ruginienė said on Monday that her country has drawn up plans to close its border crossings with Belarus indefinitely, after flights at the capital’s airport were repeatedly disrupted by suspected sightings of balloons used to smuggle in cigarettes. Lithuania’s National Security Commission met after balloon sightings prompted the suspension of air traffic at Vilnius Airport on three successive evenings on Friday, Saturday and Sunday causing cancellations, diversions and delays. The airport at Kaunas, which is farther from the Belarusian border, was also affected on the same day. Lithuania’s two border crossings with Belarus, at Medininkai and Šalčininkai, were both closed for several hours following each balloon incident - Euronews
The journals….
