'There is no real ceasefire' - why the plan to end war in Gaza has stalled, with few countries willing to help | CBC News

World Palestinian militants stand guard in Khan Younis on Oct. 13, the day hostages held in Gaza since the deadly Oct. 7, 2023, attack were handed over to the Red Cross as part of a ceasefire deal. That plan, brokered by the U.S. and endorsed by the UN Security Council, is now effectively on life support as both sides remain stuck on various points.(Ramadan Abed/Reuters) Panellists on Israeli Channel 12 discuss the status of the ceasefire with Hamas, on Dec. 18.(Channel 12 Israel) Tents with displaced families line what was once the main street of Al-Rimal, west of Gaza City.(Mohamed El Saife/CBC) Tents and partially collapsed buildings in the Al-Rimal area, west of Gaza City.(Mohamed El Saife/CBC) Ahmed Al-Kibriti sweeps up the area near his tent west of Gaza City.(Mohamed El Saife/CBC) Zakaria Shabat speaks to a CBC News freelance videographer near Gaza City.(Mohamed El Saife/CBC) A Palestinian child carries water containers amid a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas in Gaza City on Nov. 19.(Dawoud Abu Alkas/Reuters) Gaza’s ceasefire has stalled as both sides drag their feet, leaving few countries willing to step up and help U.S. President Donald Trump and negotiators will spend the Christmas break trying to salvage the process Both sides of the miserable war in Gaza are dragging their feet on moving on to the next crucial phase of the ceasefire, leaving Palestinians in the territory to deal with the muck and sometimes deadly cold of winter with few reasons to hope that meaningful progress will come soon. “Isreal needs to let us live,” said Mohamed Hassouna, 44, who has moved all of his belongings into a tent amid the pulverized concrete of what was once his neighbourhood near Gaza City. “They can be a country and we can be a country,” he told a videographer working for CBC News. The ceasefire's most contentious issue, the one at the heart of Israeli-Palestinian negotiations for decades, is also the issue that gets the least emphasis in the Oct. 10 agreement - that’s the conditions for the creation of a Palestinian state at the end of the three-phase plan. Moving forward without clarity on that long-term goal has jeopardized progress on the other key planks of the agreement. “Prime Minister Bibi [Benjamin] Netanyahu doesn’t want to end the war for his own political considerations,” former top Israeli commander Major General Yitzhak Brik told a panel on Israel's Channel 12 recently. “And disarming Hamas will not happen because there is no one who can enforce it.” That, in a nutshell, is why the 20-point plan agreed to by Israel and Hamas, brokered by U.S. President Donald Trump, backed by Qatar, Turkey and Egypt and endorsed by the UN Security Council, is now effectively on life support. Like the donkey carts trudging along Gaza’s windy, rain-soaked dirt roads, it will take an immense effort by someone - likely only Trump - to get things moving again. Stabilization force, statehood top list of obstacles At the top of the list of...

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