David Smith: The Guardian Washington Bureau Chief gives an update on the Gaza peace deal

The road to peace in Gaza is not without its obstacles, despite a major breakthrough.  

Israel's security cabinet's meeting to vote on implementing the first phase of a ceasefire proposal.  

The deal would allow the release of hostages early next week and would see Israeli troops pull back to agreed lines.  

The Guardian Washington Bureau Chief David Smith told Ryan Bridge it will get more complicated from this point onwards, with components like the de-militarisation of Hamas to discuss.  

He says even going further forward, in phases two to four, one has to look to the future governance of Gaza. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
So we have movement, a lot of movement overnight on
this peace steel over Gaza, and the President announcing that
in the next well next week, the first few days
of next week, we should have hostages being released.

Speaker 2 (00:12):
We are getting the hostages back on on Tuesday, Monday
or Tuesday, and that'll be a day of joy. I'm
gonna try and make a trip over We're going to
try and get over there.

Speaker 1 (00:24):
It's all happening in phases. David Smith is Washington Bureau
chief for The Guardian with us this morning. David, So,
this is quite a momentous moment, but still a lot
of water to go under the bridge.

Speaker 3 (00:37):
Yes, that's right. I think we have learned from past
experience to always treat these announcements with caution and not
every breakthrough is what it appears. But I think it
would be fair to say this is by far the
closest we've come to and to this war. And it's
not just Donald Trump saying that that, Israel and Hamas

(00:58):
indicating that's the case, and certainly some signs of tremendous
relief on the ground that this could at least be
the beginning of the end. And I think, you know,
I guess everyone will feel more certain about that if indeed,
as Trump says, hostages are returned on Monday or Tuesday,
and if Israel agrees to you know, stop its well,

(01:23):
movie its sources back to the to the agreed line,
and we actually see a secession as hostilities.

Speaker 1 (01:31):
And then you can start getting humanitarian aiden to the
Palestinians all that sort of stuff. What happens after that, like,
what is phase two? Do we know?

Speaker 3 (01:41):
Well? I think it's going to get more complicated, of course,
after those headline breakthroughs, and there are still some puddles
to clear here, such as the disarmament of Hamas are
set out in that peace plan, and it's not especially
clear how that will be conducted and whether all members

(02:05):
of Her Mass will agree. Even going further forward, maybe
more like sort of phase three or four, obviously one
has to look to the future governance of Gaza and Tybe.
This plan suggests that neither her Mass nor the Palestinian
authority should play any part in that. And I think

(02:26):
something to watch is what is Donald Trump's commitment to
all of that. The peace plans suggest there'll be some
kind of independent international oversight body shared by Trump that
will will oversee you s effectively Phase two, three and

(02:46):
four and so on. But you know, from what we
know about Trump, does he have the staying power, the
the the attention span. Frankly, you know, after he's had
an opportunity he declared victory and get a great headline.
We know psychologically he's a kind of person who does
tend to then get distracted and move on to a

(03:10):
thousand other issues. But that said, you know there's a
team of Steve Wikoff, special envoy, Jared Kushner, his son
in law, others who maybe are determined to follow through
on this, and of course it's all been backed up
by international partners such as you know, Turkey and Katar
and so on.

Speaker 1 (03:29):
David appreciate that analysis. This is one of David Smith,
Washington bureau chief for The Guardian. For more from Early
Edition with Ryan Bridge, listen live to News Talks. It'd
be from five am weekdays, or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio.