[[link removed]]

GAZA MUST DECIDE ITS OWN POLITICAL FUTURE — BEFORE THE WORLD DOES
FOR US  
[[link removed]]


 

Mahmoud Mushtaha
October 16, 2025
+972 Magazine
[[link removed]]

*
[[link removed]]
*
[[link removed]]
*
*
[[link removed]]

_ We cannot repeat the slow death of Oslo nor replace Hamas with
another detached faction, but instead rethink the foundations of our
political culture. As Gazans, we have paid an unimaginably heavy price
for the October 7 attacks... _

Palestinians watch as other families return from the southern parts
of the Gaza Strip to the north, along the coastal Al-Rashid road
October 10, 2025., Photo: Yousef Zaanoun/Activestills // +972 Magazine


 

On Monday, world leaders gathered in Sharm El-Sheikh to promote what
they described
[[link removed]] as
a new “path toward peace” in Gaza. The summit was ostensibly
intended to consolidate the phases of the ceasefire and outline a
long-term governance and reconstruction plan for the Strip. Yet it
ended with an ambiguous roadmap and an uncertain future for
Palestinians — who, as usual, were entirely left out from the
conversation.

No representatives from Gaza were present in those meetings, nor was
there any public consultation or transparency about what was being
discussed. For people in Gaza, information came only in fragments,
filtered through foreign media and speculation, leaving them unsure
what political bargains are being shaped in their name.

At the head of these discussions is the United States, which continues
to refuse to recognize Palestine as a state, while
simultaneously rejecting
[[link removed]] the Palestinian
Authority’s representation at the UN. Foreign diplomats speak of my
homeland’s prospects as if it were a technical problem to be
managed, and negotiate a “future” for Gaza without acknowledging
its political existence or the right of its people to representation.

Meanwhile, Gaza’s political system has collapsed. Hamas’ senior
leadership has been killed, detained, or cut off, the PA remains
absent, and no credible body exists to represent more than 2 million
displaced civilians. Inside the Strip, clashes have erupted between
Hamas and rival Palestinian militias, with armed confrontations and
public executions spreading fear among civilians. These scenes have
raised deep concerns that a new wave of internal violence could
inflict even greater pain on an already shattered population.

What unfolded in Sharm El-Sheikh was not an effort to bring real
change for Palestinians, but rather another act of regional
choreography — a vision of a Middle East built around Israeli and
U.S. interests, not Palestinian rights.

Based on what we know so far, U.S. President Donald Trump’s plan for
Gaza, which he touts
[[link removed]] as one that will
lead to “strong, durable, and everlasting peace,” will see Israel
retain control of the Strip’s borders, airspace, and aid flows, with
the very international actors who armed and financed its genocidal
assault now acting as mediators and monitors of compliance.

 
U.S. President Donald Trump participates in a signing ceremony for a
ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas, during a summit of world
leaders in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt, October 13, 2025.  (Photo: Daniel
Torok/Official White House Photo)
This plan says nothing of ending the siege or dismantling the
occupation, but instead looks to undermine Palestinian autonomy by
imposing external oversight and governance. It imagines a pacified
Gaza; subdued enough to pose no threat to Israel, yet still denied the
power to protect or rebuild Palestinian life.

News outlets herald
[[link removed]] the ceasefire deal
and Gaza plan as a “breakthrough.” Diplomats speak
of confidence-building steps
[[link removed]].
Officials in Washington, Cairo, and Doha talk as if quiet skies were
proof of progress. But for Gazans, this is only a fragile pause amid
death and devastation — a moment to dig through the rubble
[[link removed]], search for any
survivors, and count the dead.

ERASING GAZA’S POLITICAL AGENCY

For decades, ceasefires and so-called peace plans in Gaza have been
used as instruments of control, aiming to de-escalate rather than
confront the causes of conflict: siege, displacement, and occupation.
This latest iteration is no different.

At this stage, two potential scenarios are being quietly outlined. The
first envisions that after the current exchange of prisoners
concludes, a second phase would compel Hamas to surrender its weapons
and dissolve its governing structures.

At the center of this version lies a proposal long
[[link removed]] circulating
[[link removed]] in
Western and Arab capitals: to deploy an International Stabilization
Force (ISF) to oversee Gaza’s “post-war transition.” The plan
would install a temporary technocratic Palestinian committee tasked
with administering daily affairs under the supervision of an
international board, reportedly involving Trump himself and former
U.K. Prime Minister Tony Blair, before eventually transferring
authority to a “reformed” PA.

The arrangement echoes familiar models in which external oversight has
substituted for genuine sovereignty — most notably in southern
Lebanon under UNIFIL
[[link removed]] and
in the West Bank under U.S.-led security coordination between the PA
and Israel — frameworks that have long proved their failure.

 
Palestinian security forces operate in the center of the city of
Jenin and its camp in the West Bank, December 16, 2024.  (Photo:
Nasser Ishtayeh/Flash90  //  +972 Magazine)
In this version of the future, Gaza would be rebuilt just enough for
its people to forget the question of liberation. Over time, Gazans
would be encouraged to trade freedom for electricity, dignity for
permits, and sovereignty for the illusion of stability. The goal is
not only to suppress resistance but to make people forget why it
existed in the first place.

The second scenario would unfold if Hamas refuses to surrender its
weapons after releasing the Israeli hostages. In that case, Israel
would maintain control over more than half
[[link removed]] of
the Strip and claim that Hamas is violating the agreement as a pretext
for renewed attacks, targeted incursions, and the ongoing destruction
of civilian infrastructure.

Both scenarios, in different ways, seek to erase Gaza’s political
agency; one through pacification and induced amnesia, the other
through attrition and indefinite siege. Both would ultimately leave
untouched the architecture
[[link removed]] of
Israeli control that has defined Gaza for nearly two decades, where
Israel remains free to calibrate the level of pressure — easing the
blockade when international scrutiny intensifies, tightening it again
whenever Gaza dares to assert autonomy.

And while the available draft of the deal reads less like a peace
agreement than a blueprint for continued subjugation and
fragmentation, what is most alarming is what we do not yet
know. Reports
[[link removed]] suggest
[[link removed]] the
existence of secret annexes to the agreement, and the size and
composition of the proposed international force, the duration of its
mandate, and the extent of U.S. participation all remain unclear. 

This secrecy is not incidental. By keeping the full details of the
agreement hidden, negotiators deny Palestinians the ability to shape,
influence, or even comprehend the conditions that will govern their
lives.

 
U.S. President Donald Trump with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu during a special plenum session in honor of President Trump
at the Knesset, in Jerusalem, October 13, 2025.  (Photo: Yonatan
Sindel/Flash90  //  +972 Magazine)
A NEED TO RETHINK STRATEGY

Now that the outlines of the ceasefire, however shadowy
[[link removed]],
are beginning to surface, and the question of who will govern Gaza
becomes relevant again, Palestinians must take responsibility — not
for what was done to us, but for how we forge a path toward dignity
and sovereignty. The most urgent question is who will define the
direction of our national movement.

For decades, we have lived within frameworks designed by others: the
Oslo Accords, the blockade, the endless cycle of wars, ceasefires, and
reconstruction. If this moment is to mean anything beyond mere
survival, it must begin with self-reflection. We cannot limit our
outrage to foreign powers while remaining silent about our own
failures of vision and leadership.

The starting point is popular legitimacy, something neither Hamas nor
the PA can claim without significant reform. Hamas has ruled Gaza for
18 years — long enough to assert absolute control, but not to
advance the cause of liberation. When it won the 2006 elections before
later seizing control of the Strip, it did so on the credible basis
that diplomacy had failed and that resistance, however costly, was the
only language Israel understood.

The movement sought deterrence through confrontation and
steadfastness, believing this path would compel Israel to make
concessions. But the strategy was fatally flawed
[[link removed]].
Without parallel diplomacy or a unified national vision, militancy
could not break through Israel’s siege and only deepened Gaza’s
isolation. Over time, Hamas’ defiance became static — unable to
achieve victory, yet impossible to defeat — and increasingly
alienated the group from the public it claimed to defend.

The PA, meanwhile, has for nearly three decades maintained an illusion
of autonomy in the West Bank, burdened with civilian administration
while doing the occupier’s bidding in security matters. It holds no
control over borders, resources, mobility, or even its own tax
revenue, and cannot protect a single village from settlers. In the
eyes of the world, it remains the “legitimate representative” of
the Palestinian people, but this legitimacy is upheld by
[[link removed]] the
same international structures that sustain the occupation.

Crucially, not a single Palestinian leader, neither from Hamas nor
from the PA, has addressed the public with honesty or clarity about
what is being negotiated in our name. This silence exposes a deeper
crisis — the lack of transparency and accountability — that has
plagued Palestinian politics far longer than this current chapter.

 
Hamas police forces deployed in Gaza City after a ceasefire between
Hamas and Israel in Gaza. October 11, 2025.  (Photo: Ali
Hassan/Flash90  //  +972 Magazine)
Civil society, unions, professional associations, student groups, and
local councils: these are the groups that should form the basis
[[link removed]] of our
political revival. While not perfect, they remain the only fragments
of self-governance that survived decades of occupation and factional
control.

Resistance must also be redefined. When armed struggle brings only
devastation to the very people it seeks to defend, it ends up serving
the occupier rather than challenging it.

Of course, no people can live indefinitely under suffocation without
pushing back. History shows that as Israel increases pressure on
Palestinians, through siege, land dispossession, or outright violence,
it inevitably provokes a response. But while the right to resist
occupation is inalienable, its form must evolve with reality. 

Effective resistance must be multidimensional — political, economic,
legal, and cultural. It should erode the occupation not only through
armed confrontation, but through pressure and delegitimization.
Israel, after all, is an extension of Western power and its survival
depends on Western patronage, which is why the threats of arms
embargoes, cultural boycotts, and sanctions
[[link removed]] are
so potent. 

This is not a call to abandon armed struggle, but to give it purpose.
Resistance must serve a political vision, not persist as reflex.
Violence without strategy strengthens the occupier’s claim to
“self-defense” and undermines our own; its power endures by
turning its “security” into our submission. This illusion breaks
only when Palestinian actions, armed or otherwise, are united by a
single political aim accountable to the people that bear the brunt of
Israel’s genocidal violence.

WHAT IS REQUIRED NOW

As Gazans, we have paid an unimaginably heavy price
[[link removed]] for
the October 7 attacks, and will continue to do so for the foreseeable
future. While Hamas cannot be absolved of responsibility for our
predicament, what has happened to Gaza is not the consequence of a
single group’s actions, but the culmination of decades of siege,
occupation, and broader political failure.

Even before October 7, normal life in Gaza was an illusion built on
permission. Israel decided what could enter and what could leave —
fuel, medicine, concrete, even books. The siege was as psychological
as it was physical: a way of shrinking what people could imagine.
While we learned to make life out of this scarcity, to turn every
pause in bombing into rebuilding, I refuse to pass on this cycle of
trauma to the next generation.

When I write to my family and friends still in Gaza, there have often
been days of silence before a short message arrives: “We moved
again,” or “There are no places to stay.” Nothing more. These
fragments are the reality behind every political statement now being
debated. They remind me that our leadership’s failure to adapt and
unify is not abstract — it determines who eats, who has shelter, and
who survives.

If two years of genocide have taught us anything, it is that the
Palestinian national movement can no longer afford to operate through
slogans or by clinging to outdated political visions. If we truly seek
liberation, we cannot repeat the slow death of Oslo or replace Hamas
with another faction detached from the people.

What is required now is to rethink the very foundations of our
political culture, and to build new forms of political organization
that can outlast despair. Israel has failed to erase
[[link removed]] the
Palestinian people, but through its destruction of Gaza, it has
exposed the bankruptcy of every system that claimed to manage us.

_[MAHMOUD MUSHTAHA is a journalist and human rights activist from
Gaza. He is currently pursuing an MA in Global Media and Communication
at the University of Leicester, UK. Recently, he published his first
book in Spanish, "Sobrevivir al genocidio en Gaza."]_
 

_For those who care deeply about the people living between the Jordan
River and the Mediterranean Sea, this is your opportunity to move from
despair into action. _

_The effects of Israel’s genocidal assault on Gaza are still being
felt: much of the Strip lies in ruins, millions remain displaced with
nowhere to return to, tens of thousands have been killed, and many
more are believed to be buried beneath the rubble._

_In the West Bank, the Israeli army has displaced tens of thousands of
Palestinians from refugee camps, while state-sponsored settler
violence is wiping rural communities off the map on a weekly basis. At
the same time, Israel’s ever-escalating regional aggression
threatens to drag the entire Middle East into the inferno._

_We are here on the ground — from Gaza to Tel Aviv to Masafer Yatta
— exposing the crimes, reporting the horrors, and amplifying the
voices of those resisting injustice to an audience of millions around
the world. If there was ever a time the world needed +972 Magazine, it
is now._

_As a binational team based in Israel-Palestine, we are best placed to
cover this pivotal moment in a way that no other outlet can — but we
need your help to do it. JOIN US AS A MEMBER
[[link removed]] to become part of our
mission, and support independent journalism that really makes a
difference._

* Gaza
[[link removed]]
* Gaza ceasefire
[[link removed]]
* Ceasefire
[[link removed]]
* Palestine
[[link removed]]
* Palestine Authority
[[link removed]]
* Palestine politics
[[link removed]]
* Hamas
[[link removed]]
* Donald Trump
[[link removed]]
* Israel
[[link removed]]
* Israel-Gaza War
[[link removed]]
* U.S.-Israel military aid
[[link removed]]
* Israeli Occupation
[[link removed]]
* IDF
[[link removed]]
* Israeli settlements
[[link removed]]
* West Bank
[[link removed]]

*
[[link removed]]
*
[[link removed]]
*
*
[[link removed]]

 

 

 

INTERPRET THE WORLD AND CHANGE IT

 

 

Submit via web
[[link removed]]

Submit via email
Frequently asked questions
[[link removed]]
Manage subscription
[[link removed]]
Visit xxxxxx.org
[[link removed]]

Twitter [[link removed]]

Facebook [[link removed]]

 




[link removed]

To unsubscribe, click the following link:
[link removed]