Hamas has reasserted some control in the Gaza Strip in the days since the six-week ceasefire between it and Israel went into effect.

U.S. President Donald Trump's Middle East envoy said on Wednesday he would be part of a team of "outside overseers" deployed in and along the Gaza Strip to ensure safety following a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas militants.

The Israel-Hamas war, now nearing a potential ceasefire, has devastated the Gaza Strip. Satellite photos offer some sense of the destruction in the territory, which has been largely sealed off to journalists and others.

Palestinians in Gaza are confronting an apocalyptic landscape of devastation after more than 15 months of fighting between Israel and Hamas

The Biden administration called for a final push before the president leaves office, with many seeing the Trump inauguration as an unofficial deadline.

To better understand what the cease-fire will mean for the Israelis, the Palestinians, and the Middle East, Foreign Affairs turned to Marc Lynch, a professor of political science at George Washington University and the director of its Middle East Studies program.

Fighters from the Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas, control the crowd while Red Cross vehicles come to collect Israeli hostages to be released under a ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas, in Gaza City, Jan. 19, 2025. (AP Photo/Abed Hajjar, File)

Mediators say Israel and Hamas agreed to a ceasefire deal to pause the devastating 15-month war in the Gaza Strip, raising the possibility of winding down the deadliest and most destructive fighting between the bitter enemies.

Hamas has accepted a draft agreement for a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip whilst Israel insists details are still being finalised

There are two conspicuous myths about the Gaza ceasefire that went into effect last Sunday. The first myth attributes the agreement to pressure from Donald Trump, who had expressed his desire to have it done before he took office,

Palestinians celebrated on the streets of Gaza as guns fell silent. Israelis gathered in Tel Aviv’s “Hostages Square” to watch news of the returnees.