The Irish Times view on the Gaza peace plan: progress needed

But he insists that the second phase of the US-brokered plan to end the war in Gaza is close – the promised steps after the first-phase of ceasefire, hostage and prisoner exchanges, and Israeli pullback. But the IDF instead has fortified its evacuated “green zone” to give every impression of permanent occupation of 58 per cent of Gaza, instead of the agreed temporary 53 per cent. All but one of the bodies of the dead hostages have been returned, but the composition and mandate of both a governing council and an international stabilisation force is far from agreed.