After a week of violence, residents on the frontier between Afghanistan and Pakistan are hoping a new ceasefire deal will end the clashes and revive crucial cross-border trade.

While the crossings remain closed, life has regained a semblance of normality, with bakers kneading bread, fruit and vegetable sellers wheeling out their carts, and customers frequenting shops.

“People can breathe and feel relieved. (But) before that, gunfire damaged a few houses in our village,” said Sadiq Shah, 56, a shopkeeper from Baizai on the Pakistani side.

Fighting between Afghanistan and Pakistan broke out after explosions in Kabul on October 9.

The Taliban government blamed the blasts on its neighbour and launched a retaliatory border offensive, prompting Islamabad to vow a strong response.

After further clashes left soldiers and civilians dead, the two sides declared an initial 48-hour ceasefire on Wednesday.

New Pakistani strikes hit Afghanistan on Friday, with Islamabad saying it was targeting armed groups that the Taliban harbours and allows to launch attacks on Pakistani territory.

The two sides approved a second ceasefire on Sunday, to the relief of many along the border.

“It’s incredible: both sides are Muslim, (ethnic) Pashtuns, so why fight?” said Shah.

“Previously, trade with Afghanistan went through here, and now we’re shooting at each other. What country does that?”

‘Losing money’

The border only opened temporarily this week to admit Afghan migrants expelled by Pakistan under a campaign that it launched back in 2023.

In the Pakistani town of Torkham, a normally busy crossing point into the Afghan province of Nangarhar, stranded drivers bought tea from a vendor as they waited in colourful trucks.

More than 1,500 trucks, trailers and containers carrying cement, medicines, rice and other basic goods are waiting in Torkham, according to a senior Pakistani customs official in nearby Peshawar.

Abdul Rahman Habib, spokesman for the Taliban’s economy ministry, said fruit and vegetables were rotting as they awaited export to Pakistan.

“Businessmen are losing money,” he said, without giving an estimate of the damages.

Habib warned that if this situation persisted, “it could increase prices and unemployment, and destabilise markets”.

“Trade relations should be separate from political issues,” he told AFP.

After the peace talks in Doha, Qatar’s foreign ministry said the ceasefire deal provides for “the establishment of mechanisms to consolidate lasting peace”, but their details have not been disclosed.

Niaz Mohammed Akhund, a 39-year-old car salesman in Spin Boldak, an Afghan town where fighting flared last week, said “people here are very happy with the ceasefire”.

“(They) have no farmland or other source of income — everyone depends on cross-border trade, on both sides,” he said.

Nematullah, a 24-year-old vendor, also told AFP he hoped “this problem won’t resurface”.

Across the road on the Pakistani side, market worker Imran Khan called on the two countries to establish a “mechanism to end these conflicts and to start treating each other like brothers”.

The Israeli military announced on Sunday that a ceasefire in Gaza had resumed following an attack that killed two of its soldiers and triggered airstrikes that Palestinians said left 26 people dead, marking the most serious test of this month’s truce.

US President Donald Trump said the ceasefire he brokered remained in place and suggested Hamas leadership may not have been involved in the violations. “We think maybe the leadership isn’t involved in that,” he told reporters aboard Air Force One.

“Either way … it’s going to be handled toughly but properly,” Trump added. He also said he did not know whether the Israeli strikes were justified. “I’d have to get back to you on that,” he said.

Aid to Gaza is set to resume on Monday following US pressure, an Israeli security source said, after Israel had temporarily halted supplies in response to what it described as a “blatant” truce violation by Hamas.

The airstrikes killed at least 26 people, including a woman and a child, according to local residents and health authorities. At least one strike hit a former school sheltering displaced residents in Nuseirat.

“We’re going to have to see what’s happening. We want to make sure that it’s going to be very peaceful with Hamas,” Trump said.

US envoy Steve Witkoff and son-in-law Jared Kushner are expected to travel to Israel on Monday, Israeli and US officials said.

The armed wing of Hamas stated it remains committed to the ceasefire, was unaware of clashes in Rafah, and had not communicated with groups there since March.

US Vice President JD Vance did not address the Israeli strikes directly, but noted that around 40 Hamas cells remain active, with no security infrastructure yet to ensure complete disarmament.

“Some of those cells will probably honor the ceasefire. Many, as we saw today, will not,” he said. Vance added that Gulf Arab states may need to deploy forces to maintain law, order, and security on the ground before Hamas can be fully disarmed.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he had ordered the military to respond forcefully to what he called Hamas’ violations of the ceasefire.

PATH TO PEACE IS UNCERTAIN

Fearing the truce may collapse, some Palestinians rushed to buy goods from a main market in Nuseirat and families fled their homes in Khan Younis further south, after airstrikes hit nearby.

The strikes were reminiscent of Israel’s response to what it viewed as serious violations of its ceasefire with Hamas’ Lebanese ally Hezbollah in late 2024, less than a week after it came into effect and after days of mutual accusations of truce breaches, though that ceasefire has since largely held.

But formidable obstacles remain in the way of a durable peace in Gaza, where a ceasefire collapsed in March after nearly two months of relative calm when Israel unleashed a barrage of airstrikes.

DISPUTE OVER BODIES OF DECEASED HOSTAGES

The new ceasefire took effect on October 10, halting two years of war, but the Israeli government and Hamas have been accusing each other of violations of the ceasefire for days.

Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said the “yellow line” to where Israeli forces had pulled back under the ceasefire deal would be physically marked and that any violation of the ceasefire or attempt to cross the line would be met with fire.

Hamas detailed what it said was a series of violations by Israel that it says have left 46 people dead and stopped essential supplies from reaching the enclave.

On Saturday, Israel said the Rafah border crossing between Gaza and Egypt, which had been expected to be reopened this week, would remain closed and that its reopening would depend on Hamas fulfilling its obligations under the ceasefire.

Israel says Hamas is being too slow in handing over bodies of deceased hostages.

Hamas last week released all 20 living hostages it had been holding and in the following days has handed over 12 of the 28 deceased captives.

MORE AID IS NEEDED

Hamas says it has no interest in keeping the bodies of remaining hostages and that special equipment is needed to recover corpses buried under rubble.

The Rafah crossing has largely been shut since May 2024. The ceasefire deal also includes the ramping up of aid to Gaza, where hundreds of thousands of people were determined in August to be affected by famine, according to the IPC global hunger monitor.

The crossing has in previous ceasefires functioned as a key conduit for humanitarian aid to flow into the enclave.

Although the flow of aid through another crossing had, until Sunday’s decision to halt aid, increased significantly since the ceasefire began, the United Nations says far more is needed.

Key questions of Hamas disarming, future governance of Gaza, the make-up of an international “stabilization force”, and moves towards creation of a Palestinian state have yet to be resolved.

US President Donald Trump on Sunday reiterated that Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi assured him India would halt Russian oil purchases, warning that New Delhi would face “massive” tariffs if it did not comply.

Speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One, Trump said, “I spoke with Prime Minister Modi of India, and he said he’s not going to be doing the Russian oil thing.”

When asked about India’s denial of any such conversation, Trump responded, “But if they want to say that, then they’ll just continue to pay massive tariffs, and they don’t want to do that.”

Russian oil has been a key sticking point in prolonged trade talks with India about half of Trump’s 50% tariffs on Indian goods are in retaliation for these purchases. The US government has said that petroleum revenues fund Russia’s war in Ukraine.

India has become the largest buyer of discounted seaborne Russian oil after Western nations shunned purchases and imposed sanctions on Moscow following its 2022 invasion of Ukraine.

On Wednesday, Trump had said Modi assured him that India would stop buying Russian oil. India’s foreign ministry, however, stated it was unaware of any telephone conversation between the leaders that day, emphasizing that New Delhi’s main priority is “safeguarding the interests of the Indian consumer.”

A White House official said on Thursday that India has halved its purchases of Russian oil, but Indian sources said no immediate reduction had been seen.

The sources said Indian refiners already placed orders for November loading, including some slated for December arrival, so any cut may start showing up in December or January import numbers.

India’s imports of Russian oil are set to rise about 20% this month to 1.9 million barrels per day, according to estimates from commodities data firm Kpler, as Russia ramps up exports after Ukrainian drones hit its refineries.