Politics
Netizens welcome ceasefire with tears — but vow never to forget the pain
As news of a ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas spread across Gaza, the battered enclave erupted in celebration, engulfed with grief and pain. After more than two years of unrelenting bombardment, displacement and famine, journalists and survivors alike said they could finally breathe again — but insisted the world must never forget what Gaza endured.
The deal — brokered in Sharm El-Sheikh under a US-backed plan — calls for Israel to release Palestinian prisoners and allow aid into Gaza, where famine was officially declared in August. Yet for the more than two million Gazans who have survived two years of siege, the scars run deeper than any diplomatic paper can heal.
For Gaza’s photojournalists, reporters, and authors who documented the horror up close, the ceasefire brought a fragile sense of reprieve, shadowed by disbelief.
“I hope this time is different. I hope it’s a real, lasting ceasefire. I hope we’re not given more false hope,” Plestia Alaqad, an award-winning journalist, echoed a common sentiment that the ceasefire would hold, unlike last time.
Many Gazan journalists said the ceasefire was not an end, but a moment to breathe — to mourn, and to remember. “None of us made it out completely alive,” Maha Hussaini, a human rights advocate and journalist, wrote on X.
“But we will rise again, because the fight to end the illegal occupation will never die. We’ve made it with you, we’ve made it in you, our Gaza,” she added.
Many questioned whether Israel would honour the agreement, calling it “a test of promises made over the graves of thousands.”
Palestinian writer Dr Yara Hawari, in a thread posted on X, noted that there are a lot of unknowns in the Gaza ceasefire deal, as Israel is notorious for breaking ceasefire deals.
“We know that [Israeli PM] Netanyahu says one thing to an international audience and then something else to a domestic audience. We also know that Israel is not a good faith actor- it is a regime that has been found guilty of genocide by the highest court in the international legal regime,” she added.
She believed it is really important that people understand that this is not the “peace deal” that it is being touted to be. “It certainly will not lead to the end of the occupation.”
Another Palestinian writer, Mosab Abu Toha, said that the so-called peace plan offers little solace for those who have endured two years of horror.
Calling it “a peace plan without peace,” the writer asked how anyone could explain to future generations that the world “chose to stop a genocide in phases.” “I was its victim, its witness, and its unwilling chronicler,” they wrote.
Meanwhile, journalist Mehdi Hasan voiced doubt over President Trump’s peace claims, saying genuine peace in Gaza would require concrete actions first, adding that Trump “has a record of disappointment.”
Author Fatima Bhutto also questioned Israel’s intentions, expressing grief over the killings of journalists Al-Sharif and Hossam Shabat earlier this year.
For the people of Gaza, especially its journalists who chronicled the war from the frontlines, the truce felt less like peace and more like a fragile breath between battles — a moment to remember those lost and to remind the world that survival does not mean healing.
- Venezuela’s Machado gave her Nobel medal to Trump.
- Donald Trump says he intends to keep the medal.
- Original laureate recorded in history as prize recipient.
OSLO: The Nobel Peace Prize remains inseparably linked to the person or organisation that won it, though the medal can be given away, the Norwegian Nobel Committee said on Friday, a day after last year’s winner gave her medalto US President Donald Trump.
Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado gave her medalon on Thursday to Trump, who thanked her for it. The White House released a photo of Trump and Machado, with Trump holding up a gold-coloured frame displaying it, and a White House official said Trump intends to keep it.
Machado’s award also consists of a diploma and 11 million Swedish crowns ($1.19 million).
“Regardless of what may happen to the medal, the diploma, or the prize money, it is and remains the original laureate who is recorded in history as the recipient of the prize,” the award body said in a statement.
“There are no restrictions in the statutes of the Nobel Foundation on what a laureate may do with the medal, the diploma, or the prize money. This means that a laureate is free to keep, give away, sell, or donate these items,” it added.
‘Inseparably linked’
The medal and the diploma are physical symbols confirming that an individual or organisation has been awarded the prize, said the five-strong award committee.
“The prize itself – the honour and recognition – remains inseparably linked to the person or organisation designated as the laureate by the Norwegian Nobel Committee,” it said.
The committee, which did not refer to Trump and Machado by name in its statement, said it does not comment on a laureate’s statements, decisions or actions after the prize is announced.
It was not the first time a Nobel laureate has given away the medal. In 1943, Nobel literature laureate Knut Hamsun gave his to Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels.
In 2022, Nobel Peace laureate Dmitry Muratov sold his medal for $100 million to raise money for the UN children’s fund Unicef to help Ukrainian refugee children.
In 2024, the widow of former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan donated his 2001 Nobel Peace Prize medal and diploma to the UN office in Geneva.
US President Donald Trump purchased about $100 million in municipal and corporate bonds from mid-November to late December, his latest disclosures showed, including up to $2 million in Netflix and Warner Bros Discovery bonds just weeks after the companies announced their merger.
Financial disclosures posted on Thursday and Friday showed the majority of Trump’s purchases were municipal bonds from cities, local school districts, utilities and hospitals.
But he also bought bonds from companies including Boeing, Occidental Petroleum and General Motors.
The investments were the latest reported assets added to Trump’s expanding portfolio while he is in office.
It includes holdings in sectors that benefit from his policies, raising questions about conflicts of interest.
For example, Trump said in December that he would have a say in whether Netflix can proceed with its proposed $83 billion acquisition of Warner Bros Discovery, which faces a rival bid from Paramount Skydance.
Any deal to acquire Warner Bros will need regulatory approval.
A White House official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said on Friday that Trump’s stock and bond portfolio is independently managed by third-party financial institutions and neither Trump nor any member of his family has any ability to direct, influence or provide input regarding how the portfolio is invested.
Like many wealthy individuals, Trump regularly buys bonds as part of his investment portfolio.
He previously disclosed at least $82 million in bond purchases from late August to early October.
US President Donald Trump has reiterated his claim of having stopped a war between Pakistan and India, while also saying that Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif thanked him for saving at least 10 million lives.
He made the remarks at the renaming of Southern Boulevard to Donald J Trump Boulevard in Washington on Friday.
“In a year, we made eight peace deals and ended the conflict in Gaza. We have peace in the Middle East…We stopped India and Pakistan from fighting, two nuclear nations…The Pakistani Prime Minister said Donald Trump saved at least 10 million people, and it was amazing,” he said.
The US president further recalled that the Pakistani prime minister’s remarks were an honour for him.
Trump cited his administration’s foreign policy record and repeated assertions of brokering peace between the two nuclear-armed neighbours.
Trump has made similar claims multiple times since May 10 last year, arguing that US pressure helped defuse tensions between India and Pakistan.
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