Waiting to Exhale
NEED TO KNOW
Waiting to Exhale
ISRAEL/ GAZA
On Sunday at 11:15 a.m., the guns went silent. The bombs stopped. The buzz of the fighter jets became faint as they headed home. The people came out and cheered.
Those were the sounds and the silence of a ceasefire that took effect between Israel and Gaza.
There was another sound, also, the tones of grief, interrupting the joy of the silence. These arose because the ceasefire was two hours and 45 minutes late – 165 minutes too late for 19 people, 165 minutes too late for the al-Qidra family.
Earlier that morning in the south of Gaza, Ahmed al-Qidra packed his seven children onto a donkey cart and headed toward their battered home in eastern Khan Younis to assess what could be salvaged because he thought it was finally safe to travel.
Instead, Al-Qidra and two of his children, ages 16 and six, were killed by an Israeli missile. His daughter, Yasmin, 12, managed to pull her eight-year-old sister out of the cart before the second one hit.
“We endured this entire war, facing the harshest conditions of displacement and bombardment,” Al-Qidra’s wife, Hanan, told Al Jazeera. “My children dealt with hunger, a lack of food and basic necessities. We survived more than a year of this war, only for them to be killed in its last minutes. How can this happen?”
As Hanan grieved, other Gazans and Israelis across the border celebrated the halt of the war on the streets. Three young women rejoiced in their new-found freedom after being held hostage for almost 471 days by Hamas, as did 90 Palestinian women and children released from Israeli prison. About 30 more hostages will come home in this first round of the peace, which is to last six weeks. And so will almost 2,000 Palestinian prisoners, some held in Israel for years.
Many of the families of the hostages held by Hamas couldn’t imagine this day, especially after months of negotiations that usually collapsed. Mandy Damari, mother of hostage Emily Damari, who was released Sunday, told the Washington Post that she could finally “give Emily the hug that I have been dreaming of.”
Still, this fragile peace is only the beginning of the end, Marc Lynch, director of the Middle East Studies program at George Washington University, told Foreign Affairs. The truce could break at any time, he added, and it probably will.
He wasn’t being overly pessimistic – almost everyone involved shares similar sentiments, including US President Donald Trump.
That’s because the war, sparked by Hamas’ brutal attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, that killed around 1,200 people and saw more than 250 taken hostage, is tricky to end. Analysts say that a long-running truce is about the best one can hope for. The wish is that it at least lasts long enough for all the hostages to come home, and provide reprieve for the almost two million Gazans who have struggled to find somewhere safe to sleep, something beyond leaves to eat, and medical treatment for wounds and illnesses, all while being trapped in a ravaged enclave where terror had become the norm for 15 months.
Now, after the temporary peace comes the time to take stock. As the Israeli troops begin to leave and hundreds of aid trucks surge across the border, some of the families of the Hamas-held hostages will learn the fate of their loved ones – it’s estimated that about one-third of the remaining 94 hostages have died.
The Gazans will account for their own, too. Even though the Gazan health authorities have been documenting by name the almost 47,000 Palestinians they say died in the war, they couldn’t list those still buried under rubble or those with no one left to notice their absence.
The medical journal The Lancet recently estimated there are almost 20,000 deaths in Gaza unaccounted for.
And then there is the rubble, miles and miles of it along with unexploded ordnance. Less than half of the structures in Gaza stand unscathed after 15 months of gunfire, missiles, and bombs. Gazans are now trying to return to their homes to assess what is left. Many bring mattresses and other essentials because they are not sure if there is anything. Others set up tents on top of the rubble left of their former homes because they can’t bear to leave their neighborhoods, or whatever is left of them.
As Gazans tried to figure out where to live, knowing that reconstruction would take years, Hamas and Israeli leaders were both quick to claim victory in the ceasefire. And their Egyptian, Qatari, and American negotiators were exhausted and relieved. After months, they crossed one finish line, knowing a second and harder one is yet to come.
On Feb. 4, talks will begin to work out the details of the second of the three stages of the peace that are meant to lead to a permanent truce set out in the ceasefire agreement. The current truce expires in six weeks.
The second stage is expected to see a complete Israeli troop withdrawal and the release of all remaining hostages who are still alive. The problem is, both sides are expected to be intransigent over the details of the second truce, especially over the timetable for Israeli troop withdrawal and the specific individuals Hamas wants released from Israeli prisons.
Meanwhile, Hamas is taking control again of Gaza, a problem for both Israel and Gazans. The real issue is that there is no one else because Netanyahu had refused to heed his security officials or American diplomats and plan for an alternative in his quixotic quest for “total victory” over Hamas – a victory even his generals told him couldn’t be achieved.
After the ceasefire took effect, Hamas fighters celebrated on the streets of Gaza, showing Israel they were diminished but not defeated.
Meanwhile, the threat to the duration of the ceasefire isn’t just from Hamas: Some say they don’t believe the ceasefire will last because Netanyahu doesn’t want it to.
Netanyahu survives politically with a tiny majority made up of hard-right parties, many of which oppose the ceasefire and want to annex Gaza and the West Bank. Already, Itamar Ben-Gvir, the national security minister, pulled his far-right Otzma Yehudit party out of the coalition, calling the ceasefire deal a “victory for terrorism.” Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich of the far-right Religious Zionism party said that Netanyahu has pledged to restart the war after the first phase of the peace. If he doesn’t, Smotrich added, he will bring down the government.
If his coalition collapses, Netanyahu will likely have to call elections. And if he does, despite climbing approval ratings since April, his Likud party isn’t projected to win enough support for him to form a government or become prime minister again. Meanwhile, many Israelis want to hold hearings to account for the security lapses that opened the door to Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack in the first place, something Netanyahu frets over along with his long-running corruption trial that was mostly paused during the war.
The war, say commentators, worked to his advantage.
Still, should the Israelis and Hamas manage to get through a second stage, the third will see Hamas return the remains of the deceased hostages. And that’s when reconstruction of Gaza could start.
Almost no one can envision that day, at least not yet. But there is always hope, say Tareq al-Batsh, 35, and his wife, Diana, 30, who headed north from their refuge in the south of Gaza to see what is left of their broken home. They told the Los Angeles Times they are planning to cover the holes in the wall with tarps and do whatever else they need to do to live there again.
“We’re afraid this truce could fail at any moment, of course,” said Diana al-Batsh. “But still, for now we’re cautiously optimistic.”
THE WORLD, BRIEFLY
Dáil Drama
IRELAND
Micheál Martin is set to become Ireland’s prime minister for the second time after lawmakers formally approve him as head of a coalition government on Thursday, the BBC reported.
In a parliamentary election at the end of November, Martin’s Fianna Fáil party won the most seats, but not enough to govern alone, according to ABC News. Afterward, the long-dominant center-right parties, Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael, agreed to form a coalition following weeks of talks.
Martin, a veteran politician, is slated to become the taoiseach, or prime minister, for three years, with outgoing taoiseach Simon Harris from the Fine Gael party as his deputy. Afterward, the two politicians will swap positions for the rest of the five-year term.
Members of both political parties have ratified the agreement, and Martin was set to be confirmed by members of Dáil, the parliament’s lower house, on Wednesday. President Michael D. Higgins was scheduled to formally appoint him to the office, and Martin was set to appoint his cabinet in the early evening.
However, the Dáil was suspended until Thursday, after the usually ceremonial appointment process was delayed by protests in the parliament by opposition parties.
Opposition parties Sinn Féin and Labour protested over attempts by independent lawmakers, who are propping up the government, remaining on opposition benches and eating up critical speaking time.
Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald said the situation was “completely unacceptable,” according to the Guardian. The Dáil speaker, Verona Murphy, was forced to suspend proceedings twice, before adjourning the lower house until Thursday morning.
In the election on Nov. 29, Fianna Fáil won 48 of the 174 legislative seats and Fine Gael won 38.
While the two parties share similar center-right policies, they face a rivalry dating back to Ireland’s civil war in the 1920s where they were on opposing sides. After the indecisive February election of 2020, Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil entered into an unprecedented coalition government and Martin became taoiseach for the first time.
The forming of their new coalition shuts out the opposition center-left party Sinn Féin, who won 39 seats, more than Fine Gael. The center-right parties have refused to work with Sinn Féin because of their historic ties with the Irish Republican Army during decades of violence in Northern Ireland.
Enemy of My Enemy
WEST AFRICA
Niger, Burkina Faso, and Mali are joining their military forces to address security concerns in the troubled central Sahel region by deploying a force of 5,000 soldiers, a move seen as an attempt to legitimize their rule amid strained regional relations and sanctions, Reuters reported.
On Tuesday, Niger Defence Minister Salifou Mody announced that the three nations – members of the recently-formed Alliance of Sahel States (AES) – will have personnel and a coordination system, together with air, land, and intelligence resources.
The 5,000-strong force will be posted in the three countries, adding that some joint operations have already taken place, Mody added.
Plagued by political instability, terrorist attacks, and armed insurgencies, the Sahel – the arid swath of land south of the Sahara Desert – is considered one of the most insecure regions on Earth.
For more than a decade, Niger, Burkina Faso, and Mali have been fighting jihadi groups, including allies of al Qaeda and the Islamic State, ABC News reported.
All three countries are now ruled by juntas that took power between 2020 and 2023, then left the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), cut all ties with neighbors, and expelled French troops, while turning to Russian mercenaries for security assistance, the Associated Press reported.
The AES is joining forces hoping to stabilize the region, combat shared enemies, and secure their borders from possible insurgencies or terrorist attacks.
However, analysts said the security situation in the region has worsened since the juntas took power. More than 3,470 people have died in the last six months while 2.6 million are currently displaced.
Graduation Day
GREENLAND
Denmark will eliminate a rule that forces Greenlanders to take parenting competency tests in order to raise children, a move that comes amid long-running tensions between Copenhagen and Greenland over the requirement following a push by US President Donald Trump to acquire the self-governing territory, Euronews reported this week.
Danish Minister of Social Affairs Sophie Hæstorp Andersen announced this week that Denmark plans to scrap the controversial policy which has been used in child protection cases and investigations, and inspired protests last year.
For years, Danish authorities have employed these psychometric parenting tests – known as “forældrekompetenceundersøgelse” or FKU – to assess the competency of parents and whether the child should be removed by social services.
Danish officials have previously defended the tests by illustrating the wide range of tools used to make the decision, but critics countered that it has been routinely used on people with Inuit backgrounds and often resulted in the separation of children from their parents.
Greenland is an autonomous territory of Denmark. Almost 90 percent of its 56,000 people are Inuit.
Human rights bodies have long been arguing that these tests discriminate against Greenlanders as they don’t account for their language and culture, according to the Guardian.
A 2022 report published by the Danish Institute for Human Rights showed that 5.6 percent of children with a Greenlandic background were removed from their families, compared with only one percent of children with a Danish background.
The policy came under increased scrutiny in November 2024, when a 38-year-old Greenlandic mother who took the test was separated from her child only hours after the delivery, sparking protests in the Greenland capital of Nuuk and in Copenhagen.
At the time, Andersen said she would invite municipalities to stop using the tests, but she did not ban them completely.
But earlier this week, she said the government found “a good and common solution, where we replace the use of standardized psychological tests with a special unit that has expertise in the Greenlandic language and culture.”
The Danish government is now drafting a new bill regarding the tests to take effect in May.
Human rights groups and Greenlandic figures welcomed the policy reversal, which also came amid weeks of tensions over Trump’s claims to acquire Greenland from Denmark.
Greenland became a self-governing territory in 2009 but Denmark still controls its foreign and security policy. Greenlanders say they want independence from Denmark – and the US.
Many Greenlanders believe that Trump’s push to acquire their territory may have led Denmark to resolve long-standing issues with Greenland, including these tests.
DISCOVERIES
Getting Under the Skin
People have been getting tattoos for almost 5,000 years.
The oldest known tattoos were found on the remains of a man who lived in the Italian Alps around 3,000 BCE. mummies from ancient Egypt and other cultures around the world are also regularly found adorned with tattoos, according to the Associated Press.
Because tattoos often blur or fade over time, and are impacted by the decay of human remains, scientists have found it exceptionally hard to study the ink-work of cultures dating back thousands of years.
However, in a new study, researchers showed how they used a new method involving lasers to uncover the highly intricate designs of ancient tattoos on mummies originating from Peru.
“LSF technology lets us see tattoos in their full glory, erasing centuries of degradation,” said the study’s lead author Thomas G. Kaye in a statement.
According to the study, tattoos were a prevalent art form in pre-Hispanic South America and held cultural significance.
To better see the detail of these ancient tattoos, researchers used Laser-stimulated fluorescence (LSF), which produces images based on the fluorescence of a sample. Specifically, it makes the tattooed skin beam bright white, which allows the carbon-based black tattoo ink to appear more clearly and with more detail than could be seen with the naked eye, according to Live Science.
The researchers used the method on about 100 mummies with tattoos from the pre-Columbian Chancay culture, which inhabited coastal Peru from about 900 to 1533 CE.
The level of detail in the tattoos was found to be higher than the textiles and the rock art created by those ancient individuals, suggesting the importance of the art form in the Chancay culture, according to the study.
“The Chancay culture, known for its mass-produced textiles, also invested significant effort in personal body art,” said Kay. “This could point to tattoos as a second major artistic focus, perhaps carrying deep cultural or spiritual significance.”
The research team also found that the complexity of art in pre-Columbian Peru was at a level higher than previously thought, suggesting that the new technique can provide further insights into this historic art form.
“This is just the tip of the iceberg,” study co-author Michael Pittman said in a statement. “LSF technology opens up a world of possibilities for studying ancient tattoos, not just in Peru but around the world. We hope that by introducing LSF technology to the practice of tattoo analysis we will further expand our knowledge of this important ancient artform.”