It remains uncertain if the ceasefire deal agreed to by Israel and Hamas will hold.
Diana Buttu, a Palestinian-Canadian lawyer specializing in negotiations, international law, and international human rights law, argues that Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu does not want a ceasefire, "because for him, continuing the attack on Gaza keeps him in office longer and keeps the spotlight away from him."
The Israeli prime minister has struggled with public support and far-right members of his government threatened to quit over the ceasefire deal.
The change in the White House also has Buttu concerned about the shaky agreement.
Hours after his inauguration, President Trump, whose special envoy to the Middle East, Steve Witkoff, played a significant role in negotiating the ceasefire deal, said he was "not confident" the agreement would hold.
"That's not our war, it's their war. But I'm not confident," he said in the Oval Office. "But I think they're very weakened on the other side." He went on to say that he had seen pictures of Gaza and described it as a "massive demolition site."
On the same day, Trump canceled the Biden administration's sanctions against far-right Israeli settlers accused of attacking Palestinians in the occupied West Bank. Buttu believes that U.S. actions, like continuing arm sales with Israel, could determine whether the ceasefire agreement holds.
"One of the things that's really important for people to understand is that this could have ended under Biden with a simple phone call, because of the fact that Israel gets its weapons, most of its weapons, from the United States," Buttu said.
The U.S. has been Israel's biggest foreign aid supporter since it was founded in 1948. Since then, Israel has received more than $300 billion in aid from the U.S. During the most recent Israel-Hamas war alone, the country has received more than $12 billion. Calls have grown louder to curb or stop weapons support due to the loss of lives in Gaza.
The day after Trump took office again, Israel launched a military operation in the West Bank, killing at least 10 people and injuring more than 40, according to the Palestinian Authority's Health Ministry.
On Morning Edition, NPR's Leila Fadel spoke to Buttu, who worked on Israeli-Palestinian negotiations earlier in her career. Buttu discussed Israeli raids in the West Bank since Trump's inauguration and U.S. involvement in the ceasefire agreement.
The following excerpt was edited for clarity and length.
Leila Fadel: So, with this ceasefire in place between Israel and Hamas, a fragile ceasefire, a temporary ceasefire. Israel, yesterday, launched what it described as counterterrorism raids in the occupied West Bank to target militants. Does this risk the ceasefire agreement?
Diana Buttu: Yes, of course. And I think that that was the entire purpose of Israel doing this. Look, I don't think that obtaining the ceasefire agreement was without a price. In other words, I think that Trump put some conditions on Netanyahu. Quite the other way around, Netanyahu put conditions on Trump saying that he wants to have everything from the sanctions on the settlers removed, to being able to have a free hand in the West Bank. It's not at all surprising that we are seeing this massive raid inside the West Bank. And this is because Netanyahu doesn't actually want to have a ceasefire, because for him continuing the attack on Gaza keeps him in office longer and keeps the spotlight away from him and instead keeps focusing on Gaza.
Fadel: Of course, Israel says this was about going after militants in this area. President Trump, as you pointed out, was partially credited for facilitating the ceasefire agreement, but then is quickly reversing sanctions, lifting the U.S. freeze on 2,000-pound bombs going to Israel, and his remark that this is "not our war."
Do you think the ceasefire will hold if the U.S. ends its involvement in the deal? And what happens with future aspirations for Palestinians and a state?
Buttu: One of the things that's really important for people to understand is that this could have ended under Biden with a simple phone call, because of the fact that Israel gets its weapons, most of its weapons, from the United States. So, a simple stopping of transferring these weapons that are being used to carry out war crimes could have been done under Biden, but he instead chose not to.
So, the question is whether Trump is going to continue that arms sales. And it sounds as though he is. So the issue becomes whether the United States is going to remain involved or whether they're just going to say that genocide can continue as usual.
But on all of this, and it's very important to note, that Israel, when it's going into Palestinian places, it's actually going into Palestinian homes. It's terrorizing these people. And people do have a right to protect their homes. The issue here is that because Israel has been given such a free hand, this is why you see Israel operating the way that it's operating now. It does not want a ceasefire. It wants to continue to carry out its attack on Gaza.
Fadel: And I will point out, Amnesty International [and the] Human Rights Watch call this a genocide. The International Court of Justice, it's the basis of the case, but it is something Israel and the United States still deny.
Inside Trump's circle, people have started to weigh in on the future of Israel and the Palestinians. Yesterday, Elise Stefanik, Trump's nominee for U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, said she believes Israel has a biblical right to all of the West Bank, views held by far-right ministers in Israel.
What do you think that means for a future Palestinian state?
Buttu: Their entire point is that they want to ethnically cleanse Palestine, and they're going to do whatever it takes to ethnically cleanse Palestine. The fact that we're now seeing these people who are ideological and actually believe in ethnic cleansing, is terrifying as a Palestinian.
The radio version of this story was edited by Arezou Rezvani.
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