A US-brokered first-phase agreement between Israel and Hamas marks a potential turning point in the Gaza conflict, contingent on implementation and governmental approval.
According to The Straits Times on October 9, 2025, officials announced progress toward a ceasefire based on a US proposal, positioning the deal as the most significant diplomatic development since the war began. This report relies on public statements by former US President Donald Trump, Hamas, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
As announced on October 8, Trump said Israel and Hamas had signed off on the first phase of a plan enabling the release of all Israeli hostages. He added that Israel would pull back forces to an agreed line, framing the move as an initial step toward a broader ceasefire.
Building on that, Hamas confirmed on October 9 that it had agreed to end the war in Gaza, citing an Israeli withdrawal from the enclave and a hostage-prisoner exchange as core elements. In parallel, Netanyahu said he would convene the government on October 9 to approve the ceasefire agreement, signaling a formal decision point.
Providing somber context, the announcement came a day after the second anniversary of Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, which triggered Israel’s military campaign. Gaza authorities report more than 67,000 people killed and extensive destruction across the enclave, figures widely cited by international outlets but difficult to independently verify during active conflict.
In sum, the agreement’s significance lies in its potential to halt fighting and initiate exchanges, while its durability depends on cabinet approval, sequencing of withdrawals, and verification mechanisms. If enacted as described, the first phase could open a path toward de-escalation and humanitarian relief.
The Gaza Conflict: Background and Scale
Before analyzing Trump’s peace plan, it is essential to understand the magnitude of the conflict and the humanitarian catastrophe it has created. According to Gaza authorities cited in the announcement, more than 67,000 people have been killed and much of the enclave has been reduced to rubble since Israel’s military response to the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack. The initial attack saw approximately 1,200 Israelis killed and 251 taken hostage, with Israeli officials indicating that 20 of the 48 remaining hostages are believed to still be alive.
This two-year conflict has created one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises, with nearly one in six children in Gaza acutely malnourished according to recent studies. The scale of destruction and human suffering has drawn international concern and calls for intervention from nations across the globe, including Singapore, which has historically advocated for humanitarian principles and peaceful resolution of conflicts through multilateral frameworks.
Trump’s Peace Plan: Key Components
Trump’s announcement outlined a phased approach to ending the conflict, with the first phase addressing the most urgent humanitarian and security concerns:
Phase One Components:
The first phase centers on two critical elements: the release of all Israeli hostages and Israeli troop withdrawal to an agreed-upon line. Trump emphasized that these initial steps represent “the first steps toward a Strong, Durable, and Everlasting Peace.” This framing suggests that the deal contemplates multiple phases, likely addressing broader political settlement issues in subsequent phases.
The decision by Hamas to accept Trump’s proposal represents a significant shift. Hamas had previously rejected earlier ceasefire attempts, and this reversal indicates either a change in calculation regarding the sustainability of continued conflict or significant concessions in the final proposal that made acceptance politically feasible for the organization.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s immediate endorsement, calling it “a great day for Israel,” suggests the Israeli government views the terms as sufficiently favorable to justify the withdrawal of troops and the release of hostages in exchange. Netanyahu announced plans to convene the government on October 9 to formally approve the agreement, indicating the deal had progressed through diplomatic channels to a point where governmental approval was essentially procedural.
The Role of the United States and Guarantor States
Trump’s involvement in brokering this deal reflects the continued centrality of American diplomatic power in Middle Eastern affairs, despite shifts in global geopolitics. The announcement noted that Hamas called on Trump and “guarantor states” to ensure Israel fully implements the ceasefire, pointing to a multi-party enforcement mechanism.
The reference to guarantor states is particularly significant. Traditional guarantors of Middle Eastern agreements have included the United States, European nations, and regional actors such as Egypt and Qatar. The identity and commitment level of these guarantor states will be crucial to ensuring compliance from both parties and preventing the agreement from unraveling as numerous previous ceasefire attempts have done.
Trump’s willingness to personally engage in the negotiations, including a reported potential visit to the Middle East by the end of the week, underscores the priority the US administration places on achieving this deal. The dramatic moment when US Secretary of State Marco Rubio interrupted a White House event to hand Trump an urgent note about negotiation progress exemplifies the intensity of diplomatic efforts in recent days.
Historical Context: The Intractability of Israeli-Palestinian Conflict
While Trump’s announcement represents a genuine diplomatic achievement, it is important to contextualize this deal within the broader history of Israeli-Palestinian peace efforts. Multiple previous attempts at peace—from the Oslo Accords to more recent initiatives—have ultimately failed to produce lasting settlements.
The primary factors that have historically undermined peace efforts include disputes over settlements, the status of Jerusalem, refugee rights, borders, and fundamental disagreements about the legitimacy and governance structures of a future Palestinian state. The current deal’s phased approach may be designed to sidestep these deeper structural issues initially, focusing first on humanitarian relief and security concerns before moving toward political settlement.
However, the announcement provided limited detail about the substance of phases beyond the first, creating uncertainty about whether this agreement represents a genuine pathway to long-term peace or merely a temporary cessation of hostilities that could resume once initial phases are implemented.
Regional Stability and Global Implications
The Gaza ceasefire has significant implications for broader regional stability in the Middle East. The conflict has exacerbated tensions between various regional powers, inflamed sectarian divisions, and contributed to humanitarian crises affecting neighboring countries such as Lebanon and Jordan, which host Palestinian refugees.
A successful implementation of this peace plan could reduce regional tensions and allow countries in the area to redirect resources from military preparedness toward economic development. Conversely, failure or breakdown of the agreement could trigger renewed conflict with potentially more severe consequences, given the militarization and polarization that two years of warfare have created.
The deal also occurs within the context of broader Middle Eastern geopolitics, including US-Iran tensions, the Syrian conflict, Israeli-Hezbollah dynamics, and ongoing disputes in Iraq. A durable peace in Gaza could create space for diplomatic engagement on these other fronts, though it could also embolden certain regional actors if they perceive American attention shifting away from Middle Eastern affairs.
Singapore’s Strategic Interests and the Gaza Conflict
While Singapore is geographically distant from the Middle East, the city-state has multiple strategic interests in stability and the successful resolution of this conflict:
1. Regional Stability and Trade Routes
Singapore’s prosperity depends fundamentally on global trade flows and freedom of navigation through key maritime routes. The Strait of Malacca, through which 30 percent of global maritime trade passes, remains one of the world’s most critical chokepoints. Middle Eastern instability can trigger broader regional tensions that threaten maritime security, insurance costs, and shipping reliability through these crucial waterways.
A ceasefire in Gaza and broader regional peace contribute to overall maritime security by reducing the risk of confrontations involving regional military forces or non-state actors. This directly benefits Singapore’s role as a major transhipment hub and financial center dependent on stable international commerce.
2. Oil Markets and Energy Security
Singapore’s energy security is heavily dependent on global oil markets, which are significantly influenced by Middle Eastern stability. The majority of the world’s proven oil reserves are located in the Middle East, and any disruption to production or shipping from the region can trigger global price shocks that ripple through Singapore’s economy.
The Gaza conflict, while not directly affecting oil production, contributes to broader regional tensions and geopolitical uncertainty that keep oil markets volatile. A successful ceasefire could help stabilize energy markets by reducing geopolitical risk premiums on oil prices. Lower, more stable energy costs benefit Singapore’s manufacturing sector, shipping industry, and consumers.
3. International Law and Humanitarian Principles
Singapore, despite its pragmatic foreign policy, has consistently advocated for international law, human rights, and peaceful resolution of disputes. The humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza—with over 67,000 deaths, mass displacement, and widespread malnutrition—conflicts with principles that Singapore publicly endorses.
The ceasefire agreement aligns with Singapore’s stated commitment to peaceful resolution of conflicts and humanitarian protection. Singapore has previously called for restraint from all parties in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and has supported UN resolutions addressing civilian protection. The achievement of a ceasefire, if it holds, vindicates these principles and demonstrates that diplomatic engagement can succeed even in seemingly intractable conflicts.
4. Multilateral Frameworks and ASEAN Cohesion
As the chair or rotating member of various multilateral organizations, Singapore has interests in demonstrating that international institutions and diplomatic mechanisms can effectively address global conflicts. Success in the Gaza case strengthens arguments for multilateral diplomacy at a time when unilateralism and great power competition threaten international order.
Additionally, the Middle East contains significant Muslim-majority populations and is a region of religious and cultural importance to many ASEAN member states, including Indonesia, Malaysia, and Brunei. Instability in the Middle East can create religious tensions and domestic political complications within ASEAN nations, potentially affecting regional cohesion. A successful ceasefire helps prevent this dynamic.
5. Investment and Economic Partnerships
Singapore has economic interests in Middle Eastern markets, including investments in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states, oil and gas trading relationships, and financial sector connections. Middle Eastern stability facilitates these economic relationships and allows Singapore-based companies to operate effectively in the region.
Renewed conflict in Gaza and broader regional instability could disrupt these business relationships, increase risk premiums on investments, and create political complications for Singapore firms operating in the region. A durable peace contributes to a more favorable business environment.
Challenges to Implementation and Realistic Assessments
Despite the positive announcement, significant challenges remain to full implementation of this peace plan:
Trust Deficits:
Two years of intense conflict have created deep mistrust between the parties. Previous ceasefire agreements have broken down when one side perceived violations by the other. The absence of strong enforcement mechanisms or international peacekeeping forces on the ground raises questions about compliance monitoring and dispute resolution when disagreements inevitably arise.
Internal Political Dynamics:
Within Israel, Netanyahu faces pressure from far-right coalition partners who oppose territorial withdrawals and favor continued military action. Within Hamas, hardliners may oppose a ceasefire that doesn’t fully achieve Palestinian political objectives. Both leaderships must manage internal critics who view compromise as betrayal.
Unresolved Underlying Issues:
The first phase deal focuses on hostages and troop withdrawals but defers resolution of fundamental political questions: Palestinian statehood, settlements, Jerusalem’s status, and refugee rights. These issues have defied resolution for decades and will resurface as subsequent phases are negotiated, creating opportunities for renewed disagreement.
International Commitment:
The reference to “guarantor states” suggests an international mechanism to oversee implementation, but the specific identity, resources, and commitment of these guarantors remain unclear. Without substantial international presence and commitment, enforcement will prove difficult.
Implications for Singapore’s Foreign Policy
This ceasefire agreement presents both opportunities and challenges for Singapore’s approach to international relations:
Reinforcement of Multilateralism:
If the deal holds and leads to genuine peace, it will demonstrate that patient multilateral diplomacy can succeed even in seemingly impossible conflicts. Singapore, as a small state that benefits disproportionately from rules-based international order, has strong interests in demonstrating that diplomacy works and that military solutions to political problems typically fail.
Balancing Act with Great Powers:
The Trump administration’s leadership in brokering this deal illustrates continued American engagement in Middle Eastern affairs. Singapore must carefully navigate relationships with the United States, China, and other powers while maintaining credible neutrality and commitment to international law. Singapore cannot afford to be perceived as merely aligning with one great power’s interests.
ASEAN Consensus and Regional Tensions:
ASEAN has historically struggled to develop a unified position on Israeli-Palestinian issues due to diverse member state interests and domestic constituencies. A successful Gaza ceasefire reduces pressure on ASEAN to take contentious positions and potentially lowers the risk of internal division over Middle Eastern affairs.
Humanitarian Engagement:
Singapore can strengthen its humanitarian credentials by supporting reconstruction efforts in Gaza and backing international initiatives to address the humanitarian catastrophe. This engagement would reinforce Singapore’s image as a responsible global actor and strengthen ties with Muslim-majority nations within and beyond ASEAN.
Broader Strategic Implications for the Indo-Pacific Region
The Gaza ceasefire has indirect implications for Indo-Pacific security dynamics:
US Strategic Focus:
The Trump administration’s intensive engagement in Middle Eastern diplomacy raises questions about American strategic priorities and resource allocation. If the administration achieves durable Middle Eastern peace, it may have more capacity to focus on Indo-Pacific competition with China. Conversely, if the Middle East remains a major drain on American diplomatic resources, this could create space for Chinese strategic advances in the region.
Alliance Relationships:
The success or failure of Trump’s Gaza initiative will influence how allied nations perceive American diplomatic capability and reliability. If the ceasefire succeeds, it enhances American credibility in brokering complex international agreements. This could strengthen America’s regional alliance system, including relationships with Japan, South Korea, and Australia that are central to Indo-Pacific security.
China’s Positioning:
China has been notably absent from leading roles in Gaza diplomacy, reflecting its limited historical involvement in Israeli-Palestinian affairs. A successful American-led peace process could reinforce perceptions of American diplomatic preeminence in resolving international crises, potentially affecting how regional actors view Chinese diplomatic initiatives.
Economic and Market Implications for Singapore
Singapore’s markets and economy will respond to developments in the Gaza peace process:
Commodity Markets:
Oil price stability benefits Singapore’s energy-dependent economy. The ceasefire announcement likely contributed to reduced geopolitical risk premiums on oil prices, benefiting consumers and businesses reliant on predictable energy costs.
Financial Markets:
Reduced geopolitical tensions generally support equity market performance and lower risk premiums across asset classes. Singapore’s financial sector, which serves as a regional hub for capital flows, benefits from greater market stability and reduced volatility driven by geopolitical events.
Shipping and Trade:
More stable Middle Eastern conditions support shipping and insurance markets crucial to Singapore’s economy. The Straits of Malacca region benefits from reduced geopolitical risk, potentially lowering insurance premiums and shipping costs that ultimately benefit merchants and consumers.
Foreign Direct Investment:
Reduced geopolitical uncertainty could encourage foreign direct investment flows to Singapore and the broader Asia-Pacific region as investors become more confident in regional stability.
Conclusion
Trump’s October 8, 2025 announcement of an Israeli-Hamas ceasefire agreement on the first phase of a US-proposed peace plan represents a significant diplomatic achievement with potentially far-reaching consequences. While the agreement primarily addresses immediate humanitarian concerns—hostage releases and troop withdrawals—its success or failure will influence regional stability, global energy markets, maritime security, and international confidence in multilateral diplomacy.
For Singapore, the ceasefire offers opportunities to reinforce its commitment to international law, humanitarian principles, and peaceful resolution of disputes. It reduces risks to key strategic interests including maritime trade routes, energy security, and regional stability. However, significant implementation challenges remain, and the deeper political issues underlying the Israeli-Palestinian conflict remain unresolved.
Singapore should carefully monitor the implementation of this agreement and position itself to support reconstruction and peacebuilding efforts in Gaza while maintaining its principled commitment to international law and multilateral cooperation. The success or failure of this peace initiative will influence broader patterns of international relations and the viability of diplomatic solutions to seemingly intractable conflicts—issues of fundamental importance to a small nation like Singapore that depends on rules-based international order for its security and prosperity.
As the agreement moves from announcement to implementation, the world will watch whether this ceasefire represents a genuine turning point in one of the world’s most tragic conflicts or merely another temporary pause in an ongoing struggle. For Singapore and the broader international community, much depends on the answer.
The Last Green
The sky hadn’t been blue in seven years.
Maya pressed her palm against the reinforced plastic of her apartment window, watching the perpetual rust-colored haze that had settled over the city like a disease. Below, the streets were nearly empty—just a few delivery drones and the occasional worker drone, their metallic bodies reflecting the sickly glow of the overhead lights. Real people had learned to stay indoors during daylight hours. The air outside carried a chemical taste that lingered on your teeth, made your lungs feel like they were slowly hardening into concrete.
She was forty-three years old and had never seen a tree.
Her apartment was identical to ten thousand others in the residential tower: three meters by four meters, a sleeping pod, a workstation, a recycled protein dispenser, and a shower stall that recycled its water through a system so efficient that using it felt like bathing in ghosts. The walls were a soothing shade of beige that the government-assigned psychologists said promoted mental stability. Maya found it deeply depressing.
On her workstation, the red employment notification blinked insistently. She’d been reassigned. After fifteen years analyzing data patterns for the Resource Distribution Ministry, she was now being transferred to the Agriculture Department. The irony wasn’t lost on her.
The Agriculture Department existed mostly in theory. Real agriculture had been phased out sixty years ago when the soil poisoning became irreversible. Vertical farms in climate-controlled facilities now produced the synthetic proteins and nutrient pastes that sustained the city’s population of forty million. The department’s actual function was data management—tracking crop yields from the hydroponic systems, predicting failures, ensuring the mathematical precision of survival.
Maya packed her belongings into her transit container. Two changes of clothes. A worn paper book she’d found at an estate sale—a volume of poetry from before, its cover depicting something called a “meadow” in impossible shades of emerald and gold. Her ration card. Her identification. That was everything the law allowed her to carry.
The transit tube hissed as she stepped into it. The pod sealed around her like the mouth of some mechanical beast, and she was sucked through the city’s arterial system at three hundred kilometers per hour. Through the transparent sections of the tube, she caught glimpses of other towers, identical to hers, rising like gray tombstones toward the poisoned sky.
Her new department was located in Sub-Level 7, deep enough that the air felt pressurized against her eardrums. The ceiling was low and the lights hummed with an almost sentient irritation. Her supervisor was a thin woman named Chen who had the pinched expression of someone perpetually disappointed by reality.
“You’ve been selected for a special project,” Chen said, not bothering with pleasantries. “The government has authorized a research initiative. Theoretical only. We’re studying the possibility of re-establishing biological agriculture.”
Maya felt something in her chest contract. “That’s impossible. The soil—”
“Is dead, yes. But we have samples preserved from before the poisoning. Genetic material. And we have a facility.” Chen pulled up a file on her screen. “It’s been sealed and isolated for forty years. The government wants to know if, theoretically, life could grow there again.”
“Why?”
Chen looked at her with something that might have been pity. “Because they’re afraid, Dr. Wei. The system is breaking down. The hydroponic yields are dropping—nothing catastrophic yet, but the trend is clear. In another fifteen years, we might not be able to feed everyone. They want options. Contingencies.”
Maya was given a hazmat suit and descended even deeper, into a section of the city that hadn’t appeared on any map she’d ever seen. Chen led her through corridors that smelled of minerals and age.
The facility was enormous. A cavern carved into living rock, sealed behind multiple airlock systems. And inside—
Inside was green.
Not much. Not compared to the ancient photographs in history databases. But there were plants. Real plants, with leaves that had actual pigmentation, roots that grew in actual soil. They were withered and struggling in the artificial light, but they were alive. Impossibly, miraculously alive.
Maya stood frozen. She felt something break open in her chest—something that had been sealed since childhood, since she first learned that the world outside the tower was a dead thing, a place of chemicals and poison and the slow suffocation of everything that had ever lived.
“How?” she whispered.
“One of the original researchers was… sentimental,” Chen said. “When they sealed this place, they left behind seeds. A few saplings. They’re nearly dead, but they survived on reclaimed water and recycled air. The government only discovered them during a structural survey last month.”
The project consumed the next six months. Maya and a small team of researchers—people so forgotten by the system they’d been considered expendable for this work—began the delicate process of studying the plants. How they metabolized. What they needed. Whether life could truly persist in this poisoned world.
The answer, they discovered, was yes. But only here. Only in this sealed place, hidden from the world above. The irony was brutal: the only remaining life on the planet existed in a tomb.
One evening, after everyone else had left, Maya sat among the plants and allowed herself to cry. She pulled out her old book of poetry and read by the false light, the words blurring through her tears.
“I wandered lonely as a cloud that floats on high o’er vales and hills…”
She’d never seen a cloud. She’d never felt wind on her face or smelled rain or tasted air that didn’t burn. No one her age had. The generation above her, they sometimes spoke in hushed tones of the time before, of blue skies and green things and a world that breathed.
The government’s decision came down six months later. The project was being terminated. The cost-benefit analysis didn’t support continued research. The facility would be sealed again, the plants left to slowly die in the darkness. The government had concluded that re-establishing biological agriculture was theoretically possible but practically inefficient. The hydroponic systems would continue to be optimized. Life would continue as it had.
They were to leave no evidence of their work. Chen delivered the order with the same pinched expression she always wore.
But Maya didn’t obey.
She took cuttings from the strongest plants, carefully hidden in the lining of her hazmat suit. She moved through the city with the precision of someone committing a crime—because it was a crime, of course. Unauthorized biological material. Contamination risk. Violation of the Ecological Containment Protocols.
In her apartment, in the space between the wall and the false panel that everyone knew was there but no one acknowledged, she created a small garden. She used water recycled from her shower and nutrients extracted from her protein rations. She grew things in the darkness of a hidden space, tending them like secrets, like prayers.
The plants were pale and thin, stretched toward a light that never truly came. But they grew.
She taught her neighbor, an old man named Lin who remembered the time before the poisoning. She taught his neighbor. Slowly, carefully, the secret spread through the tower like a quiet rebellion. People who had never seen anything alive except other humans began to cultivate small gardens in hidden spaces. They grew pale and sickly things, but they grew.
No one reported them. Perhaps people were so desperate for something beyond the gray and the beige that they were willing to conspire in silence. Perhaps the surveillance systems had grown so vast that they could no longer distinguish between meaningful crimes and people committing small acts of hope.
Three years after the facility was sealed, there was a breakdown in the hydroponic system. A cascade failure that the redundancy systems couldn’t contain. Within days, the nutritional paste reserves dropped to critical levels. The government implemented emergency rationing.
For the first time in living memory, people went hungry.
Maya watched the city descend into quiet panic. The carefully maintained order began to fray. And then, something remarkable happened.
In towers across the city, people began to share their hidden plants. Not much—barely enough to sustain anyone. But real food. Vegetables that had somehow survived in the darkness. Leaves that could be eaten. Fruits that hung like small miracles from struggling stems.
It wasn’t enough to save the city. The government knew that. The system would be repaired. The hydroponic farms would return to optimal efficiency. But for a moment, a fragile moment, people remembered what it meant to eat something that had grown from soil and sun, even if that sun was artificial and that soil was hoarded in hidden gardens.
The government didn’t punish them. It couldn’t. To do so would be to acknowledge that the system had failed, that life persisted in ways they couldn’t control. And so they simply accelerated the repairs and increased surveillance and told themselves that normalcy would return.
But something had changed.
In the apartment towers, in the spaces between walls and behind false panels, people continued to grow their small green things. They wouldn’t feed millions. They wouldn’t save the city. But they were alive. In a world where life had been poisoned and processed and reduced to mathematical equations, they were undeniably, defiantly alive.
Maya kept her book of poetry on her shelf, no longer hidden. Sometimes she read the passages about meadows and clouds to people who gathered in her apartment, their faces illuminated by the soft glow of bioluminescent plants that someone had learned to cultivate in the darkness.
“I wandered lonely as a cloud,” she would read, and people would listen to words about a world they’d never seen, a world that seemed as distant and impossible as a dream.
But in the hidden gardens, in the spaces that shouldn’t contain life, small green things grew.
And perhaps, in a world of ash and poison and gray, that was enough.