Peace in Gaza
Fragile peace in the Middle East.
Bogdan Matei, 14.10.2025, 14:00
After more than two years of blind violence, a fragile peace seems to have settled in the Gaza Strip. The 20 Israeli hostages remaining alive in the Palestinian enclave have been released. Among them are twin brothers who were held separately and a father of two little girls. International media reports that there were moments of joy for the Palestinians as well, after almost 2,000 prisoners from Israeli prisons were released. The war was triggered by the attack of the Islamist organization Hamas, which controlled the Gaza Strip, on Israeli territory, on October 7, 2023, an attack that resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people, most of them civilians, as shown by official data. On the same day, 251 people were kidnapped by Hamas and its allies and transferred to Gaza. Since then, over 67,000 Palestinians, mostly children and women, have been killed in the Israeli campaign of reprisals, according to figures from the Hamas government’s Health Ministry, considered reliable by the UN. Authorized sources say, however, that tens of thousands more bodies could still lie under the piles of rubble left after the bombings.
Like the entire international community, Romania has not remained indifferent to the carnage in the Middle East. There are hundreds of thousands of Israeli citizens born in Romania or whose parents or grandparents left here. Having come to study at universities in Bucharest, Iași or Cluj, many Palestinians married Romanian women and, after the outbreak of the war, numerous such mixed families were evacuated from Gaza on planes sent by the Romanian authorities. Foreign Minister Oana Ţoiu welcomed “this day, which so many families had hoped to see, a day in which both the Israeli hostages, who have suffered for too long at the hands of Hamas, are released, and a day in which we see, with hope, the humanitarian aid that is so much needed for the families in the Gaza Strip. We continue to stand by these communities”, Minister Toiu said.
The President of Romania, Nicuşor Dan, welcomed, in turn, since last week, the agreement between Israel and Hamas on the ceasefire and the release of all hostages. The head of state added that Romania remains committed to supporting efforts to achieve lasting peace in the Middle East. “I appreciate the efforts and valuable leadership of (American) President Donald Trump, as well as of Egypt, Qatar and Turkey and of all partners involved in achieving this important progress in the negotiations” President Dan also said.
Unanimously recognized as the craftsman of the agreement signed in Egypt, Trump called it “the dawn of a new Middle East”. The American media, however, recalls the long history of violence and instability in the region and the numerous conflicts still unresolved there and says that the White House leader left the Middle East leaving behind as many dilemmas as there were when he arrived. (EE)
