In its latest report, Human Rights Watch issues an unprecedented warning: for the first time, the United States is considered a threat to human rights, on par with China and Russia. The organization paints a picture in which the disinterest of traditional powers and the rise of personalistic leadership have left civil society more vulnerable than ever. We discussed this and other findings of the report with Federico Borello, the organization's program director.

When Donald Trump sealed the ceasefire in Gaza, he proclaimed the advent of a "golden age" for the Middle East, a promise of prosperity and peace that was supposed to transform the regionBut the reality on the ground is quite different: four months after the agreement, there have been only 17 days without Israeli attacks against the civilian population. The army has not only failed to withdraw, but is actually advancing along the "yellow line" that demarcates the territory of the Gaza Strip under Israeli control. Meanwhile, leaders and investors are rubbing their hands together at the prospect of turning Gaza, under Donald Trump's lifetime presidency, into a real estate development hub.

Donald Trump launched the Peace Commission on Thursday, tasked with ending the Gaza war. The ceremony brought together the heads of state of the nations that have confirmed their attendance In the Swiss town of Davos, the President of the United States signed a document formalizing this committee with a commitment to demilitarize the Gaza Strip and "rebuild" it so that it is "very beautiful," but with the ambition that it also address other global challenges beyond the Middle East.

According to data released by the UN, in the last two months Israel violated the ceasefire in the Gaza Strip more than 350 times, causing the deaths of more than 121 Palestinians, the vast majority of them civilians. This data gives a clear picture of the fragility of the ceasefire that President Donald Trump negotiated with Israel and Hamasand announced in October.

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz's visit to Jerusalem this weekend produced images such as the leader paying tribute to the victims of the Holocaust at the Yad Vashem museum. Like so many of his German predecessors, Merz recalled his country's "historical responsibility" to the Jewish people for the systematic murder of six million people 80 years ago. "Germany must defend the existence and security of Israel," he said from the memorial. "This will forever be an inextricable part of the essence of our relationship."

A hush hung over the Pedralbes Palace in Barcelona this Friday before the meeting of foreign ministers of the Union for the Mediterranean (UfM). Since In mid-October, the peace plan sponsored by Donald Trump in Gaza was finalized., Europe has abandoned the forceful stance with which it condemned the genocide in Gaza last summer. And it buries its head in the sand while Israel violates the ceasefire in the enclave. But the ministerial meeting of the organization's 10th Regional Forum has held a mirror up to European foreign ministers and their counterparts in the southern Mediterranean basin, who have denounced Israel's impunity and called for a lasting political solution in the Gaza Strip.

Israel carried out a wave of bombings in the Gaza Strip on Sunday, after its forces and Palestinian militants clashed in the morning near Rafah, in the south of the enclave. The Tel Aviv government also again banned the entry of humanitarian aid. After several bombings throughout Sunday, by night both Israel and Hamas claimed they were reinstating the ceasefire, and US President Donald Trump himself had criticized the temporary breakdown of the truce. "The ceasefire is still in effect," Trump said, noting that he does not believe the Hamas leadership was involved in the events that Israel had denounced as a reason for resuming the bombings.

The exchange of Israeli hostages for Palestinian prisoners on Monday marked a rare moment of relief and fleeting hope in Gaza — but the suffering is far from over. There can be no talk of peace yet: two Israeli drone strikes killed five Palestinians in eastern Gaza City on Tuesday, under still-unclear circumstances. The Strip is remains devastated after two years of relentless bombardment — indiscriminate attacks that have killed tens of thousands of Palestinians. Israel has subjected Gaza’s 2.3 million residents to a campaign of engineered deprivation, leaving homes, hospitals, water systems, electricity grids, and roads reduced to rubble.

The ceasefire in Gaza explains better than any textbook how the international system works: the strong act with impunity, organized citizens can upset the balance, allies are suspicious – and sometimes overconfident – everything is negotiable and – often disguised as reasons of state – the decisions of the protagonists respond to personal interests and.

Of the 20 points of the call Trump plan to end the Gaza war, number 15 establishes that the "United States will work with its Arab and international partners to develop an International Stabilization Force (ISF) to be deployed immediately in Gaza." The idea has been circulating among foreign ministries in the region for some time—the Arab League formally proposed it last May—and it has been leaked to the press that its composition is one of the topics of discussion in the negotiations in Sharm al-Sheikh, Egypt. Its existence responds to the shared vision between Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu that neither Hamas nor the Palestinian National Authority should be responsible for Gaza's security once the Israeli army withdraws from the Strip.

The ceasefire that It came into force this Friday in the Gaza Strip is the third of the current war, started on October 7, 2023, following Hamas's attacks on Israel. There was one between November 24 and December 1, 2023; and a second, longer one, between January 15 and March 18 of that same year. Can this be different now and lead to a definitive peace process? The challenges are enormous; Trump's plan is very generic and piecemeal, and the risk of falling into the curse of a history of violence and death is very high. The weight of the past systematically draws the region toward the abyss.

Tony Blair, former British Prime Minister (1997-2007), has once again emerged as a possible key player in a hypothetical post-war scenario in Gaza, in a role reminiscent of the British mandate over Palestine already granted to it by the League of Nations after the First World War. Hours after the President of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas, offered in his virtual address to the United Nations General Assembly a Gaza without Hamas If peace ever comes, several press reports from the United States, the United Kingdom, and Israel suggest that the White House is considering appointing Blair to lead an interim international administration in the Palestinian territory, now virtually destroyed after two years of massacre and genocide.

Israeli businessmen, international consulting firms and former associates of former British Prime Minister Tony Blair have been working on a project to transform Gaza into a major economic hub, the report revealed. Financial TimesThe plan provides for the creation of the Riviera Trump, which would have artificial islands and an industrial zone initially named after Elon Musk, and would involve financial compensation for hundreds of thousands of Palestinians to leave the territory. during the meeting they heldSpecifically, it would involve building a city in the south of the Strip to concentrate the Palestinian population that does not leave or is expelled, approximately 600,000 people. According to the leaks, the objective would be to force the majority of Palestinians to leave Gaza and confine the rest to this city under military control.