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The Gaza War That Ignited the Long-Deferred Palestinian State Struggle

A demonstrator wearing a hat reading “Free Palestine” takes part in a rally in support of the Palestinian people in the Canary Islands, southwestern Spain (EPA). 
A demonstrator wearing a hat reading “Free Palestine” takes part in a rally in support of the Palestinian people in the Canary Islands, southwestern Spain (EPA). 
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The Gaza War That Ignited the Long-Deferred Palestinian State Struggle

A demonstrator wearing a hat reading “Free Palestine” takes part in a rally in support of the Palestinian people in the Canary Islands, southwestern Spain (EPA). 
A demonstrator wearing a hat reading “Free Palestine” takes part in a rally in support of the Palestinian people in the Canary Islands, southwestern Spain (EPA). 

Two years after October 7, 2023 - a date that altered the trajectory of the Israeli–Palestinian and Arab–Israeli conflicts - the pivotal question still looms: Did Hamas’ “Al-Aqsa Flood” operation bring the Palestinian state closer, or did it destroy the possibility entirely?

There is no definitive answer yet, and it will take time for the fate of the desired state to be revealed. Supporters of the attack argue that it secured landmark international recognitions of Palestinian statehood and opened the door to a future state. Detractors counter that the unprecedented suffering, mass casualties, and large-scale devastation wrought by Israel’s retaliation are what compelled international recognition.

“Just a Few Years”

Even now, as Gaza’s fighting gradually subsides and the territory lies in ruins, another war is underway: the diplomatic battle over founding the Palestinian state. This new front began with sweeping Arab and global recognitions, followed by US President Donald Trump’s plan to end the war, an initiative that unexpectedly revived the question of Palestinian sovereignty.

A Palestinian official told Asharq Al-Awsat: “Confidence in establishing the Palestinian state strengthens every day. As President Mahmoud Abbas has said, we believe it is a matter of time... just a few years.” He added: “The world has grown tired of occupation and its practices; the recent recognitions were the locomotive’s initial motion.”

Last month, 158 of the UN’s 193 member states officially recognized the State of Palestine. Recognitions from the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, Portugal, Luxembourg, Belgium, France, and others were a direct message to Israel that the time for a Palestinian state has arrived. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu responded bluntly: “There will be no Palestinian state, and we will respond to the latest attempt to impose a terrorist state on us within our own land.”

Israeli Anxiety Behind the Defiance

Netanyahu’s defiance may mask deeper anxieties. In Maariv, analyst Anna Barsky observed that the recent recognitions differ from earlier ones, because they come from capitals not on the fringe of global politics, but from states allied with Washington and long connected to Israel. She described the wave of recognition as a “political earthquake” and a “soft erosion” of Israel’s diplomatic immunity.

Barsky added: “No Palestinian state exists today - there are no new flags, no new borders, no governing structures. And a state will not materialize next week - even after a high-profile recognition event at the UN under joint French–Saudi leadership. Yet the recognitions themselves mark a shift in the rules and signal to Tel Aviv that the clock has begun ticking.”

The Road to a State

Paradoxically, Trump’s plan itself opened a path, however treacherous and uncertain, toward statehood. The document seemed more concerned with governance of Gaza than outright state creation, but the identity of whoever governs Gaza postwar may determine whether statehood is viable.

The plan’s provisions, still being parsed in Ramallah and Tel Aviv, are filled with ambiguity and could be interpreted either as opportunity or trap. PA sources told Asharq Al-Awsat that while recognition is essential, Trump’s plan “sidesteps the question of Gaza’s inclusion within the Palestinian state.” They added that ongoing consultations with Arab states aim to coordinate a transition in Gaza once hostilities cease.

“In the Name of the State of Palestine”

In welcoming Trump’s outline, the Palestinian Authority deliberately issued a statement “in the name of the State of Palestine”, rather than the presidency or government, as is customary. The statement carried dual messages: first, that the PA’s goals surpass the plan itself, aiming toward a just peace based on the two-state framework; and second, that the PA is committed to reforms, pledging to hold presidential and legislative elections within a year after the war, unify security across Gaza and the West Bank, fight corruption, overhaul education, eliminate laws benefiting prisoners’ families, and establish a unified social welfare system.

A Palestinian insider told Asharq Al-Awsat: “The leadership bets on Arab momentum to launch a genuine political track, irrespective of vague plan wording or Netanyahu’s objections.”

Israel Rejects All Things Palestinian

Netanyahu has repeatedly denied agreeing to a Palestinian state, asserting that no representatives of Hamas or the PA would govern Gaza afterward. However, foreign ministers of Arab and Muslim states - including Türkiye and Indonesia - responded by jointly pledging to work toward ending the war, restoring PA control in Gaza, unifying the West Bank and Gaza, setting security frameworks acceptable to all parties, securing full Israeli withdrawal, rebuilding Gaza, and laying groundwork for a fair two-state peace.

 

 

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Arab World

Lebanon PM Pledges Reconstruction on Visit to Ruined Border Towns

This handout picture released by the Lebanese Government Press Office shows Lebanon's Prime Minister Nawaf Salam being showered with confetti as he is received by locals during a tour in the heavily-damaged southern village of Dhayra near the border with Israel on February 7, 2026. (Lebanese Government Press Office / AFP)
This handout picture released by the Lebanese Government Press Office shows Lebanon's Prime Minister Nawaf Salam being showered with confetti as he is received by locals during a tour in the heavily-damaged southern village of Dhayra near the border with Israel on February 7, 2026. (Lebanese Government Press Office / AFP)
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Lebanon PM Pledges Reconstruction on Visit to Ruined Border Towns

This handout picture released by the Lebanese Government Press Office shows Lebanon's Prime Minister Nawaf Salam being showered with confetti as he is received by locals during a tour in the heavily-damaged southern village of Dhayra near the border with Israel on February 7, 2026. (Lebanese Government Press Office / AFP)
This handout picture released by the Lebanese Government Press Office shows Lebanon's Prime Minister Nawaf Salam being showered with confetti as he is received by locals during a tour in the heavily-damaged southern village of Dhayra near the border with Israel on February 7, 2026. (Lebanese Government Press Office / AFP)

Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam visited heavily damaged towns near the Israeli border on Saturday, pledging reconstruction.

It was his first trip to the southern border area since the army said it finished disarming Hezbollah there, in January.

Swathes of south Lebanon's border areas remain in ruins and largely deserted more than a year after a US-brokered November 2024 ceasefire sought to end hostilities between Israel and the Iran-backed group.

Lebanon's government has committed to disarming Hezbollah, and the army last month said it had completed the first phase of its plan to do so, covering the area between the Litani River and the Israeli border about 30 kilometers (20 miles) further south.

Visiting Tayr Harfa, around three kilometers from the border, and nearby Yarine, Salam said frontier towns and villages had suffered "a true catastrophe".

He vowed authorities would begin key projects including restoring roads, communications networks and water in the two towns.

Locals gathered on the rubble of buildings to greet Salam and the delegation of accompanying officials in nearby Dhayra, some waving Lebanese flags.

In a meeting in Bint Jbeil, further east, with officials including lawmakers from Hezbollah and its ally the Amal movement, Salam said authorities would "rehabilitate 32 kilometers of roads, reconnect the severed communications network, repair water infrastructure" and power lines in the district.

Last year, the World Bank announced it had approved $250 million to support Lebanon's post-war reconstruction, after estimating that it would cost around $11 billion in total.

Salam said funds including from the World Bank would be used for the reconstruction and rehabilitation projects.

The second phase of the government's disarmament plan for Hezbollah concerns the area between the Litani and the Awali rivers, around 40 kilometers south of Beirut.

Israel, which accuses Hezbollah of rearming, has criticized the army's progress as insufficient, while Hezbollah has rejected calls to surrender its weapons.

Despite the truce, Israel has kept up regular strikes on what it usually says are Hezbollah targets and maintains troops in five south Lebanon areas.

Lebanese officials have accused Israel of seeking to prevent reconstruction in the heavily damaged south with repeated strikes on bulldozers, excavators and prefabricated houses.

Visiting French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot on Friday said the reform of Lebanon's banking system needed to precede international funding for reconstruction efforts.

The French diplomat met Lebanon's army chief Rodolphe Haykal on Saturday, the military said.

Arab World

Over 2,200 ISIS Detainees Transferred to Iraq from Syria, Says Iraqi Official

One of the American buses transporting ISIS fighters, according to a security source from the Syrian Democratic Forces, heads from Syria towards Iraq, in Qamishli, Syria, February 7, 2026. (Reuters)
One of the American buses transporting ISIS fighters, according to a security source from the Syrian Democratic Forces, heads from Syria towards Iraq, in Qamishli, Syria, February 7, 2026. (Reuters)
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Over 2,200 ISIS Detainees Transferred to Iraq from Syria, Says Iraqi Official

One of the American buses transporting ISIS fighters, according to a security source from the Syrian Democratic Forces, heads from Syria towards Iraq, in Qamishli, Syria, February 7, 2026. (Reuters)
One of the American buses transporting ISIS fighters, according to a security source from the Syrian Democratic Forces, heads from Syria towards Iraq, in Qamishli, Syria, February 7, 2026. (Reuters)

Iraq has so far received 2,225 ISIS group detainees, whom the US military began transferring from Syria last month, an Iraqi official told AFP on Saturday.

They are among up to 7,000 ISIS detainees whose transfer from Syria to Iraq the US Central Command (CENTCOM) announced last month, in a move it said was aimed at "ensuring that the terrorists remain in secure detention facilities".

Previously, they had been held in prisons and camps administered by the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in northeast Syria.

The announcement of the transfer plan last month came after US envoy to Syria Tom Barrack declared that the SDF's role in confronting ISIS had come to an end.

Saad Maan, head of the security information cell attached to the Iraqi prime minister's office, told AFP on Saturday that "Iraq has received 2,225 terrorists from the Syrian side by land and air, in coordination with the international coalition", which Washington has led since 2014 to fight IS.

He said they are being held in "strict, regular detention centers".

A Kurdish military source confirmed to AFP the "continued transfer of ISIS detainees from Syria to Iraq under the protection of the international coalition".

On Saturday, an AFP photographer near the Kurdish-majority city of Qamishli in northeastern Syria saw a US military convoy and 11 buses with tinted windows.

- Iraq calls for repatriation -

ISIS seized swathes of northern and western Iraq starting in 2014, until Iraqi forces, backed by the international coalition, managed to defeat it in 2017.

Iraq is still recovering from the severe abuses committed by the extremists.

In recent years, Iraqi courts have issued death and life sentences against those convicted of terrorism offences.

Thousands of Iraqis and foreign nationals convicted of membership in the group are incarcerated in Iraqi prisons.

On Monday, the Iraqi judiciary announced it had begun investigative procedures involving 1,387 detainees it received as part of the US military's operation.

In a statement to the Iraqi News Agency on Saturday, Maan said "the established principle is to try all those involved in crimes against Iraqis and those belonging to the terrorist ISIS organization before the competent Iraqi courts".

Among the detainees being transferred to Iraq are Syrians, Iraqis, Europeans and holders of other nationalities, according to Iraqi security sources.

Iraq is calling on the concerned countries to repatriate their citizens and ensure their prosecution.

Maan noted that "the process of handing over the terrorists to their countries will begin once the legal requirements are completed".

Arab World

Drone Attack by RSF in Sudan Kills 24, Including 8 Children, Doctors’ Group Says

Displaced Sudanese wait to receive humanitarian aid at the Abu al-Naga displacement camp in the Gedaref State, some 420km east of the capital Khartoum on February 6, 2026. (AFP)
Displaced Sudanese wait to receive humanitarian aid at the Abu al-Naga displacement camp in the Gedaref State, some 420km east of the capital Khartoum on February 6, 2026. (AFP)
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Drone Attack by RSF in Sudan Kills 24, Including 8 Children, Doctors’ Group Says

Displaced Sudanese wait to receive humanitarian aid at the Abu al-Naga displacement camp in the Gedaref State, some 420km east of the capital Khartoum on February 6, 2026. (AFP)
Displaced Sudanese wait to receive humanitarian aid at the Abu al-Naga displacement camp in the Gedaref State, some 420km east of the capital Khartoum on February 6, 2026. (AFP)

A drone attack by a notorious paramilitary group hit a vehicle carrying displaced families in central Sudan Saturday, killing at least 24 people, including eight children, a doctors’ group said.

The attack by the Rapid Support Forces occurred close to the city of Rahad in North Kordofan province, said the Sudan Doctors Network, which tracks the country’s ongoing war.

The vehicle transported displaced people who fled fighting in the Dubeiker area of North Kordofan, the doctors’ group said in a statement. Among the dead children were two infants, the group said.

The doctors’ group urged the international community and rights organizations to “take immediate action to protect civilians and hold the RSF leadership directly accountable for these violations.”

There was no immediate comment from the RSF, which has been at war against the Sudanese military for control of the country for about three years.

Sudan plunged into chaos in April 2023 when a power struggle between the military and the RSF exploded into open fighting in the capital, Khartoum, and elsewhere in the country.

The devastating war has killed more than 40,000 people, according to UN figures, but aid groups say that is an undercount and the true number could be many times higher.

It created the world’s largest humanitarian crisis with over 14 million people forced to flee their homes. It fueled disease outbreaks and pushed parts of the country into famine.