A Gazan perspective on prospects for a ceasefire, 2 June 2025

On 2 June, we convened an online discussion with Dr Basem Naim, former Minister of Health in Gaza, to hear his perspective on recent ceasefire proposals, the humanitarian situation in Gaza, and other developments in the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

One of the key obstacles to reaching an agreement, in Dr Naim’s view, is the absence of guarantees for an end to the war in the proposals: "We are ready not only to exchange prisoners, but to release all of them in one phase, if there is a guarantee that this will lead to an end to the war and a total withdrawal of Israeli forces. This was not part of any of the proposals we received, so we were not ready to accept any of them.”

Participants included diplomats, foreign ministry officials, parliamentarians, journalists, and experts from France, Ireland, Norway, the Order of Malta, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Spain, the UK, and the US.