![Thousands of Palestinians continue to return to Sheikh Ridwan neighborhood, from which Israeli forces have withdrawn, on the second day of the ceasefire in the Khan Yunis, Gaza on October 11, 2025. [Khames Alrefi - Anadolu Agency]](https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/AA-20251011-39378605-39378531-PALESTINIANS_CONTINUE_RETURNING_NORTH_AMID_CEASEFIRE_IN_GAZA.jpg)
History in the Arab world moves in circles. When Hamas announced that it would accept parts of the Gaza Plan proposed by Donald Trump’s administration, many analysts interpreted it merely as a tactical move, a desperate attempt by a battered movement to survive. Yet, beyond the surface of politics and war fatigue lies a much deeper historical rhythm, the same one that created the Arab states themselves. More than a hundred years after the Sykes–Picot Agreement carved the Middle East into artificial sovereignties, the ghosts of those lines still move the pen. What Hamas faces today is not an isolated geopolitical predicament but the return of an old story, one of maps drawn in Europe, of Arab compliance dressed as […]
