Can this week’s ceasefire deal bring some hope to Gaza after two years of devastation?

Even by recent standards, it has been a dramatic week in the Middle East.

Tuesday marked the second anniversary of the horrific 7 October attacks by Hamas in Israel, in which approximately 1,200 people were killed and a further 251 taken hostage, immediately followed by a devastating offensive in Gaza, a war that has killed more than 67,000 Palestinians.

William Christou in Jerusalem reported from commemorations in Israel honouring those killed and taken hostage, while Emma Graham-Harrison and Quique Kierszenbaum conducted a deeply moving interview with Gal Gilboa-Dalal, whose brother Guy was abducted from the Nova festival, an event they had both attended together. Guy is still held hostage in Gaza and is believed to be alive. Emma also reported from Holit kibbutz, whose residents are largely still living in hotels and temporary accommodation, two years after the massacre by Hamas that ripped it apart.

In the devastating story of the last two years in Gaza, we felt it was important to convey both the extent of deaths and injuries two years on – barely comprehensible in their unprecedented scale – and the particular impact the war has had on the very youngest residents of the strip. Our international and visuals teams worked with Emma and Malak A Tantesh on a piece that attempted to meet this challenge by listing the 18,457 children named on a list maintained by Gaza’s authorities of those killed in Israel’s offensive, together with reflections on some of the short lives they lived. The stories are heartbreaking and unforgettable. I hope you agree it’s an incredible piece of journalism.

Many children survived, but were left with terrible injuries. Julian Borger and Seham Tantesh in Gaza revisited what must rank as one of the world’s most awful medical acronyms: young patients classified as “WCNSF” – “wounded child, no surviving family”, whose numbers have increased since we last reported on them, with the tragic result that aid agencies are struggling to find families able to look after such children.

We ran a series of powerful images by Enas Tantesh, a young photographer whose pictures have evocatively captured the devastation in Gaza as well as the resilience of people attempting to live day-to-day in a war zone, an endeavour that is all the more important as international journalists remain barred from reporting on the ground. Jason Burke and the graphics team reported on the different ways in which Gaza has been destroyed over two years, from overall deaths and injuries, hunger and aid shortages to the physical destruction of the land and displacement, education and healthcare.

Over the course of the week, hopes grew over ceasefire talks in Egypt and in the early hours of Thursday came the announcement that a deal had been agreed between Israel and Hamas, as reported by William, Seham and Jason. Having reflected earlier in the week on the failure of diplomacy over the past two years, Patrick Wintour turned to examining how this week’s deal was achieved. In Israel, celebrations rang out in “hostages square”, reported William, and Seham and Jason wrote on the fear and trepidation over the future in Gaza, and whether the deal would hold, amid the relief. Andrew Roth considered how the deal could end up being Donald Trump’s biggest diplomatic achievement, although key questions remain about whether it will hold and move successfully on to a crucial second phase. And as our editorial pointed out, it’s a deal that could have been achieved much sooner, with fewer lives lost.

Jon Henley and Angelique Chrisafis covered the latest political crisis in France, after Sébastien Lecornu became the third prime minister of the EU’s second-biggest economy to quit in a year. Angelique was also in court in Nimes for all four days of the appeal by one of the men convicted of raping Gisèle Pelicot after she was drugged by her husband. The man was found guilty for a second time, and had his prison sentence increased.

Rowena Mason’s revelation that shadow justice secretary Robert Jenrick had complained to a local Tory association about not seeing “another white face” on a trip to Birmingham dominated the Conservative party conference. Our new Midlands correspondent Neha Gohil spoke to people in Handsworth who described the shadow justice secretary’s remarks as “incendiary, inaccurate, careless”, while Nazia Parveen, our assistant managing editor, who comes from Handsworth, forensically and magisterially called him out, in one of my favourite pieces of the week.

Our reporting on the terrible attack at the Heaton Park Hebrew Congregation synagogue in Manchester last week continued with a series of scoops from Josh Halliday, our north of England editor. He revealed that attacker Jihad al-Shamie was on bail for rape, his neighbours had previously reported his extremism to police and one of his wives described to the Guardian how he was “intimidating, aggressive and controlling”. Simon Hattenstone wrote a moving piece about his childhood memories of the Jewish community in Crumpsall, where the attack happened and where Simon grew up.

On Thursday, news broke that former BBC Radio 1 DJ Tim Westwood had been charged with four counts of rape, nine counts of indecent assault and two counts of sexual assault. This follows original reporting by Alexandra Topping and Aamna Mohdin, together with BBC News, in 2022 of allegations of sexual misconduct (denied by Westwood).

Signs are increasingly pointing to a bubble on global markets, with gold, shares and bitcoin all hitting new heights. Dan Milmo explored how sustainable the boom in shares for AI companies has become, looking at the so-called “debasement trade” that is essentially a bet on governments failing to get a grip on their borrowing, and Nils Pratley warned of the lessons from history that suggest the bubble may soon burst.

We published some great sport features including Tumaini Carayol on why tennis players are wilting in the heat, and why more needs to be done to protect them; Donald McRae’s interview with cyclist Geraint Thomas, the “normal bloke from Cardiff” who won the Tour de France; Robert Kitson’s piece on Lewis Moody, the rugby union World Cup winner who has been diagnosed with motor neurone disease, and Andy Bull examining the links between the disease and the sport.

For Today in Focus, Helen Pidd conducted a poignant interview with Josh Halliday, on his father living with the devastating inherited neurodegenerative disease Huntington’s, and his feelings about recent news of a breakthrough gene therapy trial that has shown promise in significantly slowing the progression of the disease.

Voting has begun in Guardian Australia’s joyous bird of the year poll, with the endangered Baudin’s black cockatoo chalking up some surprising success and the three-times runner-up, the tawny frogmouth, leading the flock. As always, the poll highlights conservation efforts and threatened species, bringing to light important discussions about nature and environmental issues. Graham Readfearn wrote about the plight of the mysterious red goshawk, which is fast disappearing as a result of climate change and habitat loss, and Lisa Cox wrote about the threat posed by bauxite mining to the Baudin’s in Western Australia.

When Taylor Swift released The Life of a Showgirl a week ago, the hype was intense – but something was not quite right. Our chief pop and rock critic, Alexis Petridis, gave it a two-star review, and many diehard Swifties conceded it wasn’t a great album. Laura Snapes explained that the underwhelming new album is just one example of the cracks appearing in Taylor’s carefully crafted brand, a topic they both explored in more detail for Today in Focus.

I enjoyed J Oliver Conroy on why record numbers of young conservatives have stopped drinking alcohol, including a rare interview with conservative political commentator Tucker Carlson, a recovering alcoholic. (But be warned, the article contains the phrase “testicle tanning”.)

I also enjoyed Rachel Leingang’s interview with the two “blond suburban moms” of the I’ve Had It podcast, which has been dubbed an unapologetic and outspoken podcast offering Democrats an unexpected counter to the rightwing media ecosystem; Jens Stoltenberg’s fascinating insider’s account about how Donald Trump has brought the Nato alliance to the point of collapse; Stephen Smith’s conversation with Don Bachardy, who was painted by David Hockney with his partner Christopher Isherwood in 1968 and still lives in the same LA house; Simon Hattenstone’s insightful interview with Lionel Richie; and a funny and successful Blind date, complete with one hilarious awkward moment.