Palestinians and their supporters celebrated the ceasefire as bringing hope of an end to the killing in Gaza. But it’s already clear it does not mean peace.
Since it began at least 200 Palestinians had already been slaughtered by Israel. This mirrors the almost year-old “ceasefire” in Lebanon, where Israel continues to launch individual bombing raids almost every week.
It launched at least 20 airstrikes in Gaza on 19 October, killing 42 Palestinians, after two Israeli soldiers were killed in Rafah. Hamas, however, said it had nothing to do with this and an armed group it had no control over was responsible. Another night of intense airstrikes at the end of October killed at least another 100.
And the Trump-Netanyahu plan still leaves Gaza as an open-air prison under effective Israeli control.
Under phase one of the deal Israel has pulled back its troops in exchange for Hamas releasing the last of its captives—but only a few kilometres.
Before the ceasefire, Israel controlled 80 per cent of Gaza. Its “withdrawal” still leaves it in command of almost 60 per cent of the Strip.
Israeli troops will remain in occupation of areas including more than half of the Khan Younis governorate and nearly all the Rafah governorate.
Israel remains in control of Gaza’s borders and therefore the flow of aid. Israeli troops continue to hold most of Gaza’s farmland, preventing any efforts to grow food. It even continues to fire on and abduct fishermen trying to work in the waters off Gaza.
In the first two weeks of the ceasefire Israel has allowed less than 100 aid trucks a day into Gaza, despite the agreement requiring it to allow 600 trucks per day. As a result the World Health Organisation says that hunger in Gaza remains at “catastrophic” levels.
The horrific medical situation is also virtually unchanged, with the World Health Organization saying only 10 per cent of requested medical supplies have been allowed in.
A second phase of the ceasefire, which would see Israeli troops pull back further but remain in a buffer zone within Gaza, depends on Hamas agreeing to disarm, something it has always refused to do.
Israel has set out to make basic life in Gaza almost impossible—destroying electricity, sewage and water services, creating the ongoing risk of epidemics. Over 80 per cent of all buildings have been destroyed.
But there is no indication of any reconstruction happening unless this “second phase” is agreed.
Israel broke an earlier ceasefire in March. It could do so again if Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu decides Hamas are not compliant. He is already under pressure from far-right ministers Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben-Gvir, who are threatening to bring down his government over the deal.
Netanyahu started the genocide to eradicate Hamas and drive the Palestinians out of Gaza. He will be keen to take any opportunity to restart the killing.
Finish the job
The continuation of the ceasefire deal is supposedly guaranteed by Donald Trump.
But this is the same man who has presided over massive arms sales to Israel all year, told Netanyahu “to finish the job” and who threatened Hamas with “hell” if it didn’t bow to his will. Trump has consistently backed Israel’s aim of completely wiping out Hamas.
Hamas has praised “the efforts of US President Donald Trump aimed at definitively stopping the war and the complete withdrawal of the occupation from the Gaza Strip”.
But Trump has no interest in the fate of the Palestinians.
Because of the resistance movement in Gaza and the pressure from the worldwide Palestine solidarity movement Trump has been forced to retreat from his original plan of expelling the Palestinians and turning Gaza into a resort.
His 20-point plan now rules out Israel annexing Gaza and says that Palestinians can remain on their land.
But Gaza will be run as a colonialist enclave, with power exercised by a committee headed by Trump and including the former British Labour prime minister and war criminal, Tony Blair. This would have only a fig leaf of Palestinian participation, guaranteeing it would simply be a tool of Israeli domination.
There is no place in this scenario for Palestinian freedom and self-determination—Netanyahu has made that clear.
Israel is the oppressor and the real threat to peace—it’s Israel that should be disarmed and demilitarised, not the Palestinian resistance.
Ceasefire or not, Israel continues to be an apartheid state that oppresses Palestinians inside its borders and in the West Bank, and that bombs at will, from Lebanon to Syria, from Iran to Yemen.
Israeli military operations in the West Bank this year have left 30,000 Palestinians displaced. Settlers have increased their violent raids against Palestinian villages in an effort to steal more land, demolishing 1400 buildings this year alone.
The Zionist project has always been about ethnic cleansing and this will not stop. Our solidarity cannot stop either. Palestine will not be free as long as the Israeli apartheid regime remains.
By David Glanz
