It has been abundantly clear that they do not intend to stop until every single Palestinian is either killed or forced to leave the prized Gaza shoreline to make way for Jewish-only settlements.
GAZA — Israel resumed its relentless and indiscriminate bombardment of the Gaza Strip on Tuesday evening after Netanyahu ordered his genocidal army to “immediately carry out powerful strikes” in flagrant violation of the “ceasefire” agreement that came into effect on October 10. The United States, which played the role of the broker in the agreement and is a guarantor, has greenlit the strikes as the Israelis have killed over a dozen Palestinians and injured dozens more — most of them children — in just a short few hours of bombing various parts of the Gaza Strip.
“The ceasefire is holding. That doesn’t mean that there aren’t going to be little skirmishes here and there,” JD Vance told reporters, justifying Israeli criminality. “We know that Hamas or somebody else within Gaza attacked an [Israeli] soldier. We expect the Israelis are going to respond, but I think the president’s peace is going to hold despite that.”
Indeed, The Associated Press reported, citing two unnamed US officials, that “Israel notified the United States before launching the strikes.”
One of the Israeli strikes targeted a civilian vehicle on Al-Qassam Street in Khan Yunis, in the south of the Gaza Strip, killing five people, including a couple and their child, along with two others. Another strike hit the Al-Banna family in the Al-Sabra neighbourhood, also in the south, killing and wounding several civilians, the majority of whom are reported to be children — an Israeli hallmark.
Keeping up with the trend of attacking medical facilities over the past two years, the Israelis also targeted the vicinity of Al-Shifa Hospital.
Non-stop Israeli violations
The Israelis have violated the “ceasefire” agreement multiple times each day since it came into effect. Before the intensification of bombings on Tuesday, the Israelis had killed at least 94 Palestinians in Gaza and wounded 344, according to the Gaza Health Ministry numbers. More than 100 ceasefire violations had already been recorded.
Apart from never ceasing fire, the Israelis have violated the agreement by refusing to allow the agreed aid into Gaza. They have permitted, on average, fewer than 100 trucks per day, despite the agreement for 600 daily aid trucks. As more than 10,000 dead Palestinians lie rotting in the rubble of their homes, the Israelis have refused to allow heavy machinery and specialised equipment to aid their retrieval.
Furthermore, the 195 bodies of the abducted Palestinians that the Israelis have released so far were received with marks of horrific abuse. Families have struggled to identify their loved ones — 54 of the unidentified Palestinian martyrs were buried in Khan Yunis last week.
Pretext for the latest bombardment
Hamas released the remains of one Israeli prisoner of war on Monday. The Israelis claimed that the remains were those of a prisoner whose body had already been partially recovered by Israeli troops during the course of the Holocaust. Netanyahu termed this a “clear violation” of the agreement worthy of “powerful strikes.”
There were also reports of shooting at the Israeli troops in Rafah with claims that one Israeli was killed in the firing. Hamas, however, issued a statement distancing itself from the events in Rafah: “We affirm that we have no connection to the shooting incident in Rafah, and we affirm our commitment to the ceasefire agreement.”
On October 19, Al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas, had issued a statement that it had lost all contact with its fighters in Rafah since March, and had no knowledge if any of its fighters remained alive in the area, implying that even if there were fighters battling the Israelis, they were doing so as lone wolves without any organisational oversight:
Jewish supremacists blew off another Palestinian child’s head as they resumed the Holocaust in Gaza on October 28.
“We affirm our full commitment to implementing everything that has been agreed upon, foremost among which is the ceasefire in all areas of the Gaza Strip. We have no knowledge of any events or clashes taking place in the Rafah area, as these are red zones under the control of the occupation, and communication has been severed with the remainder of our groups there since the resumption of the war in March of this year. We have no information as to whether they have been martyred or are still alive since that date.
“Therefore, we have no connection to any events occurring in those areas, nor can we communicate with any of our fighters there, if any of them remain alive.”
Israel had used the deaths of two of their soldiers on October 19 to launch a series of strikes on the Gaza Strip. However, it was reported that its soldiers were killed after their vehicle ran over unexploded ordnance.
Nevertheless, Israel has used the pretext of the latest alleged gunfight in Rafah, and the delay in the return of the bodies of the dead Israelis, to reignite the Gaza Holocaust.
In the garb of “ceasefire”
Soon after the Israelis reignited the Holocaust in March, following their violation of the January ceasefire agreement, they killed a number of senior Hamas and other resistance officials, as well as several key fighters. It was surmised that the Israelis used the brief break to gather intelligence on key officials with their surveillance drones and aircraft — which never ceased operating in Gaza’s airspace — in order to assassinate them once the Holocaust resumed.
A similar dynamic appears to be at play during the current supposed ceasefire. Last week, Al-Qassam Brigades announced the martyrdom of Yahya Al-Mabhouh (Abu Al-Abed), commander of Qassam’s elite forces in eastern Jabalia, and Taj al-Din al-Wahidi, a commander in the Jabalia camp, along with five other fighters, in targeted assassinations carried out on October 19. Israelis claimed to have killed a Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) fighter in an airstrike in Nusseirat on October 25.
All these assassinations are in clear violation of the “ceasefire,” yet there is no one to hold the Israelis to account.
More suffering
Israeli leaders have stated multiple times their intention to resume the Gaza Holocaust. While killings and starvation never stopped, the besieged Palestinians had some respite from round-the-clock bombings. But their respite always seemed temporary.
About 12 Israeli bodies still remain in Gaza. However, authorities in the besieged enclave have repeatedly stated that their recovery will be near-impossible without specialised equipment that the Israelis refuse to allow into Gaza. Israelis have frequently blamed Hamas for delaying the release of the bodies, despite their retrieval being monitored by the guarantors of the ceasefire. It is a ready pretext for them to resume bombardment.
Nevertheless, even if the resistance had released the bodies on the first day of the ceasefire, the Israelis would have found other pretexts to resume bombings. Violating ceasefire is an inherent part of their sordid history. It has been abundantly clear that they do not intend to stop until every single Palestinian is either killed or forced to leave the prized Gaza shoreline to make way for Jewish-only settlements.
In the absence of a military coalition to stave off the genocidal Israeli plans, the Palestinians will continue to suffer until none of them remain. Having conducted some of the worst atrocities known to mankind and broadcast them live over the past two years, the Israelis undoubtedly feel emboldened enough to complete their ghastly undertaking. It is incumbent upon all conscientious people to prevent them from doing so.
