THE year 2025 started and finished with declared ceasefires in Gaza, both almost instantly and brutally shattered by Israel, which has operated with absolute, unquestioned impunity.
The operational definition of a ceasefire, from an Israeli perspective, is a de facto one-sided campaign in which the opposing party — be it the Palestinians or the Lebanese — is forcibly stripped of the right to fight back or defend itself.
For Israel, the operation of its relentless war machine is always framed as an act of self-defence, even when the primary victims of these campaigns, as clearly evidenced by the two-year Gaza genocide, are women and children. More than 70,000 Palestinians have now been killed in Gaza, as well as 170,000 wounded and thousands more missing beneath the rubble.
The year, however, did not begin with such a gloomy outlook. Many had desperately hoped that the Jan. 19 ceasefire would bring the Palestinian agony to a decisive end. The agreement briefly halted the genocide to allow prisoner exchanges and limited aid entry amid a rapidly spreading famine.
The respite for Palestinians proved tragically temporary, as Israel began violating the ceasefire almost immediately. By early March, Israel had suspended humanitarian aid, triggering acute food shortages and a crippling medical crisis. Even during the purported halt, Palestinians perished in massive numbers from engineered starvation and disease.
On March 17, Israel officially reengaged the conflict, commencing with intense military strikes and expanded ground operations. Palestinians mounted fierce resistance across the Gaza Strip. Hundreds of thousands who had returned to northern Gaza during the ceasefire were displaced once again and thousands were killed.
Israel’s deadly wrath did not spare the West Bank in 2025, yet the territory’s tragedy went largely unreported due to the catastrophic scale of the killing in Gaza. The occupied region nonetheless endured a tremendously high casualty toll, along with the expulsion of entire communities in the northern West Bank and the razing of whole refugee camps.
The West Bank simultaneously endured a parallel campaign of calculated collective punishment and aggressive territorial seizure. Starting in January, the refugee camps of Jenin, Balata and Nur Shams, among other areas, were subjected to repeated, large-scale military incursions, leaving critical infrastructure pulverized and hundreds dead. In other areas, like Ein Shibli and the southern Hebron Hills, entire Bedouin communities were violently expelled, their homes deliberately demolished, effectively formalising the annexation process under the guise of “security” operations.
The year saw extreme Israeli violence and a record number of newly approved settlement units. Despite international condemnation and the firm rejection of Israel’s obvious attempts at colonising and annexing large parts of the West Bank, the Israeli onslaught remained utterly undeterred.
The war’s scope in Gaza also grew rapidly, reaching every last part of the Strip, where forced displacements returned with the same, and at times even greater, ferocity than in the first year of the genocide.
In May and July, the Israeli Cabinet approved phases one and two of Operation Gideon’s Chariots, respectively, both aimed at fully occupying northern Gaza, a mission Israel had repeatedly failed to achieve since the war began.
The protracted, calculated Israeli siege eventually culminated in August in the formal declaration of famine, extending its grip not only over Gaza City but across the entire north of the Strip. The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification and the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation, among others, confirmed that famine conditions had been met. Despite international alarm, no forceful, substantive pressure was placed on Israel to break its deadly siege.
The relentless slaughter in Gaza and the West Bank rendered hollow the wave of Palestinian state recognition by Western capitals. France, the UK, Canada and Australia, among others, officially recognised the state of Palestine in September. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu scathingly dismissed this move as a grave mistake. “You are giving a huge reward to terrorism,” he said. Following the announcements, he and his extremist ministers, Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich, vowed to accelerate the annexation of Area C in the West Bank and pass legislation establishing sovereignty over the Jordan Valley.
The Palestinian Authority of Mahmoud Abbas clutched at the rush to recognise Palestine, attempting to utilise it as a means of reviving its increasingly marginal role in Palestinian politics. Other Palestinian political factions saw the recognition as a necessary, albeit late, acknowledgement of the agency and fundamental rights of the Palestinian people.
International solidarity, meanwhile, escalated dramatically. In Italy, which is governed by a pro-Israeli right-wing government, several general strikes were declared. The first major strike, on Sept. 22, was called by grassroots trade unions. The strike directly targeted the government’s complicity with Israel through its continued authorisation of arms flows to the Israeli army.
Later that month, on Sept. 29, US President Donald Trump’s Gaza plan was unveiled and presented as a comprehensive peace framework divided into three phases.
While intense talks mediated by the US and several Arab and Middle Eastern countries continued, global protests erupted in early October. Millions demonstrated across Europe, demanding an end to the war and an immediate arms embargo on Israel.
The ceasefire was finally declared on Oct. 10. It was followed by the release of all Israeli captives and nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners. Some prisoners stayed in the West Bank, while others were deported outside Palestine or returned to Gaza.
On Oct. 13, an international summit convened in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt, chaired by US President Donald Trump and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi. The summit endorsed the newly declared ceasefire, established a roadmap for reconstruction in Gaza and controversially established a so-called International Stabilization Force.
Eventually, UN Security Council Resolution 2803 was approved in November, despite early protests from China and Russia. The resolution confirmed the ceasefire and called for the establishment of a Board of Peace in Gaza, a governing body to be led by Trump himself. Though desperate to end a war that had claimed the lives of countless civilians, Palestinians rejected any return to mandate-style governance, insisting Gaza would be ruled by its own people.
These diplomatic overtures did not quell the acts of international solidarity. Spanish trade unions and youth organizations declared a general strike on Oct. 15, insisting on the demand of holding Israel accountable. More protests followed on last month’s International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People, with millions rallying in the streets of cities across the world, marking a decisive global paradigm shift against Israel and in solidarity with Palestine.
The year concludes with some sombre numbers, but also much hope and the legendary “sumud” (steadfastness) of ordinary Palestinians.
The UN Conference on Trade and Development last month released a report warning that Gaza’s gross domestic product had collapsed by an “unprecedented and catastrophic” 80 percent since 2023. Researchers from the Germany-based Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research and the Spain-based Centre for Demographic Studies also found that life expectancy in Gaza fell by 47 percent in 2024 compared with what it would have been without the war. This sharp drop reflects a catastrophic increase in mortality.
Yet, despite the overwhelming destruction, refugees in the Nuseirat camp in central Gaza organised a football match. Played amid pulverised concrete and upturned earth, the game marked the defiant return of football to Gaza. Before kick-off, players and excited fans observed a moment of silence to commemorate the 320 athletes and sports personnel killed during the genocide.
While Israel measures its success or failure in wars based solely on the body count of its enemies, Palestinians employ a different type of measurement: the indomitable spirit of a people that refuses to die despite the total and utter destruction resulting from Israeli wars.
The last few years have brought some of the most painful experiences in Palestinian collective memory. We hope that the coming year will bring a lasting and just peace, that Israel will be compelled by global force to respect the ceasefire, and that the profound sacrifices of the Palestinian people will finally usher in a long-awaited age of justice and accountability.
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Dr Ramzy Baroud is a journalist, author and the Editor of The Palestine Chronicle. He is the author of six books. He is a Non-resident Senior Research Fellow at the Centre for Islam and Global Affairs (CIGA). His website is www.ramzybaroud.net
