The Israeli air strikes continued relentlessly for two days, during which the Israeli occupation forces killed 506 people, as cited by the Government Media Office in Gaza, including 200 children, 112 women, 39 elderly and 155 men. At the same time, the Israeli bombing wounded 909 others.
Israeli Defence Minister Yisrael Katz asserted that the Israeli forces would continue pounding the Gaza Strip harshly until all Israeli hostages are released and threatened to cut electricity and water supplies to the people of Gaza. This came after the complete closure of all crossings used for goods and aid delivery, leaving the 2.4 million displaced persons without food, water or commercial commodities.
At the same time, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu claimed that Hamas violated the ceasefire deal as its fighters were preparing to attack Israel. Consequently, Netanyahu declared that the Israeli forces would carry out pre-emptive navy and air strikes against 80 targets across the besieged enclave.
In addition to this, the White House confirmed that US President Donald Trump is fully backing the actions of the Israeli government and Israeli occupation forces in Gaza – killing women, children and the elderly, stating this is required to put pressure on Hamas to release the “Israeli hostages”.
While Netanyahu, his entourage and his backer, Trump, are accusing the Palestinians of violating the ceasefire, many current and former Israeli officials and military leaders, along with a majority of the Israeli population, are stressing that Israel is the side that broke the ceasefire.
Israeli daily newspaper Haaretz reported in its editorial on Wednesday: “Israel not Hamas is preventing the hostages’ return.” The newspaper also stated that Israel’s attempt to claim that Hamas had refused Trump’s Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff’s “bridge” proposal as the reason to resume the war: “Is not more than deceptive move.”
The newspaper stressed that Israel, not Hamas, undermined and ended the ceasefire deal in Gaza and blocked the return of hostages from Gaza.
The indisputable fact is that the Palestinian resistance had reached a three-phase ceasefire deal with the Israeli occupation mediated by Egypt and Qatar and brokered by the US. During the implementation of the first phase, the Israeli side delayed and retreated from several terms of the ceasefire deal. At the same time, they continued their daily violations, including shooting and bombing Gazans, killing nearly 200.
However, the Palestinian resistance maintained self-restrained and incited the mediators and broker to press Israel to commit to the terms of the deal.
So, what is the meaning of Israel’s violation of the ceasefire? It has become clear that Netanyahu is using Palestinian blood as a price for political motivations to strengthen his power and consolidate his coalition.
Netanyahu’s agreement on the ceasefire deal led the extremist Israeli party Otzma Yehudit, led by Itamar Ben-Gvir, to leave the government, weakening Netanyahu’s coalition. Ben-Gvir had several times incited Netanyahu to reopen fire at Gaza in order to allow his party to rejoin the coalition.
Immediately after the Israeli break of the ceasefire, Ben-Gvir’s party and Netanyahu’s Likud party agreed to reinstate the former in the latter’s led coalition. In a joint statement, they: “Agreed that Otzma Yehudit faction will return to the Israeli government.”
Another price is the prospective approval of the coalition’s budget by the Knesset. “The decision to resume the fighting in Gaza guarantees the approval of the budget by the Knesset… and will solve the recruitment issue,” an Israeli analyst told Hebrew newspaper Zman Yisrael. Explaining how Netanyahu is lying to the Israeli population, the analyst added: “We live an illusion reality in a country that passed with the hardest incident along its history on 7 October.”
Arab MK Ahmad Tibi commented: “The issue is not only related to meeting Ben-Gvir’s conditions but to Netanyahu’s attempts to consolidate his coalition.”
The problem is not related to Netanyahu alone but to the broker of the Israeli genocide, which should be the broker of the ceasefire deal: the US administration.
Witkoff, who tabled the bridge proposal, said: “Unfortunately, Hamas has chosen to respond by publicly claiming flexibility while privately making demands that are entirely impractical without a permanent ceasefire.”
The US envoy to the Middle East, who has recently given an hour and a half of his time at the White House to the families of Israeli prisoners compared to not a single minute to families of thousands of Palestinians, knows very well that he is lying, and Hamas is telling the truth. This is clear in the remarks of the mediators who blamed Netanyahu for the retreat from the ceasefire.
Regarding the bridge proposal or the discussion of a new deal where there is an agreed-upon deal that took months and the blood of thousands of innocents to reach the table with the Palestinian side completely committed to it, this is proof of only one thing: Israel’s use of Palestinian blood as a currency for political purposes and to solve internal Israeli conflicts.
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