Israel’s bombing of Gaza is not a ‘violation of the ceasefire’. It is a continuing genocide under diplomatic cover.

By Yara Hawari

Co-director of Al-Shabaka, the Palestinian Policy Network.Published On 24 Nov 202524 Nov 2025

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When on October 10, a “ceasefire” was declared in Gaza, many Palestinians breathed a sigh of relief. They had just endured two years of constant bombardment estimated to equal roughly six times the explosive force of the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima in 1945, concentrated on an area less than half the size of the Japanese city..

The devastation was all encompassing. All hospitals and universities had been bombed, most homes and schools destroyed and vital infrastructure, such as the sewage system and electricity lines, had been damaged beyond repair. An estimated 50 million tonnes of rubble was strewn across the strip and under it lay at least 10,000 bodies of Palestinians killed in bombardments who were yet to be recovered.

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And yet, the respite the people of Gaza expected to finally come never materialised. Almost immediately after the “ceasefire” announcement, the Israeli regime started bombing the strip again. It hasn’t stopped since then.

According to Gaza’s Government Media Office, Israel has violated the “ceasefire” nearly 500 times in 44 days, killing 342 civilians. The deadliest day was on October 29 when the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) killed 109 Palestinians, including 52 children. More recently, on Thursday, 32 Palestinians were killed, including an entire family in the Zeitoun neighbourhood of Gaza City when a bomb was dropped on a building they were sheltering in.

But it is not just the bombardment that hasn’t stopped. The starvation hasn’t either.

As per the “ceasefire” agreement, 600 trucks of aid were supposed to be allowed in every day, which Israel has not fulfilled. As Al Jazeera’s correspondent Hind al-Khoudary has reported from Gaza, the IOF is permitting only 150 trucks a day to cross into the strip. They are also preventing the entry of nutritious foods, including meat, dairy and vegetables, as well as much-needed medicine, tents and other materials for shelter.

A coalition of Palestinian relief agencies estimated that the aid that enters now doesn’t even cover a quarter of the basic needs of the population.

The United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA), which says it has enough food in its warehouses to feed everyone in Gaza for months, is still not allowed to bring in any of it. This is in direct contravention of an October advisory opinion by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) that the Israeli regime has a duty to not impede the supply of aid by UN agencies, including UNRWA.

The court also rejected Israeli accusations that the agency lacks neutrality and asserted that it is an indispensable actor in the humanitarian landscape. Nonetheless, the Israeli regime has rejected the advisory opinion and continues to limit UNRWA activities by preventing aid distribution and denying visas to its international staff.

The Israeli regime is also not abiding by the provisional measures that were laid out in an ICJ ruling in January 2024 that found that plausible acts of genocide were being committed in Gaza. These measures included preventing acts of genocide, preventing and punishing incitement to genocide and allowing humanitarian assistance into Gaza. Since then, the court has reaffirmed its provisional measures several times. The Israeli regime continues to ignore them.

And that is because on the international level, it continues to enjoy unprecedented diplomatic, financial and military cover. The latest iteration of that came on November 17 when the UN Security Council passed Resolution 2803, endorsing United States President Donald Trump’s 20-point plan for Gaza.

Among its provisions is the creation of two bodies that would take control of Gaza: the board of peace, chaired by Trump himself, and the international stabilisation force, tasked with maintaining security and enforcing the disarmament of Palestinian groups. The governing structure of both bodies remains unclear, but they would operate in coordination with the Israeli regime, effectively installing another layer of foreign control over the Palestinian people.

The resolution also allows for the bypassing of existing local and international structures in the distribution of aid. It makes no mention of the genocide and does not propose any mechanism for accountability for war crimes. Essentially, the resolution contravenes international law and gives the US – a co-perpetrator of genocide – control over Gaza.

All of this makes clear the fact that the “ceasefire” is not a ceasefire at all. The Israeli regime continues to attack Gaza, to starve the Palestinian population and to deny it access to proper shelter and healthcare.

Calling this arrangement a ceasefire allows third states to claim progress on conflict resolution and even peace when the core genocidal reality of the Palestinians on the ground remains largely unchanged. The “ceasefire” is a diplomatic sham – a cover for the continuing extermination, displacement and erasure of the Palestinian people in Gaza and a distraction for the international public and the media.

The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera’s editorial policy.

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• Yara HawariCo-director of Al-Shabaka, the Palestinian Policy Network.Yara Hawari is the co-director of Al-Shabaka, the Palestinian Policy Network. She previously served as the Palestine policy fellow and senior analyst. Yara completed her PhD in Middle East Politics at the University of Exeter, where she taught various undergraduate courses and continues to be an honorary research fellow. In addition to her academic work, which focused on indigenous studies and oral history, she is a frequent political commentator writing for various media outlets.

On Monday, the UN Security Council voted to endorse the Trump administration’s “International Stabilization Force” in Gaza. Palestinians in Gaza say it is just a new face of the same Israeli occupation.

By Tareq S. Hajjaj November 18, 20250

A general view of the extensive destruction in the Zeitoun neighborhood, southeast of Gaza City, on November 17, 2025. (Photo: Omar Ashtawy/APA Images)

The UN Security Council voted on Monday in favor of a U.S.-backed resolution establishing an “International Stabilization Force” (ISF) in Gaza under a “Board of Peace” headed by U.S. President Donald Trump.

Under a two-year mandate, the stabilization force is reportedly planned to have an “executive” role in Gaza, not just as a peacekeeping force. The ISF is being established under Chapter 7 of the UN Charter, which means it is being granted the authority to disarm Palestinian resistance factions, aligning with Israeli demands, and could be established unilaterally, without the approval of the Palestinians.

The UN Security Council resolution voted 13-0 in favor of the resolution, with two permanent members, Russia and China, abstaining from the vote.

Hamas rejected and condemned the resolution, asserting that it does not satisfy the rights of the Palestinian people and imposes an international system of “guardianship” over Gaza, something the Palestinian people and Palestinian factions reject.

The Palestinian Islamic Jihad also rejected the resolution, saying it amounts to a new Western “mandate” over Palestine.

In Gaza, local reactions to the UN vote varied, but very few viewed the development as hopeful. 

Nader Qassem, one of the displaced in Gaza City, expressed his resentment over the resolution to Mondoweiss, pointing out that it is nothing more than a retrenchment of the Israeli occupation.

“Receiving the news was highly shocking to many families, including mine,” Qassem said. “After a long episode of suffering that has lasted through two years of death…after all this, we’re placed under international supervision?”

“It’s as if we are a people without a right to self-determination or the right to decide who protects us and manages our affairs,” he continued. “This is a disregard for our suffering in Gaza. The world is conspiring against us through international agreements that don’t serve the citizenry, helping out the occupier and its partners instead.”

Qassem adds that the ISF will not help preserve stability either. “This force will not be in a position to maintain security if it does not represent the Palestinians and if it does not result from a joint Palestinian process.”

“This force will increase the burdens of the Palestinian people and increase their suffering,” Qassem said.

“It’s as if we in Gaza have no opinion, no sovereignty over ourselves, not even a decision on who governs us,” Qassem continued.

Qassem also said that such decisions make Palestinians lose hope in reconstruction and returning to live in proper homes instead of tents. He also added that the vote makes it clear that the world is ignoring Palestinian rights and sovereignty when it gives guardianship to those who have no right to be in this land.

“These international forces,” Qassam explained, “belong to their countries and will not be closely connected to the Palestinians. They will not know the requirements of the Palestinian people and will not be able to provide them with safety or protection, because they do not know what the people of Gaza suffer or what they need. Whoever governs us must be from among us, aware of our suffering, so that they can solve these problems and provide us with a dignified life. These forces will not provide political, economic, or even social support to the population in Gaza.”

Others in Gaza agree that the stabilization force is a recipe for disaster. The minute it arrives in Gaza, it will be forced to engage in armed confrontations and start arresting people in Gaza, following Israeli recommendations. This will turn the international force into “a new occupation,” Gaza residents say.

Samir Al-Bakri, a resident of Gaza City, says that any force that is formed will be totally rejected by Palestinians so long as it isn’t formed through a Palestinian national consensus process.

Al-Bakri tells Mondoweiss that the international force will constitute a new occupation of the Strip. “Look at Lebanon. There is an international force operating in Lebanese territory, but does it prevent the daily shelling of Lebanon?” al-Bakri says. “No. Every day, we see Israeli shelling of Lebanese land and continual Israeli violations.” 

“It is as if the mission of the international force coming to Gaza is to protect Israel’s borders from Palestinians without offering anything in return to us,” al-Bakri continued. “And it won’t even offer us any real protection either; it won’t prevent Israel from carrying out its military operations or aerial bombardments of Gaza. It may even help Israel achieve its goals.”

The greatest fear, according to al-Bakri, is the confrontation between Palestinians in Gaza and these international forces, and the emergence of new problems with the countries that send these forces—including Egypt and Qatar. “We fear that our disputes will become with Egypt instead of Israel, and with Qatar as well, and this is what they are trying to establish.”

“If the international force arrests one of my relatives, there will be no enemy to confront except this international force composed of Egyptians and Qataris,” he explained. “They will become our enemies instead of the Israelis. And this force will serve as a helping hand for the Israelis to achieve their objectives.”

“After all this suffering, the Palestinian people deserve a unified Palestinian force, of the people and for them, to manage their affairs,” al-Bakri added. “It is a renewal of the Israeli occupation. The UN is rewarding us with a new occupation.”

The US president is pushing a UN resolution that would revive the mandate structure of 100 years ago almost entirely, simply replacing the UK with the US as the authority in control.

By Jeffrey Sachs and Sybil Fares
Aljazeera, 13 Nov 2025US President Donald Trump greets Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt
US President Donald Trump greets Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas during a world leaders’ summit on ending the Gaza war on October 13, 2025 in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt [Evan Vucci/Pool via Getty Images]

The Trump administration is pushing an Israeli-crafted resolution at the UN Security Council (UNSC) this week aimed at eliminating the possibility of a State of Palestine. The resolution does three things. It establishes US political control over the Gaza Strip. It separates Gaza from the rest of Palestine. And it allows the US, and therefore Israel, to determine the timeline for Israel’s supposed withdrawal from Gaza, which would mean never.

This is imperialism masquerading as a peace process. In and of itself, it is no surprise. Israel runs US foreign policy in the Middle East. What is a surprise is that the US and Israel might just get away with this travesty unless the world speaks up with urgency and indignation.

The draft UNSC resolution would establish a US-UK-dominated Board of Peace, chaired by none other than President Donald Trump himself, and endowed with sweeping powers over Gaza’s governance, borders, reconstruction, and security. This resolution would sideline the State of Palestine and condition any transfer of authority to the Palestinians on the indulgence of the Board of Peace.

This would be an overt return to the British mandate of 100 years ago, with the only change being that the US would hold the mandate rather than the United Kingdom. If it were not so utterly tragic, it would be laughable. As Marx said, history repeats itself, first as tragedy, then as farce. Yes, the proposal is a farce, yet Israel’s genocide is not. It is a tragedy of the first order.

Incredibly, according to the draft resolution, the Board of Peace would be granted sovereign powers in Gaza. Palestinian sovereignty is left to the discretion of the board, which alone would decide when Palestinians are “ready” to govern themselves – perhaps in another 100 years? Even military security is subordinated to the board, and the envisioned forces would answer not to the UNSC or to the Palestinian people, but to the board’s “strategic guidance”.

The US-Israel resolution is being put forward precisely because the rest of the world – other than Israel and the US – has woken up to two facts. First, Israel is committing genocide, a reality witnessed every day in Gaza and the occupied West Bank, where innocent Palestinians are murdered to the satisfaction of the Israeli military and illegal Israeli settlers in the West Bank. Second, Palestine is a state, albeit one whose sovereignty remains obstructed by the US, which uses its veto in the UNSC to block Palestine’s permanent UN membership. At the UN this past July and then again in September, the UN General Assembly voted overwhelmingly for Palestine’s statehood, a fact that put the Israel-US Zionist lobby into overdrive, resulting in the current draft resolution.

For Israel to accomplish its goal of Greater Israel, the US is pursuing a classic divide-and-conquer strategy, squeezing Arab and Islamic states with threats and inducements. When other countries resist the US-Israel demands, they are cut off from critical technologies, lose access to World Bank and IMF financing, and suffer Israeli bombing, even in countries with US military bases present. The US offers no real protection; rather, it orchestrates a protection racket, extracting concessions from countries wherever US leverage exists. This extortion will continue until the global community stands up to such tactics and insists upon genuine Palestinian sovereignty and US and Israeli adherence to international law.

Palestine remains the endless victim of US and Israeli manoeuvres. The results are not just devastating for Palestine, which has suffered an outright genocide, but for the Arab world and beyond. Israel and the US are currently at war, overtly or covertly, across the Horn of Africa (Libya, Sudan, Somalia), the eastern Mediterranean (Lebanon, Syria), the Gulf region (Yemen), and Western Asia (Iraq, Iran).

If the UNSC is to provide true security according to the UN Charter, it must not yield to US pressures and instead act decisively in line with international law. A resolution truly for peace should include four vital points. First, it should welcome the State of Palestine as a sovereign UN member state, with the US lifting its veto. Second, it should safeguard the territorial integrity of the State of Palestine and Israel, according to the 1967 borders. Third, it should establish a UNSC-mandated protection force drawn up from Muslim-majority states. Fourth, it should include the defunding and disarmament of all belligerent non-state entities, and it should ensure the mutual security of Israel and Palestine.

The two-state solution is about true peace, not about the politicide and genocide of Palestine, or the continued attacks by militants on Israel. It is time for both Palestinians and Israelis to be safe, and for the US and Israel to give up the cruel delusion of permanently ruling over the Palestinian people.