After a tumultuous 18 months of genocide, the horrors inflicted upon the people of Gaza came to a much desired end, bringing forth a ceasefire deal with the prospects of putting an end to the bloodshed and violence. However, how hopeful can we be about the ceasefire given the Zionist occupation’s flippant disregard for playing by the rules of peace treaties?
According to AJ Labs of Al-Jazeera, the Zionist entity has killed over 62,614 Palestinians since October 2023. However, that is only an estimate, and the real number of casualties has yet to be revealed. If nothing else, this deal allows a moment for the people of Palestine to catch their breath and mourn.
To better understand the scope of the situation, it is best to start by taking a detailed look at the ceasefire agreement. As per Al-Jazeera staff, the ceasefire consists of three stages. The first stage, which began on January 19th, 2025, is a six-week cessation of violence. Within these six weeks, prisoner exchanges will take place, with Hamas releasing 33 captives, and the Zionist entity releasing over a thousand Palestinian prisoners. Hamas upheld it’s end of the first stage in the ceasefire agreement on February 22nd when it released the last six of the 33 hostages, with one of the hostages sparking controversy by kissing a Hamas fighter on the forehead during the captive release ceremony. In response to these ceremonies the Zionist entity decided to delay the release of 620 Palestinian prisoners accompanied by statements from the office of Prime Minister Benjamin Netnyahu claiming that these were “humiliating ceremonies” that were a “cynical exploitation of our hostages for propaganda purposes”. Nevertheless, a deal was reached ensuring the release of the 620 Palestinian prisoners in exchange for Hamas handing over the remains of four of its hostages. Furthermore, the Zionist entity is expected to withdraw its forces to “areas no more than 700 meters inside Gaza’s border”. The second phase is expected to begin shortly now that the conditions of the first phase have been met by both parties with Hamas releasing 33 hostages, including eight bodies, in exchange for nearly 2,000 prisoners. The second Phase entails Hamas releasing all captives and the Zionist entity would initiate its complete withdrawal from Gaza. The third phase entails a “three-to-five-year reconstruction plan would be conducted under international supervision”. However, a permanent ceasefire has yet to be agreed upon and will be discussed during these six weeks. Former president of the United States, Joe Biden, stated that the ceasefire will remain active even if the negotiations on the second and third phases surpass the initial six weeks. However, the Zionist entity insisted that “no written guarantees be given to rule out a resumption of its attacks once the first phase is complete”. The problem with the ceasefire agreement is that the second and third phases are not guaranteed.
The Ceasefire was agreed upon by both parties on January 15th, and came into effect on January 19th, which is suspiciously only a day before the inauguration of Donald J. Trump as the 47th president of the United States. The ceasefire undoubtedly served as a political publicity stunt for Trump. This was merely the beginning, considering Trump’s recent statements in press conferences and social media posts during the past few weeks.
Joined by the prime minister of the Zionist entity bearing a mischievous grin on his face, United States president Donald Trump stated, “The US will take over the Gaza Strip, and we will do a job with it too. We’ll own it.” During said press conference, he allocated the responsibility of rebuilding Gaza to sympathetic neighboring countries, undoubtedly staunch allies of the United States, while also implying that the U.S. plans on usurping control of the Gaza Strip. “I don’t know how they could want to stay; it’s a demolition site… if we could find them the right piece of land or numerous pieces of land and build them some really nice places, there’s plenty of money in the area, I think that would be a lot better than going back to Gaza.”, said Trump during a press conference in the oval office. When further pressed on the topic, Trump stated, “Well, they could be in Jordan, or they could be in Egypt, and they could be in other places”, Jordan and Egypt have both publicly rejected this plan. Furthermore, in a bizarre turn of events, last week, Trump took to Instagram with a strange AI-generated song and video, which appeared as a promotional video of “Trump Gaza” as a prosperous and thriving environment akin to cities like Dubai or “the Riviera of the Middle East” as Trump would say. These statements and social media posts only continue to actualize the fears of the Palestinians and many pro-Palestinian activists. With world leaders openly advocating for ethnic cleansing and control of the Strip in the hands of the United States, the people of Gaza are left staring down the barrel of another Nakba. The hopes for Palestinian sovereignty and liberation only continue to slip between our fingers.
Over the past fifteen months, we have all borne witness to a genocide that razed Gaza to rubble. An overwhelming amount of Gaza’s land has become uninhabitable; no schools, universities, clinics, or hospitals are left, the economy has collapsed, and Gazans are left solely dependent on foreign aid to survive. Disease and famine are widespread, and the toxins released from the endless bombardments will poison the atmosphere, soil, and water for decades to come, slowly killing the remaining inhabitants. A unique acronym has been created by medics in Gaza due to the extent of families being wiped out of existence during this genocide: WCNSF; Wounded Child No Surviving Family.
The main issue with the ceasefire agreement is that it does not address the root of the problem: the settler colonialist apartheid. The massacres, mass displacement, and destruction we have seen throughout the past fifteen months are only one overt method of conducting genocide. Ethnic cleansing can also be enacted through indirect violence, such as the prevention of economic development, political obstruction of sovereignty, obstruction of education, provoking in-fighting, dividing the population, the erasure of history and culture, etc. Although the ceasefire has stalled the mass slaughter inflicted upon the Palestinians, we must not be shortsighted and prematurely celebrate this victory. Especially with U.S President Trump and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu establishing their plans of continuing the ethnic cleansing of the Palestinians. In her book, Freedom is a Constant Struggle, Angela Y. Davis was asked if she approves of violence. Davis points out that questions concerning the validity of violence should be directed to the institutions that hold a monopoly on violence. These institutions include the police, the military, and the prison industrial complex. Undoubtedly, the Zionist apartheid regime also fits into this category. As long as institutions like the Zionist regime continue to monopolize violence, the cycle of violence will never end, and the oppressed will always have a right to violence as a form of resistance; it is simply a matter of survival. Furthermore, violence is only ever deemed appropriate or acceptable when it is perpetrated by those institutions in power. It is why institutions like the police force are celebrated while protests like the Black Lives Matter movement were vilified as violent rioting. It is why Trump has a golden pager and Nelson Mandela was put on a terrorist watchlist. To truly liberate Palestine, we must not divert our attention away from the root of the problem, and we must continue to resist until settler colonialism is eradicated.
Edited By Sahar Allabban and Christy Abou Saad