After two weeks of relative peace, the ceasefire in Gaza is in tatters as furious Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu orders “powerful” revenge attacks over Hamas’ failure to hand over the body of a hostage.
The long-awaited ceasefire in Gaza is in tatters after the Israeli Prime Minister ordered his troops to launch “powerful attacks” against the Palestinian enclave. It came after the Israeli Prime Minister accused Hamas of a “clear violation” of the peace agreement, while Hamas responded by claiming that Israel was guilty of 125 violations of the ceasefire.
Israel says a coffin delivered by Hamas on Monday did not contain the body of another deceased hostage waiting to be handed over. The two-week ceasefire appears to have ended with an explosion of violence and large-scale attacks ordered.
Gaza officials say that since the ceasefire went into effect on October 10, Israel has killed 94 Palestinians inside the Strip. In a statement on Tuesday, Hamas accused Israel of trying to “fabricate false pretexts in preparation for taking further aggressive measures” in Gaza.
He said Israel is obstructing efforts to search for bodies in the Strip and called on mediators to “allow the relevant bodies to carry out their humanitarian tasks away from political and aggressive calculations.” This afternoon, terrified Palestinians across the Strip prepare for Israel to renew its attacks on Gaza.
Earlier on Tuesday there were reports of heavy gunfire and explosions in Rafah, southern Gaza. Israel accused Hamas of misidentifying the remains of the most recently returned captive as those of an abductee whose body was recovered two years ago.
Israel’s war against Gaza has killed at least 68,527 people and injured 170,395 since it began in October 2023. A total of 1,200 people were killed in Israel during the Hamas-led attacks of October 7, 2023 and about 200 were taken captive.
The October 7 attacks triggered a series of other fronts on which Israel had to fight, including against the Lebanese Hezbollah, the Yemeni Houthis, the pro-Iran Iraqi militia and Syrian groups. But it also prompted US-Israeli attacks earlier this year against Iran itself, targeting Tehran’s nuclear plants.
But much of Israel’s enemy forces, proxies for Iran, are now in ruins, and it could be years before they can regain their original strength. It also appears that its backers in the Iranian regime have been greatly weakened by the years of war against Israel, and Hamas in Gaza has been decimated.
Netanyahu has been accused of carrying out a provocation intended to threaten the ceasefire agreement. Muhammad Shehada, an analyst at the Copenhagen-based European Council on Foreign Relations, told Al Jazeera news service: “Netanyahu, since the beginning of the ceasefire, has been trying to find any possible trick to resume the genocide in Gaza.
“We see this when Israel refuses to open the Rafah border crossing, restricting, to this point, the amount of aid coming in… continuing these bombings here and there even though the ceasefire has been established under false and baseless claims.”
Both sides have accused each other of breaking the ceasefire agreement and huge diplomatic interventions will now be needed to repair the damage to the peace agreement. US President Donald Trump is believed to be paying close attention to the scope of Israeli military action against Gaza.
