At least 600 Palestinians have been killed, with over 600 left wounded as the Israeli Defense Force resumes the siege on Gaza, ending on the January 15th Ceasefire with aerial bombing across the strip.
Israel has been in a sustained conflict with the Palestinian people for decades, the recent war which many critics deem more of a genocide, starting on October 7th 2023 after a Hamas attack on an Israeli music festival in the west bank taking 250 hostages, releasing over 100 the following month in exchange for palestinian detainees.
This critical event was followed by a crushing IDF counteroffensive and 17 months of fighting, and the destruction of Gaza, and its people. Israel has been accused of using the attack by Hamas as an excuse to carry out the genocide of the palestinian people and resettle their land, and received accusations of genocidal acts and behavior from Amnesty International, and the UN. The conflict has taken 50,000-70,000 palestinian lives and displaced over 1.9 million Palestinians now refugees under famine and siege, and taken around 1,800 Israeli lives.
A ceasefire was finally reached between Hamas and Israel on January 15, 2025, accompanied by celebrations and relief by the palestinian people and global onlookers. The goal of the armistice was to exchange the remaining hostages. As of March, Hamas released 30 hostages, and 8 bodies, in exchange for 1000 palestinian detainees.
Negotiations continued as Israel closed in on Gaza, and food, water, and medical supplies continued to dwindle. In the span of the ceasefire we saw Houthi attacks on shipments, US bombings in Yemen, and PM Benjamin Netanyahu announcing the firing of his domestic security chief leading negotiations on March 17th.
Israel presented its demands as the following: The immediate release of 11 living hostages, out of the 24 still believed to be alive, and half of the 35 hostage bodies. In exchange Israel offers to extend the ceasefire for another 50 days and open its border crossings to once again allow aid into Gaza.
Demands were ultimately not met and to the satisfaction of Israeli officials or Netanyahu evident by the firing of the domestic security chief. In response, on March 18th, Palastinians across Gaza’s mornings were greeted by Israeli strikes. A teacher in Gaza, Ahmed Abu Rizq said his family awoke to the sounds of “Israeli strikes everywhere.”
Quickly 404 were found dead, two thirds of which being women and children, and 562 brought into hospitals in critical conditions, with professionals warning that more lie under the rubble. Undoubtedly the strikes have soiled the spirits of Gazans, instilling fear in the population once again. The death tolls quickly rocketed to over 600 as of march 21st accompanied by an IDF invasion.
“We have heard in the past hour a clear presence of Israeli drones and fighter jets across the skies in the central area and we understand that among those who were found as victims during the attack were newborn babies, children, women and the elderly,” – Abu Azzoums (Al Jazeera reporter & journalist)
Gaza’s Government Media Office stated: “These brutal massacres committed by the Israeli occupation army reaffirm that this occupation only understands the language of killing, destruction, and genocide.”
“They expose the true intentions of the occupation in shedding the blood of innocent people without the slightest moral or legal restraint, proving that they have a premeditated plan to continue committing genocide against children and women, as seen on the ground. It confirms that this is an occupation thirsty for blood.”
Combatant groups in the region have expressed discomfort with the actions of Israel. The Palestinian Islamic Jihad accused Israeli officials of “deliberately sabotaging all efforts to reach a ceasefire.”
Despite global protest and condemnation amongst many Americans, the White House has expressed their full support for the attacks. The press secretary revealed president Trump fully supports Israel’s actions against the palestinians. She stated: “Hamas chose to play games in the media with lives,’ US fully behind IDF; EU leaders say they ‘deplore’ truce’s collapse, Hamas’s ‘refusal to release hostages.” reported by the Times of Israel.
EU leaders have expressed “regret” over the breakdown of ceasefire negotiations yet have not condemned Israel’s actions. Human rights organizations such as Amnesty International deem as a “‘shameful’ attempt at justifying Israel’s genocide and war crimes against Palestinians.”
Jewish Voice for Peace an anti-zionism Jewish peace activist group, whom engagement with was deemed “tokenization” by the American Jewish Association, deemed the attacks a resuming of Israel’s “genocidal assault on Gaza,” also addressing president Trump’s protest and speech crack-down on Anti-Zionist and peace advocacy groups in the past months.
While Pro-Israeli Zionist groups also labeled as “anti-terror” “anti-hamas” and “anti-palestinian” have returned to the warpath, and appear unrelenting in their assault, equating civilians, press, medical staff with Hamas, and The White House promising “hell to pay”; Anti-Zionist peace advocates, also labeled “pro-hamas” and “anti-semetic” (undoubtedly false), accuse Israel of never planning on peace until Gaza is unoccupied rubble, and haven’t been able to make significant headway in ending the war, while face increasingly harsh opposition and suppression.
This paints a bleak future for Gaza and Palestine as a whole, and leaves the potential of future ceasefires, cooperation, and detente unlikely.
