The Gaza Ceasefire Is a Minefield Shallowly Masquerading as a Truce

Part of the Series

Struggle and Solidarity: Writing Toward Palestinian Liberation

Since the supposed “ceasefire” in Gaza came into effect on October 10, 2025, I have personally borne witness to two ceasefire breaches in my refugee camp.

One was on October 19, when Israeli forces bombed a café — a space to breathe away from scenes of destruction, a place to work or study with a reliable internet connection, a meeting point for displaced friends, a brief chance to enjoy the moment. I could have been there. I was juggling my studies ahead of a musculoskeletal exam for medical school, planning to go to the café for a stable internet connection. But something held me back. I stayed home.

Midway through taking my exam in my refugee camp, an explosion shook the ground, and billowing smoke blurred our vision. Back then, I did not have the luxury of knowing where it fell or exactly what it hit. But I heard the crowds screeching. My mind was racing as I relentlessly tried to stay focused on answering my exam questions.

Then it turned out to be the Twix Café I used to visit — the strike left six patrons killed and many injured. Their only crime was choosing to live, to breathe, to thrive. But Israeli bombs were already woefully closer.

Then, Israeli media announced that the Israeli military had ended its escalation in Gaza and achieved its targets. People were left with nothing but to believe in this fragile truce.

The second ceasefire breach that touched me personally occurred on November 22, when the Israeli military committed a massacre in my neighborhood against an entire family. Members of the Abushawish family were gathered in the hall, opening a humanitarian aid parcel when the airstrike hit. Only their eldest daughter survived because she had happened to step into her room just minutes before the airstrike. The family had survived many attacks before, but this one tore them into pieces, inflicting devastation beyond repair.

The airstrike also further weakened the already perilous shelters in my camp and damaged water and sewage infrastructure — systems that had been repaired and re-repaired after every previous bombardment. In an instant, Israel wiped out an entire family, tearing them apart and leaving only one survivor — alone, cold, speechless, carrying muffled memories inside a shattered home.

This Sham Ceasefire Follows Decades of Other Broken Promises

The falsity of the current “ceasefire” in Gaza should perhaps come as no surprise given all the other broken promises we have endured over the years.

A ceasefire that does not halt killing, does not stop the targeting of buildings, does not mandate the withdrawal of Israeli military forces, and continues to block food cannot, by any definition, be called a ceasefire.

In 1993, Palestinians hoped the Oslo Accords, signed between the Palestine Liberation Organization and the Israeli occupation, would bring an end to Israel’s expansionist, settler-colonial project and entrench Palestinians’ right to self-determination and sovereignty over their own land — at the cost of relinquishing armed resistance. Nearly three decades later, this decree — branded as a “peace process” — was preserved, yet it has never yielded peace of any kind. Oslo was neither a perfect nor an optimal solution to the Palestinian struggle, but it was believed (perhaps desperately) that it might mitigate decades of apartheid and oppression. Instead, Israeli forces reneged on their promises, further entrenching Palestinian statelessness. Since then, more than six wars have been unleashed on Gaza City, punctuated by countless shorter aggressions.

After two years of genocide, Donald Trump advanced a so-called 20-point peace plan, unveiled at the White House, with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu standing beside him. The plan sidelined Palestinian sovereignty and proposed the establishment of foreign forces to control Gaza, while Palestinian technocrats would be responsible for day-to-day governance under severely limited authority.

Violence is imposed whenever Israeli leaders choose, paused when convenient, and resumed explicitly without charge.

This was hardly surprising. Purveyors of genocide have long mastered the choreography of violence: When the fire turns against them, they mask their language as salvation; when it serves them, they ignite it and rebrand devastation as a world-changing necessity. The proposal purported to end the bloodshed in Gaza and guarantee a lasting peace in the Middle East.

Yes, ultimately, a ceasefire was declared in October 2025. But so far, it has failed to amount to an actual ceasefire. At best, it has produced “reduced fire” or “slow fire.” A ceasefire that does not halt killing, does not stop the targeting of buildings, does not mandate the withdrawal of Israeli military forces, and continues to block food, medicine, and fuel from entering except in insufficient quantities cannot, by any definition, be called a ceasefire. Rather, it is a transformed form of death — one that operates in the shadows, not in broad daylight — while the world convinces itself that a chapter of today’s atrocities has been closed and numbly moves on to the next eye-catching catastrophe.

According to the Gaza Government Media Office, Israel committed 969 ceasefire violations within 80 days of the ceasefire taking effect, resulting in the killing of 418 Palestinians, the injury of 1,141 others, and the detention of 45 people. Among these violations, 289 cases were documented as direct gunfire, 54 as military incursions, and 455 incidents involved shelling and the deliberate targeting of civilians and their homes.

Since 1948, the pattern has been glaringly obvious: Israel has never reliably complied with treaties, kept promises, or abided by international law. It wreaks havoc as though the world were not governed by any order, embarking on genocide now justified as a response to October 7 — without mentioning the decades spent killing and dispossessing Palestinians, when neither October 7 nor resistance factions even existed to be blamed. Violence is imposed whenever Israeli leaders choose, paused when convenient, and resumed explicitly without charge, only for them to be praised as possessing “the most ethical military in the world” — shielded from accountability and trusting that time alone will be enough for the world to forget.

What usually happens in occupied Palestine is that Palestinians cease, and Israelis fire.

The late, dear Dr. Refaat Alareer, a poet, writer, and lecturer in the English Literature Department at the Islamic University of Gaza, put it plainly as early as 2021, before he was killed in 2023, reasserting that the ceasefire is more a façade than a truce. He said that what usually happens in occupied Palestine is that Palestinians cease, and Israelis fire. Indeed.

The “Ceasefire” Is a Smokescreen for the Ongoing Genocide

There is no peace in this “ceasefire.” It is a minefield, masquerading shallowly as a truce.

In mid-December, a wedding ceremony was turned into a bloodbath, killing at least six people and severely wounding dozens more. Back then, people were fooled too by the illusion of a ceasefire, naively believing that this would be the last breach. Instead, violence continues unabated in myriad forms, seemingly designed not merely to kill Palestinians but to deny us any attempt at living.

Violence continues unabated in myriad forms, seemingly designed not merely to kill Palestinians but to deny us any attempt at living.

The “ceasefire” has become a hollow claim, a smokescreen for a concealed, ongoing genocide. Western media outlets turn their backs and endorse Trump’s plans as if they are unfolding effectively, all while they are buried under the weight of silence. Even Amnesty International declared in November that Gaza’s genocide is far from over.

As of December 2025, evacuation orders were issued in Gaza City’s Al-Tuffah neighborhood, aimed at expanding the Yellow Line and consolidating control over Gaza.

People outside of Gaza are still misled into believing that the genocide has ended, that starvation has vanished, and recovery has begun.

Meanwhile, during this supposed “ceasefire,” Israeli forces attacked young girls in Khan Younis, claiming they posed a threat, and the menacing drone flying overhead continues to fill us with dread.

The sound of explosions targeting what remains within the Yellow Line has stripped me of any sense of safety. The complete blockade, the restrictions imposed on aid trucks and humanitarian organizations, and the systematic denial of medication have shattered any illusion of ceasefire.

The bombs may be reduced in number, but they are still falling.