A truce in words only Israel keeps bombing Gaza
A truce in words only: Israel keeps bombing Gaza
TEHRAN – Israel’s killing of two Palestinians in Gaza City’s al-Tuffah neighborhood on Tuesday reflects a familiar pattern. Israel is once again violating the October truce it claims to uphold. On paper, the ceasefire exists. On the ground, Israeli gunfire, airstrikes, and shelling continue.
According to the Palestinian news agency Wafa, Israeli troops shot dead two Palestinians in al Tuffah, while bombardment was reported across Rafah, eastern Khan Younis, and multiple areas of Gaza City. These attacks come despite the October ceasefire agreement brokered by Egypt, Qatar, and the United States—an agreement Israel has repeatedly violated without facing meaningful international consequences. Each new killing further erodes the fiction that Israel is acting defensively or in good faith.
The renewed violence coincides with Israel’s announcement that it has retrieved the remains of Master Sgt. Ran Gvili, the last Israeli captive in Gaza. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu quickly labeled the operation an “extraordinary achievement,” a phrase that functions more as political theater than truth. The recovery of Gvili’s remains does not constitute victory, nor does it justify the weeks long delay in reopening Rafah—a delay that amounted to collective punishment for more than two million Palestinians trapped under siege.
For weeks, Israel conditioned the reopening of Gaza’s only gateway to the outside world on the return of Israeli captives, effectively holding an entire population hostage to a single political demand. Hamas’s armed wing has stated that it provided mediators with detailed information about Gvili’s location, underscoring the movement’s adherence to the ceasefire framework. As Hamas spokesman Hazem Qassem noted, the return of Gvili’s remains confirms the group’s compliance with the agreement—standing in stark contrast to Israel’s ongoing military aggression.
Netanyahu’s claim that Israel has now “brought everyone back” is not the triumph he portrays. After more than two years of sustained assault on Gaza, Israel has failed to “destroy” Hamas militarily or politically. The resistance remains intact, organized, and capable of negotiating through regional mediators, despite an onslaught that has killed more than 71,600 Palestinians since October 2023. Since the October 2025 ceasefire, Israel has also killed hundreds of civilians and systematically undermined any prospect of stability.
With the return of Gvili’s remains, Israel now claims the conditions are set for the next phase of U.S. President Donald Trump’s so called “Board of Peace.” Yet the contours of this plan suggest not reconciliation, but domination. Netanyahu has moved swiftly from announcing Gvili’s recovery to demanding the demilitarization of Gaza, placing disarmament ahead of reconstruction, humanitarian relief, or lifting the siege.
By insisting that Gaza be stripped of its means of resistance before its ruins are rebuilt, Israel and its allies seek to impose a peace defined by surrender. This approach denies Palestinians their right to self defense while leaving intact the structures of occupation, blockade, and control that produced the conflict in the first place. A population reduced to rubble is then told it may rebuild—only if it agrees never to resist again.
Ultimately, the “Board of Peace” functions as a vehicle for Israeli security demands, not Palestinian liberation. It sidesteps the fundamental issues of sovereignty, freedom of movement, and accountability, replacing them with a narrow fixation on Palestinian disarmament. Such a framework guarantees that instability will persist, because peace cannot be imposed through coercion.
As long as Israel continues to equate domination with security and violence with deterrence, Gaza will remain under siege—its borders sealed, its people targeted, and its suffering reframed as necessity. A ceasefire enforced with bullets is no ceasefire at all, and a peace built on the denial of Palestinian rights will never endure.
source: tehrantimes.com