The fragile ink on the US-brokered ceasefire agreement, signed under the pressure of global outrage, has proven worthless against the relentless machinery of the Israeli military. While diplomats quibble over the fate of the Strait of Hormuz and the future of frozen Iranian assets, the people of Gaza continue to bleed out under a daily barrage of airstrikes and shelling.
A Family Erased in Nuseirat
The grimmest news came from the Nuseirat refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip. In the dead of night, an Israeli warplane fired a missile into a residential home, killing a married couple and their child in their beds. Three other family members were pulled from the rubble with critical wounds, their futures uncertain in a territory where hospitals are collapsing under the weight of chronic fuel shortages. Medical sources at the overwhelmed Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital confirmed that entire families are being exterminated systematically, with no end in sight.
Meanwhile, in the north, a young man named Nasr Ayman Abu Odeh was shot dead by Israeli snipers in the Jabalia camp in what residents described as an execution after being cornered in a narrow alley. His body was rushed to Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, adding another name to the endless list of deaths. Further south in Bani Suheila, Israeli military bulldozers swept through the area, flattening agricultural land and residential structures while fighter jets bombed the surrounding areas to cover the ground invasion.
The Dead Document
If the October 10 ceasefire was intended to halt the bloodshed, it has been a catastrophic failure. According to the latest data released by the Gaza Health Ministry on Sunday, at least 880 Palestinians have been killed and more than 2,645 injured since the truce was announced, figures that dwarf the casualty counts of many entire wars. The Government Media Office in Gaza has documented more than 2,700 Israeli violations of the ceasefire terms, ranging from live fire and drone strikes to the systematic demolition of entire neighborhoods. The IDF has not paused its operations but it has simply lowered the intensity.
In the Zeitoun neighborhood east of Gaza City, paramedics struggled to reach the scene of a strike on a crowded residential block. Witnesses reported that Israeli forces fired at the ambulances, delaying rescue efforts for hours. When the civil defense crews finally arrived, they recovered the mangled bodies of a young boy, identified as Iyad Al-Matouq, who was riding a motorbike when he was targeted by a drone.
The Scheme to Create 'Chaos'
The Islamic Movement Hamas squarely placed the blame for the ongoing violence on the shoulders of the US administration and its support for Israel. Hamas spokesperson Hazem Qassem told local media that the Israeli military’s targeted attacks on Gaza’s civil police force are a deliberate scheme to create a "security vacuum" in the Strip. "The occupation seeks to destroy the last remnants of governance and social order," Qassem said, noting that hundreds of police officers have been assassinated since the ceasefire began. "They want anarchy, looting, and chaos, so they can justify their continued occupation of the crossings and their starvation of our people."
Hamas has called on the guarantor states of the ceasefire, Qatar, Egypt, Turkey, and the United States to finally pressure Israel to abide by the terms of the October agreement, including the withdrawal of troops from the Philadelphi Corridor and the full reopening of the Rafah crossing. To date, those calls have fallen on deaf ears in Washington, where the Trump administration is more focused on securing a nuclear deal with Iran than enforcing a single clause of the Gaza truce.
The International Response
While the UN Human Rights Council has once again condemned the "alarming indicators of ethnic cleansing" in Gaza, the fine words have not translated into tangible action. The Trump administration continues to provide the bombs and diplomatic vetoes, while European powers have limited themselves to expressions of "concern." The International Criminal Court remains paralyzed by Israeli obstruction and American threats.