Gaza – no peace without justice
If two years of live-streamed genocide proves anything, it is that there can be no peace in the Middle East while the settler colonial state of Israel continues to exist.
There can be no permanent peace in the Middle East while colonists continue not only to occupy stolen land but additionally continue to extend remorselessly their occupation to wider and wider areas at the expense of the homes and livelihoods of untold thousands of Palestinian families, left homeless and without means of subsistence. Suffice it to say that in 1993, at the time the Oslo Accords came into effect, which were, inter alia, intended to put a stop to further Israeli encroachment into the West Bank and Jerusalem, there were about 110,000 settlers in the West Bank and around 140,000 in East Jerusalem. 30 years later, the settler population in the West Bank had increased to approximately 465,000, and in East Jerusalem to about 230,000. These settlements are connected by an extensive network of highways also built on confiscated Palestinian land which only Israelis are permitted to use. In 2023, Israel advanced plans for 12,349 housing units in the West Bank and 18,333 in East Jerusalem. What sort of person would deny the Palestinians the right to fight back against this continuing and flagrant exercise in dispossession?
Nor can there be any permanent peace while over 2 million displaced Palestinians live under siege, corralled into a tiny corner of their own country, deprived of freedom of movement of either people or of goods.
It follows that the much Trumpeted ‘Peace Plan’, which addresses none of these injustices, is not a peace plan at all, and was never intended as such. It is – at best – a proposal for a temporary truce made at a time when both parties to the conflict are much in need of recuperation. The plan was drawn up by US imperialism in consultation primarily with Israel and to some extent with the various Arab quisling governments in the region. As the paymaster of the Israeli state and of its wars, it is US imperialism that calls the shots and its aim now is to get the best possible deal for the colonists at a time when their opponents are reeling from genocide, starvation and material devastation, the extent of which is truly horrendous.
“At least 67,000 Palestinians have been killed, though the death toll is likely far higher. According to Israel’s own estimates, more than 10% of Gaza’s population were injured or killed in the last two years….
“The Israeli military killed at least 20,000 children in Gaza. Those who survived have endured incomprehensible trauma. As of December 2023, just three months into the genocide, more than 1,000 children in Gaza had lost one or both of their legs to the Israeli military’s relentless onslaught. Today, Gaza has the highest per capita number of child amputees of anywhere in the world. By February 2024, UNICEF estimated that at least 17,000 of Gaza’s children were now ‘unaccompanied’ or separated from their parents. The sheer number of children made orphans by the Gaza genocide gave rise to a new acronym among medical workers: WCNSF — wounded child, no surviving family.
“Half a million Palestinians in Gaza are currently trapped in Israel’s man-made famine, and even though more aid is flowing in now than before, the damage has been done: Untold numbers of Palestinians have died of starvation, mothers have given birth to malnourished babies, and children in the prime of their development have passed the point of no return, bringing irreversible, life-altering impacts. Beyond those who survived it, the effects of Israel’s famine will be felt for generations to come” (‘5 takeaways from the ceasefire’, The Wire, 13 October 2025).
We note that “When deaths resulting from imposed deprivation (indirect deaths) are factored into mortality data, the total figures will be higher than those from only violent deaths (direct deaths). Eminent epidemiologist Professor Devi Sridhar (chair of Global Health, University of Edinburgh) reported in an article in The Guardian a ‘conservative estimate of four indirect deaths per one direct death’. Assuming that deaths from deprivation were four times the violent deaths, then the 136,000 violent deaths after 15.5 months of killing (25 April 2025) would imply 544,000 Gaza deaths from imposed deprivation, and that the total Gazan death toll would accordingly be 136,000 violent deaths plus 544,000 from imposed deprivation, leading to a staggering total of 680,000 deaths by 25 April 2025. Most of these victims, as indicated in earlier counts by the Ministry of Health are women and children” (Richard Hil and Gideon Polya, ‘Skewering history: the odious politics of counting Gaza’s dead’, Arena Online, 11 July 2025).
Moreover,
• 94% of hospitals were damaged or completely destroyed as of May 2025; as of October 2025, fewer than half of Gaza’s hospitals were even partially functioning.
• More than 80% of water and sanitation infrastructure had been destroyed by February 2025.
• 92% of all residential buildings have been damaged or destroyed.
• Only 1.5% of Gaza’s agricultural land remained undamaged and accessible as of August 2025, 90% cattle have died, and half of sheep and goat herds have been wiped out, decimating local food systems.
But Israel has also suffered devastation
If what has happened to the Gazans is truly terrible, it has to be borne in mind that Israel during the course of this war has suffered very badly as well. Of course its suffering may seem to be nothing compared to what has been done to Gaza, but is nevertheless perceived as devastating from an Israeli point of view.
To start with, more than 900 Israeli soldiers have been killed in the war, with over 6,000 injured. At least 50 have committed suicide. Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and other mental illnesses among soldiers is rampant. There have been over 2,000 soldiers deserting and draft dodging is estimated at 14,600. The result has been that even the high command of the IDF opposed the idea of invading Gaza City. They were overruled but were saved, for the time being at least, by the ‘ceasefire’.
At the same time, as one blogger has noted, “Israel’s economy is experiencing what 130 of its top economists describe as a ‘spiral of collapse’, with an almost unprecedented ‘brain drain’, a nosediving tech industry and a credit rating that is near ‘junk’ levels.”
Besides, “Official data indicates that business sector GDP in real terms went up by a meagre 0.2 per cent cumulatively in 2023 and 2024, after growing 7.4 per cent in 2022; real aggregate investment declined by a cumulative 17 per cent in those years, while GDP per capita has declined by over 1 per cent as output growth slows.
“Since early 2023, nearly 170,000 people have left the country, mostly young and skilled, with fewer than 60,000 returning. (Israel’s famed high-tech sector, producing one-fifth of GDP and over half of service exports, employs only 400,000 workers.) Military reserve duty and democratic backsliding will intensify this outflow. These days, start-ups are incorporating in the US, not locally, as potential investors flee. At current rates, the sector could largely vanish as an Israel-based industry in a few years…
“…Israel is in the process of turning from a flourishing, human capital-based economy to one that risks dropping out of the group of advanced economies if its military burden does not diminish” (Eran Yashiv, ‘Netanyahu is undermining Israel’s economy’, Financial Times, 28 September 2025).
In addition, according to Tasnim, “Nearly 40 percent of the Israeli regime’s intelligence systems were disrupted during two years of war on Gaza, as resistance-aligned hacker groups launched thousands of cyberattacks targeting sanctions and the huge fall in investment” (11 October 2025).
The port of Eilat has been bankrupted thanks to the Yemeni blockade of the Red Sea, and Israeli airports have been damaged by Yemeni drones. Israel’s air defences were also proved not to be insuperable after Iran’s retaliation (operation True Promise 3, launched on Friday 13 June 2025) to Israel’s ill-fated attempt to launch an attack on that country.
Most important, the promise made by Netanyahu that the Palestinian resistance in Gaza would be wiped out has not been achieved, not even after two years of genocidal war, not even with the help of an enormous level of military support from US imperialism and its allies, including the UK. Since October 2023, the United States has provided Israel with at least $21.7 billion in military aid directly related to the Gaza war and associated military operations (all paid for by the American taxpayer!). This aid includes funding for weapons, equipment, ammunition, and advanced military technologies. The US has delivered massive quantities of arms and equipment: for example, as of May 2025, roughly 90,000 tons of arms and equipment were flown or shipped to Israel on over 800 transport planes and 140 ships.
Beyond direct military aid, the US has also conducted significant military support activities in the wider Middle East, spending an estimated additional $9.65 to $12.07 billion on military operations related to or supporting Israel’s campaigns, including strikes against Iranian targets and Yemen’s Ansar Allah national resistance government (the so called ‘Houthi rebels’), bringing the broader two-year regional military support and operations spending to approximately $31.35 to $33.77 billion since October 7, 2023.
US allies in the UK and the European Union have also been sending mountains of military aid – and still Israel has been unable to defeat the Palestinian Resistance!
Besides the material costs, Israel has also suffered a devastating loss of prestige. “Hamas has accomplished what most deemed impossible — humiliated one of the world’s most technically advanced militaries, outwitted its intelligence services, and transformed Israel from a Western darling into the most hated country on the planet” (Jassim Al-Azzawi, ‘The delusional ceasefire and the inevitable resumption of fighting’, Middle East Monitor, 11 October 2025).
The best news is that Jewish people are freeing themselves from the Zionist virus. According to a Washington Post poll of US American Jews, US Jews are turning against the Israeli regime: 61% say Israel has committed war crimes, 40% say what Israel has done is genocide. 48% overall disapprove of Israel’s policies and 46% support them. It is not easy to discard a supremacist ideology once it has taken root in a community, so these figures are significant, even if a small percentage of US Jews clearly think that although they believe Israel has committed war crimes they still support it..
Trump’s ‘peace’ plan
Aware of the extent that Israel and its backers have been damaged, resistance negotiators know not to meekly accept the enemy’s terms. In actual fact, despite all hardships, suffering and reverses, the resistance is in a better place to fight on if necessary than is Israel. The Zionist settler-colonial state would in all probability be finished if it did not take a break, albeit at a terrible price for the Palestinian people.
The world was presented on 22 September with a 20-point ‘peace’ plan summarised by the BBC as follows:
1. Gaza will be a de-radicalised terror-free zone that does not pose a threat to its neighbours.
2. Gaza will be redeveloped for the benefit of the people of Gaza, who have suffered more than enough.
3. If both sides agree to this proposal, the war will immediately end. Israeli forces will withdraw to the agreed upon line to prepare for a hostage release. During this time, all military operations, including aerial and artillery bombardment, will be suspended, and battle lines will remain frozen until conditions are met for the complete staged withdrawal.
4. Within 72 hours of Israel publicly accepting this agreement, all hostages, alive and deceased, will be returned.
5. Once all hostages are released, Israel will release 250 life sentence prisoners plus 1,700 Gazans who were detained after 7 October 2023, including all women and children detained in that context. For every Israeli hostage whose remains are released, Israel will release the remains of 15 deceased Gazans.
6. Once all hostages are returned, Hamas members who commit to peaceful co-existence and to decommission their weapons will be given amnesty. Members of Hamas who wish to leave Gaza will be provided safe passage to receiving countries.
7. Upon acceptance of this agreement, full aid will be immediately sent into the Gaza Strip. At a minimum, aid quantities will be consistent with what was included in the 19 January 2025 agreement regarding humanitarian aid, including rehabilitation of infrastructure (water, electricity, sewage), rehabilitation of hospitals and bakeries, and entry of necessary equipment to remove rubble and open the roads.
8. Entry and distribution of aid in the Gaza Strip will proceed without interference from the two parties through the United Nations and its agencies, and the Red Crescent, in addition to other international institutions not associated in any manner with either party. Opening the Rafah crossing in both directions will be subject to the same mechanism implemented under 19 January 2025 agreement.
9. Gaza will be governed under the temporary transitional governance of a technocratic, apolitical Palestinian committee, responsible for delivering the day-to-day running of public services and municipalities for the people in Gaza. This committee will be made up of qualified Palestinians and international experts, with oversight and supervision by a new international transitional body, the “Board of Peace,” which will be headed and chaired by President Donald J. Trump, with other members and heads of state to be announced, including Former Prime Minister Tony Blair. This body will set the framework and handle the funding for the redevelopment of Gaza until such time as the Palestinian Authority has completed its reform programme, as outlined in various proposals, including President Trump’s peace plan in 2020 and the Saudi-French proposal, and can securely and effectively take back control of Gaza. This body will call on best international standards to create modern and efficient governance that serves the people of Gaza and is conducive to attracting investment.
10. A Trump economic development plan to rebuild and energise Gaza will be created by convening a panel of experts who have helped birth some of the thriving modern miracle cities in the Middle East. Many thoughtful investment proposals and exciting development ideas have been crafted by well-meaning international groups, and will be considered to synthesise the security and governance frameworks to attract and facilitate these investments that will create jobs, opportunity, and hope for future Gaza.
11. A special economic zone will be established with preferred tariff and access rates to be negotiated with participating countries.
12. No one will be forced to leave Gaza, and those who wish to leave will be free to do so and free to return. We will encourage people to stay and offer them the opportunity to build a better Gaza.
13. Hamas and other factions agree to not have any role in the governance of Gaza, directly, indirectly, or in any form. All military, terror, and offensive infrastructure, including tunnels and weapon production facilities, will be destroyed and not rebuilt. There will be a process of demilitarisation of Gaza under the supervision of independent monitors, which will include placing weapons permanently beyond use through an agreed process of decommissioning, and supported by an internationally funded buy back and reintegration programme all verified by the independent monitors. New Gaza will be fully committed to building a prosperous economy and to peaceful coexistence with their neighbours.
14. A guarantee will be provided by regional partners to ensure that Hamas, and the factions, comply with their obligations and that New Gaza poses no threat to its neighbours or its people.
15. The United States will work with Arab and international partners to develop a temporary International Stabilisation Force (ISF) to immediately deploy in Gaza. The ISF will train and provide support to vetted Palestinian police forces in Gaza, and will consult with Jordan and Egypt who have extensive experience in this field. This force will be the long-term internal security solution. The ISF will work with Israel and Egypt to help secure border areas, along with newly trained Palestinian police forces. It is critical to prevent munitions from entering Gaza and to facilitate the rapid and secure flow of goods to rebuild and revitalize Gaza. A deconfliction mechanism will be agreed upon by the parties.
16. Israel will not occupy or annex Gaza. As the ISF establishes control and stability, the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) will withdraw based on standards, milestones, and timeframes linked to demilitarization that will be agreed upon between the IDF, ISF, the guarantors, and the United States, with the objective of a secure Gaza that no longer poses a threat to Israel, Egypt, or its citizens. Practically, the IDF will progressively hand over the Gaza territory it occupies to the ISF according to an agreement they will make with the transitional authority until they are withdrawn completely from Gaza, save for a security perimeter presence that will remain until Gaza is properly secure from any resurgent terror threat.
17. In the event Hamas delays or rejects this proposal, the above, including the scaled-up aid operation, will proceed in the terror-free areas handed over from the IDF to the ISF.
18. An interfaith dialogue process will be established based on the values of tolerance and peaceful co-existence to try and change mindsets and narratives of Palestinians and Israelis by emphasizing the benefits that can be derived from peace.
19. While Gaza re-development advances and when the PA reform programme is faithfully carried out, the conditions may finally be in place for a credible pathway to Palestinian self-determination and statehood, which we recognise as the aspiration of the Palestinian people.
20. The United States will establish a dialogue between Israel and the Palestinians to agree on a political horizon for peaceful and prosperous co-existence.
A term in an earlier draft of the proposals to the effect that Israel would not annexe the West Bank was omitted from this final draft, which of course makes no mention of how Israel would be prevented from violating the agreement. It amounts to a list of terms for the Resistance’s surrender – but the Resistance has no intention to surrender nor any reason to do so.
Agreement on the “first phase”
On 29 September Trump effectively turned it into an ultimatum by standing alongside Netanyahu and vowing that if ‘Hamas’ did not accept it by 5 October, then he would stand by and let Israel “do what it had to do”. For the first time, the Resistance became a party to negotiations and on 9 October the Resistance announced that it would accept the terms of an agreed “first phase”, i.e.:
1. President Trump to announce the end to the war in the Gaza Strip, and that the parties have agreed to implement the necessary steps to that end.
2. The war will immediately end upon the approval of the Israeli government. All military operations, including aerial and artillery bombardment and targeting operations will be suspended. During the 72-hour period, aerial surveillance will be suspended over the areas which IDF forces have withdrawn from.
3. Immediate commencement of full entry of humanitarian aid and relief as determined in the Proposal, and at a minimum in consistence with the 19 January 2025 agreement regarding humanitarian aid. Humanitarian aid and relief implementation steps are attached herewith.
4. The IDF will withdraw to the lines agreed upon … and this will be completed after President Trump’s announcement and within 24 hours of Israeli government’s approval. The IDF will not return to areas it has withdrawn from, as long as Hamas fully implements the agreement.
5. Within 72 hours of the withdrawal of Israeli forces, all Israeli hostages, living and deceased, held in Gaza will be released (list attached).
a. As soon as the IDF completes the withdrawal, Hamas will commence investigating the status of the hostages and collect all information pertaining to them. Hamas will provide feedback on its findings through the information-sharing mechanism under 5.e below. Israel will provide information on the Palestinian prisoners and detainees from the Gaza Strip held in Israel.
b. Within the 72 hours, Hamas will release all living hostages, including those held by the Palestinian factions in Gaza.
c. Within the 72 hours, Hamas will release the remains of the deceased hostages in its possession and those in the possession of the Palestinian factions in Gaza
d. Hamas will share, within the 72 hours, all the information it obtained relating to any remaining deceased hostages through the information-sharing mechanism in paragraph (e) below. Israel will provide information on the remains of the deceased Gazans held by Israel.
e. Establishment of an information-sharing mechanism between the two sides through the mediators and the ICRC, to exchange information and intelligence on any remaining deceased hostages that were not retrieved within the 72 hours or remains of Gazans held by Israel. The mechanism shall ensure that the remains of all the hostages are fully and safely exhumed and released. Hamas shall exert maximum effort to ensure the fulfilment of these commitments as soon as possible.
f. As Hamas releases all the hostages, Israel will release in parallel the corresponding number of Palestinian prisoners as per the attached lists.
g. The exchange of hostages and prisoners will be done according to the mechanism agreed upon through the mediators and through the ICRC without any public ceremonies or media coverage.
6. A task force will be formed of representatives from the United States, Qatar, Egypt, Turkey, and other countries agreed upon by the parties, to follow-up on the implementation with the two sides and coordinate with them.
The ‘ceasefire’ duly commenced on 10 October.
Implementation of the first phase of the agreement
While large-scale bombardment and wholesale slaughter of Gazans did initially cease, Israel did not stop killing Palestinians. As at 20 October, according to Al Jazeera, “Israel has killed at least 97 Palestinians and wounded 230 since the start of the ceasefire, and violated the truce agreement 80 times …
“The Israeli military has killed dozens of Palestinians in a wave of air raids [on 19 October] that it said were in response to a ceasefire violation by Hamas, which the group has denied”.
In addition, Israel has not opened the Rafah border on the excuse that all the bodies of dead hostages have not been returned. By closing various crossings on the pretext of facilitating prisoner and hostage exchanges, Israel allowed only a much reduced amount of aid to enter Gaza. It unilaterally changed the list of Palestinian prisoners that it had agreed to release, in particular preventing the release of Marwan Barghouti. And all the while it kept accusing ‘Hamas’ of breaching the terms of the agreement as ‘justification’ for its own breaches. It has even tried using the excuse that it was somehow in breach of the agreement for the Resistance to be executing ‘civilians’, i.e., in actual fact a few people who have proved themselves to be traitors and spies. This could not be a breach of the agreement which is entirely silent on this issue; but at any rate for Israel, which has killed tens of thousands of civilians, mostly women and children, to level such an accusation against its opponents is just surreal.
The main excuse for Israel’s breaches has been that the Resistance had not handed over all the bodies of deceased hostages. However, the agreement had specified that ‘Hamas’ would hand over the bodies that were in its possession. As had been made clear in negotiations, many of the bodies were not “in its possession” as they were buried deep under the rubble from which they could not be unearthed without special equipment that Israel was preventing from entering Gaza.
It is probably safe to assume that Israeli shirt-losers are running to their American masters on a daily basis, begging to be allowed to keep going with their genocide, but so far they have not had the green light that they are hoping for. There are rumours that a false flag operation is being prepared aimed at achieving that result. Be that as it may, at the time of writing the ceasefire is still holding in its imperfect way, but who knows whether this will still be the case when we go to print.
What now?
While there is every reason to worry that after the Resistance has handed over all the hostages that are still alive, as it has done, there is nothing to stop Israel from resuming the genocide, in actual fact things are not as straightforward as that. As has been mentioned, Israel has a lot to lose if it does resume its killing spree. But more importantly, so has its US imperialist master.
The present US imperialist hegemony over the Middle East has come under threat from several quarters:
(1) The genocide has angered the predominantly Muslim population of the region to the extent that it is endangering the position of the various quisling governments that are seen to be collaborating with Israel’s biggest supporter – US imperialism;
(2) Israel’s attack on Qatar on 9 September, in a failed attempt to murder leading Palestinian resistance ceasefire negotiators, not only intensified popular anger but in addition demonstrated that the very expensive anti-missile defence equipment that Qatar had bought from the United States was quite useless – thereby turning not only the Qatari government but also other avid purchasers of US weaponry to look for other sources of supply;
(3) Palestine’s biggest ally, Iran, has proved itself capable of by-passing Israel’s Iron Dome and hitting the country with sophisticated modern weaponry independently developed. Until US imperialism feels confident that it can counter Iran’s weapons, it will be reluctant to risk further confrontation with it, which is only too likely if the genocide resumes;
(4) China and Russia are standing by with a great interest in breaking the stranglehold of US hegemony in the region. Saudi Arabia, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates have already joined BRICS, and Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Qatar have also purchased military equipment from China. Continuing to offend and embarrass Middle Eastern governments by supporting a continuing genocide in Gaza can only accelerate the process of drawing those countries closer to China and Russia at US imperialism’s expense.
To preserve its hegemony, US imperialism has to act with extreme caution. Israel disobeys orders only at the risk of losing the billions of dollars of US aid that it receives every year and without which it could not remain afloat. Nevertheless, if Israel were to proceed against US orders, the US would still have to think very carefully about suspending aid since Israel is by far its most dependable servant in the area, its unsinkable aircraft carrier, its reliable source of cannon fodder. But to follow it, at great expense, down the path of its own self-destruction? That would remain to be seen.
The challenges of the next stages of the agreement
Hamas has made it clear time and time again that it is not prepared to disarm except in the event that the Palestinian people have their own state with their own regular army to defend them. Nor will they accept such a notorious war criminal as Tony Blair having any role whatsoever in the administration of Gaza. These are just two of the major sticking points. Moreover, there is no provision for the lifting of the siege of Gaza, or for halting (let alone rolling back) the creeping annexation of the West Bank,
As Jasim Al-Azzawi points out (op.cit.): “The current ceasefire does not address any of the fundamental realities that drive this conflict, including occupation, statelessness, and the imbalance of power between Israel and the Palestinians. It is a transactional pause designed to gain short-term gains — the return of hostages — while delaying the inevitable confrontation.
“Without credible international guarantees, without resolving the question of Palestinian sovereignty, and without tempering Israel’s desire for military retribution, this accord will soon shatter. The world may hail this temporary cessation, but those who look closely recognise it for what it is: the calm before the next storm — a truce written in disappearing ink”.
There can be no peace – for the Palestinian people or the wider Arab masses – while Israel continues to exist and while Anglo-American imperialism backs her to the hilt and has a free hand in the region, acting via Israel and their other client states and proxies.