Simply Murderous: Israel’s Genocide in Gaza, Breaking the Ceasefire, and Trump

5 July 2025

“I congratulate the air force and the IDF for the unprecedented killing operation carried out last night in Gaza that was executed by the decision adopted by the Prime Minister and me, and in line with the opinion of all security officials.”

Israel Katz. Israeli Minister of Defense, 18 March 2025.  

On 18 March 2025 the Israeli government and military broke the ceasefire that they approved on 17 January 2025 with American mediation few days before the Biden administration left office. Until then, Biden and his officials were complicit in Israel’s genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes executed since it launched its unjustified war against Gaza. Israel’s genocidal war was a response to a successful resistance operation from occupied and enclaved Gaza. The Israeli military's failure was significant enough to demand a continuing military and government censorship about the fact that most of the Israeli civilians who died on 7 October 2023 were killed by Israeli gunfire. The false charge of rape during the resistance operation raised by Israel and its supporters incessantly was supposed to taint the adversary and reduce the effect of incompetence.    

Biden and his team provided extensive arms and military guidance through CENTCOM, led by General Michael Kurilla, diplomatic shielding at the U.N. Security Council, sabotage of attempts to hold Israel accountable before international fora, and complete loyalty to the dictates of the Israel lobby in the United States.  

Trump assumed office on 20 January 2025. During his campaign, it was reported by the Times of Israel on 30 October 2024 that Trump privately requested Netanyahu to end the war quickly, without necessarily attaching a timetable to his proposal. Trump personally is connected to the Israel lobby no less than Biden. The Adelson family and Ike Perlmutter form Trump's ties to Israel, as well as the messianic section of the Republican Party. His public words during the campaign about ending Israel’s malicious and incompetent atrocities were a populist gesture received with the appropriate contempt and disregard.

Breaking the ceasefire in March 2025 was a further demonstration of Israel’s intent to commit genocide and other international crimes. During the first wave of attacks on 18 March 2025 more than 400 Palestinians were killed and hundreds injured. It was the deadliest single attack since Israel’s onslaught commenced in October 2023. It is estimated that more than 6000 persons have been killed and no less than 22,500 injured since Israel broke the ceasefire and resumed killing civilians in Gaza as part of its campaign of genocide.

The Trump administration did not condemn Israel’s violation of the ceasefire. A month earlier, during a press briefing with Netanyahu from the White House, Trump suggested that America would take over the Gaza Strip to relocate its residents.[1] The ruler of the most powerful country in the world suggested carrying out two grave international crimes while sitting near the main perpetrator of genocide in Gaza. The latter enjoys ‘American’ allies with mystical, corruptible effect on the American political system through the channel of the Israeli embassy in the United States and their mirror image, the Israel lobby.[2]

Trump’s complicity in Israel’s breaking of the ceasefire and its crimes is unadulterated. There is no domestic political motive for him to uphold the ceasefire. On the contrary, the Republican base in most of its forms is either apathetic to Israel’s crimes in Gaza or has a peculiar understanding of this country derived from unrealistic and mythical beliefs. Throughout Israel’s butchery, Republican Senators Graham and Cotton acted as cheerleaders for Israel. Senator Ted Cruz remained consistent with his policy speech delivered before AIPAC’s 2016 annual conference.

Trump’s international unilateralism has a unique version when applied to Israel. Here, it becomes dual, merging the two entities under the auspices of Israel’s supporters in America. In February 2025, shortly after assuming office, Trump sanctioned the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) and cut aid to South Africa over its genocide case against Israel before the International Court of Justice and its land policy. In June, the State Department sanctioned four judges of the ICC. Trump’s tour in Gulf countries in May 2025, skipping Israel, bears no political significance given the diplomacy of those states on the one hand and the Israel lobby influence before and behind the scenes of American politics.

The systematic genocidal attacks on Gaza’s civilians continued, hoping to extract surrender from a resisting adversary. In its attempt to resurrect its military defeat on 7 October 2023, Israel further exposed its incompetent maneuvers. All of Israel’s military and security heads have either resigned or been sidelined, except for the commander of the air force Tomer Bar and the head of the Mossad David Barnea.[3] 

Relying on the brilliant strategy of kill and hope for the best, Israel's presence as a polity both materially and symbolically on the international stage is due only to America’s backing, joined by its NATO allies, who are reduced to marginal irrelevance. The daily killing of civilians without achieving the anticipated results included the constant targeting of medical staff,[4] journalists,[5] and people waiting in line for food.  

Israel has barred independent coverage by ‘Western’ media outlets of its illegal war, while spreading its unconvincing version of its mass killing that constitutes genocide. It reduces to nothing the limited international aid that was being provided to Gaza and cancels the functionality of international humanitarian organizations, introducing an illegal mechanism to supply less than what is necessary and obligated.[6] The head of the group resigned, and its operation was an exercise of killing the hungry,[7] but it remains active.

Israel’s domestic political, legal, academic, and media scene has either been supportive or complacent with the perpetration of genocide before and after breaking the ceasefire. The heads of the Hebrew University are at best concerned with the justified growing boycott of Israeli academic institutions and academics. Former Chief Justice Aharon Barak is worried not by the facts and the law of Israel’s genocide in Gaza, but rather regarding the stain of such an accusation that he denies, as he did with so many grave violations of international law when he presided over the problematic court. Israel’s popular culture is in denial about the military’s actual devastating incompetent performance and its consequences in the foreseeable future.

Supporters of Israel in the United States, in their various shapes and forms, project the same detachment visible from Harvard to the Anti-Defamation League. They suffer from the ongoing ills of Zionism. No coloniality, no apartheid, and no racism. The cure is therefore clear. To abolish Zionism and relentlessly oppose its agents, particularly in the United States and its similar version in Britain. Given the nature of Israeli society, the task of dismantling Zionism cannot be realized through dialogue. On the contrary. Only by exposing Zionism’s true character and lies and inflicting the necessary consequences can Israelis begin to understand the requirement to abandon Zionism, their longstanding culpabilities, and their utter moral and personality failures.

IDF’s head Zamir (left) and IDF’s head of Southern Command Asor (right). Source: Ynet, 12 March 2025

       Israel’s Defense Minister Katz (Left), CENTCOM’s Kurilla (Centre), and IDF’s head Zamir (right). Source: Times of Israel, 25 April 2025.

Israel’s Security Cabinet from left to right: Smotrich, Katz, Netanyahu, Dermer. Source: Ynet, 13 June 2025.

Miriam Adelson and Donald Trump. Source: Times of Israel, 17 October 2024.

[1] David Smith, “Trump says US will ‘take over’ Gaza Strip in shock announcement during Netanyahu visit”, The Guardian, 5 February 2025.

[2] Mark Landler, “Viewed Warily by Democrats, a Netanyahu Ally is a Key Conduit to U.S.”, New York Times, 7 November 2023. See also Chris McGreal, “Sheldon Adelson: the casino mogul driving Trump’s Middle East policy”, The Guardian, 8 June 2018.   

[3] In November 2024, Netanyahu dismissed his Minister of Defence Yoav Gallant. Against both, there is a pending arrest warrant issue by the International Criminal Court. Gallant was substituted by Yakov Katz. In January 2025, IDF’s head Halevi and IDF’s commander of the Southern area, Finkelman, resigned replaced by Eyal Zamir and Yaniv Asor, respectively. Netanyahu fired the head of the ISA who critiqued Netanyahu publicly while in office. The Israeli Supreme Court deemed it unprecedented and illegal in a majority decision. Throughout Israel’s genocide in Gaza, this Court like much of the Israeli legal and human rights community maintained its ‘don’t see, don’t critique’ approach to Israel’s atrocities in the best traditions of Supreme Court justices Aharon Barak, Meir Shamgar, the two Levins, Gabriel Bach, and Menachem Elon. We will relate to this issue as well soon. See, for example, Tamar Almog et al, “Aharon Barak: When Israel is charged with committing genocide - I am being blamed”, Kan, 29 May 2025.

[4] Annie Kelly et al, “’Shock and grief’ as senior doctor killed in Israeli airstrike in Gaza”, The Guardian, 2 July 2025.  

[5] Kaamil Ahmad, “‘It was as if I had been poisoned when I left Gaza’: journalist Wael al-Dahdouh on family loss, survival and finding solidarity”, The Guardian, 11 June 2025; Statement from Drop Site News on Israel’s Murder of Our Colleague Hossam Shabat: We Hold Both Israel and the U.S. Government Responsible, 24 Mach 2025; Nimo Omer, “How Gaza is becoming the deadliest conflict zone for journalists”, The Guardian, 28 March 2025.

[6] Gerry Shih et al, “Sweeping overhaul of Gaza aid raises questions of morality and workability”, Washington Post, 24 May 2025; Sammy Westfall et al, “Here’s what to know about the controversial new aid program in Gaza”, Washington Post, 30 May 2025.

[7] Olivia Le Poidevin, “613 killed at Gaza aid distribution sites, near humanitarian convoys, says UN”, Reuters, 4 July 2025.