Published: 20 March 2025
Last updated: 20 March 2025
The fragile ceasefire between Israel and Hamas has collapsed, plunging the region back into violence.
With renewed airstrikes and ground operations underway, the humanitarian crisis in Gaza is worsening, hostages remain in grave danger, and Israeli politics are deeply entangled in the conflict. While Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu claims military action is necessary, critics argue that political manoeuvring, rather than security concerns, is driving the offensive.
What’s happening?
After cutting off humanitarian assistance earlier this month, the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas has officially ended, marked by Israel’s bombardment of Gaza in the early hours of Tuesday morning (local time).
Comments1
Rachel Sussman21 March at 09:59 am
The renewal of the Gaza war is clearly a tragedy all around.
Blaming the failure of the ceasefire on Israel solely is not only foolish but also distortion of events.
the deal was that during the ‘first phase’ there will be negotiation with Hamas regarding phase two and that hopefully there will be agreement resulting with the release of remaining hostages and the withdrawal of the IDF from Gaza. As it was there was a deep gap in the negotiation – Hamas insisted to stay the governing body in Gaza, refused to de-militarised and did not shy from declaring its intention to commit 7/10 again… in fact this was for the world to see through the ‘staged’ shows and writing on the stage with every release of hostages in phase 1. Surely it is not logical to expect Israel to ‘comply’ with leaving Gaza, whilst no solution to Hamas has been offered.
Allowing this, it was suggested to extend the first phase so to allow more room and time for negotiation to hopefully somehow bridge the gap with the support of the US and Arab States negotiators. Israel agreed to Witkoff’s offer, Hamas rejected, it wanted to extend the ceasefire by two months in exchange of one Israeli-American soldier plus four dead hostages (also Israeli-Americans) not to mention the thousands of prisoners released (more enforcement to Hamas)… With all the perfectly understood emotional attachment to see all the hostages (alive and deceased) back home, one does not need to be a General in the army to see that if Israel was to accept this it would be suicidal…
Israel reduced humanitarian supply to Gaza hoping it will pressure Hamas, but this was doomed to fail, by now, with the stream of supply coming to Gaza, Hamas was well supplied for months to come…
Consequently, the option was to ‘break’ the ceasefire and return to fighting…
Saying this of course there is much fear and concern both for the soldiers, for the hostages, and for the civilians all around… The people of Israel are tired, they – and we – want to see everyone home and start rebuilding, it is so understandable, but unfortunately this understandable desire leaves Israel in the same place it was pre 7/10 – with Hamas on its border, something that all Israelis without exception object to…
Also unfortunately, it is unquestionable that Netanyahu benefited politically from the situation, especially with the return of Ben-Gvir, hence the people trust in him plumps even further…
Consequently, the people of Israel are confused between the different strings pulling them… This is a real mess, a real tragedy and I suggest that we, Jews outside of Israel be wiser, sustain our Israeli brothers and sisters so they can see the different strings pulling at them so they can also come together and look long term, instead of adding oil to the fire by focusing solely on Netanyahu’s imperfection as if it is the cause for everything and Hamas and the people of Gaza are simply the victim of the ceasefire failure… They are not!