A Covenant of Death Masked as a Ceasefire

A Covenant of Death Masked as a Ceasefire

The Sharm el-Sheikh summit was held more than a month ago, on October 13, 2025, in Egypt, with the participation of representatives from more than 20 countries, hosted by Egypt’s President el-Sisi and chaired and overseen by U.S. President Donald Trump.

The summit was ostensibly convened to contain the crisis in Gaza and achieve a lasting ceasefire, but in practice it produced an agreement that, rather than halting the bloodshed, concealed it beneath a layer of diplomatic silence. The powers present — from the United States to several Western governments and their regional allies — chose not to address the roots of the catastrophe. Instead, they emphasized a framework that neither ends the occupation, nor lifts the siege, nor provides any mechanism to safeguard the lives of Palestinian civilians. The result was a ceasefire that from the outset looked less like an “end to the war” and more like a form of controlled crisis management — a calculated pause that allowed the war to continue, but with minimal political pressure on those carrying it out.

The Sharm el-Sheikh summit was held in the name of a “ceasefire,” but what emerged from it resembled, above all, a collective pact of silence — a deliberate quiet in the face of blood still warm on the streets of Gaza. World powers gathered not to end the war, but to contain criticism, obscure the scale of the tragedy, and reinforce a political order that permits the death of Palestinians to continue without disturbing the conscience of the world. The Sharm el-Sheikh ceasefire was not a point of de-escalation: it was a thin veil over a deeper pathology — the world’s growing habit of watching the slow death of a nation.

The Israeli military has killed at least 32 Palestinians in a wave of attacks that once again violated the October cease-fire deal with Hamas. Among the dead are at least 10 people, including an entire family, killed when Israel bombed a building sheltering displaced Palestinians in Gaza City’s Zeitoun neighbourhood. Israel said it launched the attacks after its soldiers came under fire; Hamas rejected this claim and noted that Israel said none of its troops were wounded in the alleged attack. In Khan Younis, family and friends held funerals earlier today for victims of Israeli attacks on southern Gaza.
Mohammed Abu Shahla: “They say there’s a cease-fire. Where is this cease-fire they’re talking about? Where are the guarantors of the cease-fire? Every day, 10, 15, 20 martyrs die. We wake up to martyrs, and we go to sleep to martyrs, and they say there’s a cease-fire. Unfortunately, there is no cease-fire.”

According to UNICEF and other agencies, in Gaza more than 14,500 children have been killed since the start of the war. (French Mission UN)

A charity, Save the Children, reports that explosive weapons caused a record number of child deaths and injuries last year — nearly 12,000 children were killed or wounded in conflicts worldwide, largely driven by the assault on Gaza. (Save the Children International)

An investigation by The Guardian found that Israeli forces used cluster munitions — widely banned under international law — during its recent 13-month war in Lebanon. The weapons are banned by 124 states that signed the Convention on Cluster Munitions, though Israel and the US are not signatories.

Hamas and other factions inside Gaza are rejecting the US-backed UN plan to place Gaza under the control of a US-led board and an international stabilization force. In a statement, the Palestinian groups likened the plan to a “deep international partnership in the war of extermination waged by the [Israeli] occupation against our people.” (Reuters)

Hazem Qassem (Hamas spokesperson): “This resolution fully adopts the Israeli position and completely ignores the Palestinian position and the interests of our Palestinian people here in the Gaza Strip. Netanyahu does not want to continue with the cease-fire agreement, but rather wants to impose his vision on the Gaza Strip and the entire region.”

This comes as Israel continues to carry out air-strikes in Gaza. Officials in Gaza say Israel has killed over 46,000 Palestinians since the war began in October 2023. (AP News)

In the occupied West Bank, Israeli forces arrested at least seven Palestinians earlier today during raids on Bethlehem and the Jalazone refugee camp. They also searched Palestinian homes in Nablus. The raids came as Israeli settlers carried out major arson attacks on Palestinian villages near Bethlehem and Hebron. Ali Abu Laha, a resident of the village of al-Jaba whose family fled the violence: “We were at home when we heard banging. I went outside and saw masked men throwing rocks toward the house after they had broken the car window. We got scared, so we left … They ran away from the street after they burned that car over there, my uncle’s car and my other uncle’s car, as well. They also burned two cars that belonged to my cousin.”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu issued a rare public rebuke of the settlers behind the attack. Netanyahu blamed a “small extremist group” for the violence — despite his consistent support for the expansion of illegal settlements and his push to formally annex the West Bank. In October alone, the UN documented more than 260 settler attacks resulting in Palestinian casualties or property damage — the highest monthly toll since monitoring began in 2006.

In the occupied West Bank, Israeli forces shot and killed two Palestinian boys in a village north of Hebron and then seized their bodies. Separately, three Palestinians, including a 14-year-old child, were injured after Israeli forces fired on them during a raid southeast of East Jerusalem. This comes amid a record wave of violent attacks by settlers on Palestinians during this year’s olive harvest. On Tuesday, masked Israeli settlers stormed a dairy plant near the town of Beit Lid, setting fire to vehicles; on Thursday settlers set fire to the Hajja Hamida Mosque in the Palestinian village of Deir Istiya. Nazmi Salman, a local activist: “This attack comes within the framework of the declared war against the Palestinian people by settlers with the support of the occupation government. This attack violated the sanctity of places of worship and mosques. There were racist slogans written on the northern walls of the mosque.”

Israel has carried out fresh attacks on Gaza in its latest violation of the October cease-fire agreement. Israeli air-strikes were reported in Beit Lahia, eastern parts of Gaza City and in Khan Younis, where some areas are also under Israeli artillery fire. On Wednesday, Israel reopened the Zikim crossing into northern Gaza for the first time in two months, following repeated pleas by UN aid agencies to allow food and other essential goods to flow to communities left hungry and destitute by Israel’s scorched-earth bombing campaign. Meanwhile, Israel is increasingly barring foreign doctors from volunteering in Gaza, like California trauma surgeon Dr. Feroze Sidhwa, who says he was blocked from entering Gaza this week. The World Health Organization warns only half of Gaza’s 36 hospitals are even partially functioning. Mohammed Wael Helles, a 14-year-old Palestinian boy who’s gone months without proper care for a severe spinal-cord injury he received when an Israeli air-strike struck the vehicle he was riding in: “I have been waiting for surgery for 50 days, and my surgery shouldn’t be delayed, because I have a severed spinal cord. Also, there are thousands of people waiting for surgery rooms. I also have vertebrae fractures, and I can’t breathe.”

Israel’s parliament has advanced a bill that would introduce the death penalty for individuals charged with terrorism against the state and for those who kill Israelis. Critics of the bill point out that the law would apply only to Palestinians charged with terrorism, and not to Jewish extremists who target Palestinians.

In Gaza, officials warn more than 900,000 displaced Palestinians face the risk of flooding as a storm system brings heavy rains and colder temperatures to a region where Israeli attacks have left 85 % of road, water and sewage networks damaged or destroyed. Municipal authorities warn entire neighbourhoods are at risk of being flooded by overflow from sewage stations left damaged from Israeli attacks or unable to operate due to a lack of fuel.

The United Nations Security Council has approved a US-backed plan for a so-called international stabilisation force in Gaza. On Monday, 13 council members voted in favour of the resolution, while China and Russia abstained, warning the plan excludes Palestinians from meaningful participation and fails to define any clear role for the UN in shaping Gaza’s future. Under the plan, soldiers from Arab and Muslim-majority nations would oversee the disarmament of Hamas and other armed Palestinian resistance groups in Gaza. The force would answer to a newly created, so-called Board of Peace chaired by President Trump. Hamas rejected the resolution, saying it imposes an international “guardianship mechanism” on the Gaza Strip, sidelining the will of Palestinians. Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu, meanwhile, praised UN approval of Trump’s plan but called a provision that provides a path to Palestinian statehood “unacceptable.” On Monday, protesters gathered outside the US Mission to the United Nations in Manhattan to reject the resolution. The Palestine Youth Movement wrote: “We see through this thinly-veiled attempt to strip the Palestinian people of their sovereignty, self-determination, and right of return.”

According to Al Jazeera reports, from the beginning of the ceasefire on October 10, 2025 until today, November 19, Gaza has witnessed at least 280 Palestinians killed and 672 injured as a result of Israeli attacks. Al Jazeera has also reported that Israel has violated the ceasefire agreement approximately 393 times.

It appears that the destruction and killing of innocent Palestinian civilians through continuous bombardments is not enough for Israel’s extremist, criminal, and genocidal factions. They are now seeking to execute Palestinian detainees and prisoners as well. Last week, the Israeli parliament advanced a bill introducing the death penalty for individuals accused of “terrorism against the state” and for those who kill Israelis. Critics of the bill point out that the law would apply exclusively to Palestinians accused of terrorism, and not to Jewish extremists who target Palestinians. Of course, it must be noted that in the view of those promoting this bill, all Palestinians are considered terrorists by default .

Note: This section draws on material published in recent days in the Gaza coverage on Democracy Now:
https://www.democracynow.org/topics/gaza