Ben Reiff writes:

Two months after agreeing to a ceasefire deal that should have ended the war, Israel has resumed its bombardment of the Gaza Strip with an intensity that recalls the earliest days of the onslaught. Israeli airstrikes have killed over 400 Palestinians and wounded hundreds more since the early hours of this morning, and the army has ordered thousands of residents of the towns and neighborhoods spanning the perimeter of the Strip to flee their homes.

Israel has again fully sealed off Rafah Crossing to medical evacuees, while Egyptian and American forces that had replaced Israeli troops in the Netzarim Corridor as part of the ceasefire are withdrawing from their posts. Dismembered bodies are piling up in hospitals once more, with medical staff across the Strip warning that their facilities are at full capacity.

We know what comes next: more airstrikes and evacuation orders and likely another ground invasion which, if we are to take Israeli ministers at their word, promises to be more extensive and lethal than the last. “Israel will, from now on, act against Hamas with increasing military strength,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said in a statement earlier today. “With God’s help,” Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich echoed, “[the renewed assault] will look completely different from what has been done so far.” Former National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, who quit the government over the ceasefire deal, appears set to triumphantly return to office.

But to what end? Israel is spinning a narrative that it had no choice but to resume the offensive due to “Hamas’ repeated refusal to release our hostages, as well as its rejection of all the proposals it has received from U.S. Presidential Envoy Steve Witkoff and from the mediators.” Yet this is a total distortion of reality, and the families of Israeli hostages who remain captive in Gaza know it.

“The claim that the war is being renewed for the release of the hostages is a complete deception,” the Hostages and Missing Families Forum said in a statement. “The Israeli government has chosen to give up on the hostages [through] the deliberate dismantling of the process to return our loved ones.”

Indeed, what Hamas rejected were Israel’s attempts to renege on the terms of the ceasefire that both parties had committed to. The second phase of the deal, which was supposed to bring about the return of the remaining hostages and a permanent ceasefire, was due to begin over two weeks ago, except Israel never allowed it to. Instead, together with Witkoff, Israel ripped up the agreement and concocted a new proposal: to extend phase one and keep exchanging hostages for Palestinian detainees; in other words, to sever the release of hostages from any guarantee to end the war.

Israel knew Hamas would reject this proposal, and that was the point all along. [Continue reading…]