The Farce of Ceasefire: How the US and Israel Are Starving Gaza While Negotiating in Bad Faith

By Elijah J. Magnier –

Israel’s Defence Minister, Israel Katz, recently threatened to “open the doors of hell on Gaza” if Israeli hostages are not released—as though the people of Gaza live in paradise and have not already endured two years of hell, relentless war, collective punishment, and daily violations of international law. The statement reflects not only the moral disconnect of Israeli leadership, but also the depth of its entanglement in a war it cannot achieve its objectives without negotiations. Gaza is now a landscape of engineered famine, daily killings—ranging from 50 to 100 Palestinians—and systematic forced displacement, as the Israeli military orders civilians to move from one devastated area to another within the besieged Strip.

This entrenchment was laid bare by Moshe Sa’ada, a Knesset member from the ruling Likud party, who openly stated that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “has a strategic plan to militarily occupy Gaza and force the mass expulsion of Palestinians”, a plan of ethnic cleansing in all but name. Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich reinforced this vision when he declared that Israel “has a clear strategy,” one that unmistakably prioritises domination over coexistence.

And yet, the reality on the ground continues to defy this logic. The empty-stomached civilians carrying cooking pots to Gaza’s few remaining food distribution centres are not surrendering. They carry neither weapons nor white flags—but resilience. It is this unbroken will to survive and resist, even under siege, that leaves Netanyahu trapped in a war without exit. He turns to negotiations only to sabotage them, every time they inch toward a resolution.

Israel announced ten hours daily “humanitarian truce” to allow an increase – but far from sufficient – of aids into Gaza while continuing the war. The collapse of ceasefire negotiations in Doha should come as no surprise. When the principal parties at the table—the United States and Israel—are also the principal architects of the very suffering they claim to resolve, diplomacy becomes little more than political theatre. The humanitarian catastrophe unfolding in Gaza is not collateral damage; it is a calculated component of military and political strategy.