Washington, DC – Images of Palestinian children killed by Israeli bombardment are back in the news after a brief reprieve that only lasted a few weeks.
Nearly two months after United States President Donald Trump took office, the ceasefire that had halted Israel’s war in Gaza has shattered, and the region is once again at war.
That comes despite Trump’s own pledge to pursue peace in the Middle East and across the world.
Trump took credit for the truce earlier this year, but he is now backing Israel’s renewed assaults in a conflict that he once promised to end.
Analysts say Trump – a staunch Israel supporter – was more interested in generating headlines about helping to secure the ceasefire than actually ending the war. He also floated plans to ethnically cleanse Gaza, by removing its residents to make way for a riviera-style resort.
“We could see evidence of Trump’s insincerity in the ceasefire almost immediately after he took office – when he started calling for the forced displacement and ethnic cleansing of all Palestinians from Gaza on a permanent basis,” said Josh Ruebner, a lecturer at Georgetown University’s Program on Justice and Peace.
“So, it’s not at all a surprise to see the Trump administration greenlight the resumption of massive Israeli violence against Palestinians in Gaza.”
Early signs
In the weeks leading up to the latest bombardment, there were signs that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu never intended on fully honouring the ceasefire – and that Trump was not invested in upholding the deal, either.
Early in February, Trump said he has “no guarantees that the peace is going to hold” in Gaza.
Even before the ceasefire went into effect in January, Netanyahu claimed that the deal was “temporary” and that both Joe Biden – who was in the final days of his presidency – and Trump have given “their full backing to Israel’s right to return to fighting”.
Moreover, Israel has repeatedly violated the deal by firing at Palestinians almost daily and blocking the entry of mobile homes into the territory, where many buildings have been levelled or rendered unsafe.
Then, on March 2, Israel imposed a total blockade on humanitarian aid destined for Gaza.
The ceasefire agreement was supposed to include three phases. The first stage, which expired early in March, saw the release of about 30 Israeli captives and hundreds of Palestinian prisoners as the guns fell silent.
But Israel did not agree to move to the second phase of the deal that would see a permanent end to the war. A third stage would have eventually focused on reconstruction in the territory.
Instead, Netanyahu and the Trump administration insisted on extending the first part of the ceasefire deal. But the Palestinian group Hamas has been clear in its position: There is no need for new initiatives because there is an internationally backed pact in place that all the parties have already agreed to.
Truce ‘served its purpose’ for Trump
Ruebner said Trump only wanted a temporary ceasefire to free more Israeli captives without pressuring Israel to commit to ending the war.
In a joint appearance with Netanyahu in February, Trump also expressed his desire for the US to “own” Gaza and turn it into a “Riviera of the Middle East”.
But since Trump’s proposal was met with overwhelming international rejection, the US president allowed Israel to “resume this frightening scale of violence” against Palestinians, Ruebner said.
In the days since Israel renewed its assault on Gaza, hundreds of Palestinian civilians, including children, have been killed with the support of the US president, who had promised in his inauguration speech to leave the legacy of a “peacemaker”.
Annelle Sheline, a research fellow at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, said she was surprised that the truce lasted for weeks even after it “served its purpose” for Trump.
“Trump’s motivation in pushing for the ceasefire was to show that he could achieve what Biden could not, and he did so before even reentering the White House,” said Sheline.
“At the time the ceasefire was enacted, there was a lot of scepticism that it would reach phase two, as this would involve negotiations around a more permanent cessation of hostilities, which Israel and specifically Netanyahu had no interest in agreeing to.”
The Center for International Policy (CIP), a US-based think tank, also said Trump “bears considerable responsibility” for the collapse of the ceasefire.
“While Trump’s team had an early success in assisting the administration of former President Joe Biden in negotiating the hostage release and ceasefire, he has since enabled this massive failure in his own diplomacy through a series of brazen missteps,” Dylan Williams, CIP’s vice president for government affairs, said in a statement.
A ‘showman’
Williams cited Trump’s “obscene proposal” to force Palestinians out of Gaza, as well as the president’s backing of Netanyahu’s push to re-write the ceasefire deal, as decisions that make him a “full partner in this bloodshed”.
Despite the civilian death toll, the Trump administration has voiced unqualified support for Israel and its military campaign in Gaza.
YL Al-Sheikh, a Palestinian American writer and organiser for the Democratic Socialists of America, described Trump as a “showman” who wanted a “big thing” to brag about.
But Al-Sheikh underscored that the US president has failed to get Netanyahu to permanently end the war and to get Hamas to release the remaining captives.
“So he just wants to pummel on somebody,” Al-Sheikh said. Palestinians, he added, are “the natural target”.
So, what happens next?
Analysts fear that the Israeli offensive will intensify, leading to more death and destruction, in a campaign that leading rights groups and United Nations experts have already described as a genocide.
“Trump and Netanyahu are aligned in their desire to remove Palestinians from Gaza, either by killing them or through ethnic cleansing and forced removal,” said Sheline.
Al-Sheikh also predicts that the violence will persist: “We’re going to go in this merry-go-round until either Netanyahu fails to keep his government together or until Trump gets tired of it.”