[News] Netanyahu Is Blowing Up the Gaza Ceasefire — and Trump Is the One Losing Face

Anti-Imperialist News news at freedomarchives.org
Tue Oct 28 20:29:03 EDT 2025


  Netanyahu Is Blowing Up the Gaza Ceasefire — and Trump Is the One
  Losing Face

Netanyahu ordered airstrikes on Gaza on Tuesday, raising the question of 
whether the U.S. would hold him accountable for maintaining the ceasefire.


Jonah Valdez <https://theintercept.com/staff/jonahvaldez/>
October 28 2025 - 
https://theintercept.com/2025/10/28/ceasefire-gaza-israel-netanyahu-bombing/
JERUSALEM - OCTOBER 22: (----EDITORIAL USE ONLY - MANDATORY CREDIT - 
'MARC ISRAEL SELLEM / POOL' - NO MARKETING NO ADVERTISING CAMPAIGNS - 
DISTRIBUTED AS A SERVICE TO CLIENTS----) U.S. Vice President J.D. Vance 
(L) and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (R) speak to the media 
before the interdelegational meeting at the Prime Minister's Office in 
West Jerusalem, on October 22, 2025. (Photo by POOL / Marc Israel Sellem 
/ Handout /Anadolu via Getty Images)
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu meets with Vice President JD 
Vance in Jerusalem on Oct. 22, 2025. Photo: Marc Israel Sellem/Anadolu 
via Getty Images

Israeli bombs rained down once again across Gaza on Tuesday after 
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered his military to 
“immediately carry out powerful strikes,” in the most serious challenge 
to the current ceasefire agreement to date.

The bombing killed at least 20 people, according to Gaza officials. It 
came just four days after Secretary of State Marco Rubio toured a new 
U.S. military base in Israel, a rare 
<https://defenseopinion.com/deployment-of-u-s-forces-into-israel-is-rare-during-conflict/461/> 
deployment of U.S. forces meant to signal that President Donald Trump 
was serious about maintaining the end to the bombardment of Gaza.

“There is no plan B,” Rubio said on the tour, rebuffing an Israeli 
reporter’s question of whether Israel needed Trump’s permission before 
resuming its attacks on Gaza. “This is the best plan, it’s the only 
plan, it’s one that we think can succeed.”

According to The Associated Press 
<https://apnews.com/article/israel-palestinians-west-bank-hamas-gaza-82b5b46cdbddd690dd28b7a8674d40d4>, 
Israel notified the Trump administration before conducting Tuesday’s 
strikes — presenting the question of whether the U.S. would hold 
Netanyahu accountable for the latest round of ceasefire violations.


U.S. Air Force Senior Airman Jesse Lookingglass, a maintainer with the 
379th Expeditionary Aircraft Maintenance Squadron, guides a KC-135 into 
a parking spot on Al Udeid Air Base, Qatar, Aug. 1, 2022. After landing, 
the aircraft taxis to the ramp, where any required maintenance is 
performed. (U.S. Air National Guard photo by Airman 1st Class 
Constantine Bambakidis)
Newly Released Data Reveals Air Force Suicide Crisis After Years of 
Concealment
Austin Campbell
<https://theintercept.com/2025/10/27/air-force-suicide-deaths-maintainers/>

“All eyes now are going to be on Washington,” said Yousef Munayyer, head 
of the Palestine/Israel Program at Arab Center Washington DC. “Would 
they really be a referee that calls balls and strikes fairly? Or were 
they just there for decoration and were they just going to allow the 
Israelis to get away with murder, as they always have?”

Speaking to reporters on Tuesday, Vice President JD Vance signaled that 
they would opt for the latter. He described the attacks as “little 
skirmishes here and there” and said that “the ceasefire is holding.”


      Israel’s Mounting Ceasefire Violations in Gaza

<https://theintercept.com/2025/10/15/israel-ceasefire-violations-gaza-aid/>

<https://theintercept.com/2025/10/15/israel-ceasefire-violations-gaza-aid/>

“We know that Hamas or somebody else within Gaza attacked an [Israeli 
military] soldier,” Vance said. “We expect the Israelis are going to 
respond, but I think the president’s peace is going to hold despite that.”

Israel’s strikes on Tuesday mostly targeted Gaza City, including the 
courtyard of the al-Shifa Hospital, the Strip’s largest medical complex, 
and apartment complexes throughout the city, according to Al-Aqsa TV, a 
station run by Hamas. Other strikes hit Khan Younis and Deir al-Balah. 
Among the 20 killed in the attacks were civilians and at least one 
child, Al-Aqsa reported.

Israeli officials claimed Tuesday that Hamas fighters had fired on 
Israeli soldiers in southern Gaza, while Hamas denied 
<https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2025/oct/28/middle-east-crisis-israel-gaza-benjamin-netanyahu-orders-strikes-hamas-live-latest-updates?CMP=share_btn_url&page=with%3Ablock-6901161b8f088d0f81728006#block-6901161b8f088d0f81728006> 
responsibility for the attacks.

It was the latest of several instances in which the Israeli government 
pushed the notion that Hamas was the one in violation of the ceasefire 
agreement. Israeli officials have accused Hamas of intentionally 
delaying 
<https://theintercept.com/2025/10/15/israel-ceasefire-violations-gaza-aid/> 
thereturn of the remains of Israeli hostages 
<https://theintercept.com/2025/10/17/briefing-podcast-gaza-ceasefire-deal/>, 
a claim on which even the U.S. has cast doubt. Speaking to reporters on 
his own visit to the new U.S. base in Israel last week, Vance urged “a 
little bit of patience,” citing the difficulty of uncovering bodies 
buried under tons of rubble of destroyed buildings.

The International Committee of the Red Cross, which is assisting and 
overseeing the return of hostages, continues to work with Hamas’s search 
crews — though the group issued a statement 
<https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog_entry/unacceptable-red-cross-criticizes-hamas-for-staged-recovery-of-hostages-remains/> 
on Tuesday reacting to drone footage Israel released 
<https://x.com/IDF/status/1983179859951034576>, which it purports to 
show Hamas reburying hostage remains to stage a recovery for the Red 
Cross. The video and the claim have not been independently verified. The 
Red Cross said it was “raising its concerns directly with the parties” 
and called on both sides to follow international humanitarian law while 
handling remains. Many of the Palestinian bodies returned by Israel, 
meanwhile, have shown signs of abuse and torture 
<https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c4gz3r46e37o>.

Hamas returned all living Israeli hostages within the required 72 hours 
and has since returned the remains of 15 of the 28 deceased Israelis. 
The ceasefire deal included a stipulation that allowed Hamas leeway 
beyond the initial 72 hours to continue its search for the remaining 
bodies, as long as it continues to communicate with the Red Cross.

    “They want Palestinians to do anything to react just to complete
    their mission.”

Meanwhile, the Israeli government has gone to lengths to undermine the 
peace process. Israel is still limiting 
<https://www.nrc.no/news/2025/october/mounting-alarm-as-israeli-authorities-reject-ngo-applications-to-transport-life-saving-aid-into-gaza> 
the amount of humanitarian aid to enter Gaza; it has continued to block 
the Rafah border, an essential crossing for aid transfers; and it has 
continued a range of attacks on Palestinians, including a wave of 
airstrikes on October 19 that killed at least 26 Gazans, including 
civilians. One of the attacks struck a school sheltering displaced 
families in Nuseirat. Israel has also continued to demolish large swaths 
of city infrastructure within the more than 50 percent of the Strip that 
remains under its military control. Beyond Gaza, Israel has conducted 
mass military raids and an airstrike in the West Bank, where daily 
settler violence against Palestinians continues unabated.

“They are trying to push the Palestinians to react,” said Ramy Abdu, 
chair of Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor, a watchdog that has 
tracked Israel’s targeting of civilians in Gaza. “This is their 
strategy, they want Palestinians to do anything to react just to 
complete their mission.”


    Related


      This 16-Year-Old American Is Among Hundreds of Palestinian
      Children Jailed in Israel

<https://theintercept.com/2025/10/26/mohammed-ibrahim-palestinian-american-child-israel-prison/> 


<https://theintercept.com/2025/10/26/mohammed-ibrahim-palestinian-american-child-israel-prison/> 


Abdu said he thinks Israel was never serious about holding to the 
ceasefire agreement but rather has looked for reasons to resume its 
attacks. On Tuesday, Israel’s far-right National Security Minister 
Itamar Ben-Gvir claimed that Hamas “continues to play games” in a social 
media post <https://x.com/itamarbengvir/status/1983082989132153324> on 
X, calling on Netanyahu to resume the bombing.

“If Israel has the genuine intention to bring their hostages back, then 
it will facilitate every effort to get them back, not articulating these 
kinds of stories and fabricated images,” Abdu said.

Hamas, for its part, maintains 
<https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2025/oct/28/middle-east-crisis-israel-gaza-benjamin-netanyahu-orders-strikes-hamas-live-latest-updates?CMP=share_btn_url&page=with%3Ablock-6901161b8f088d0f81728006#block-6901161b8f088d0f81728006> 
it is committed to upholding the deal and has accused the Israelis of 
barring entry to teams and heavy machinery to complete the digging.


DEIR AL-BALAH, GAZA - NOVEMBER 7: Civil defense teams and citizens 
continue search and rescue operations after an airstrike hits the 
building belonging to the Maslah family during the 32nd day of Israeli 
attacks in Deir Al-Balah, Gaza on November 7, 2023. (Photo by Ashraf 
Amra/Anadolu via Getty Images)

Read our complete coverage


    Israel’s War on Gaza

<https://theintercept.com/collections/israel-palestine/>

<https://theintercept.com/collections/israel-palestine/>

Israel’s resumed aggression fits into a pattern that we’ve seen before, 
Munayyer added. During previous ceasefires in November 2023 and this 
January, Israel retrieved as many hostages as it could to soften 
blowback from its citizens, thenrestarted attacks on Gaza 
<https://theintercept.com/2025/03/19/israel-gaza-ceasefire-hamas/>, 
Munayyer pointed out.

And while the U.S. is the major player, it’s not the only one with sway. 
Leading up to the ceasefire deal, the European Union and several major 
Western countries — the United Kingdom, France, Canada, and Australia — 
began to threaten Israel with sanctions or theformal recognition of a 
Palestinian state 
<https://theintercept.com/2025/09/25/palestine-statehood-israel-arms-sales/> 
if it did not halt its genocide, likely responding to mass protests from 
their citizens.

“The Israelis are now trying to create a narrative that Hamas violated 
the ceasefire and therefore the agreement’s off,” Munayyer said. “Is the 
international community going to buy that?”

*Update: October 28, 2025, 6:15 p.m. ET*

/This story has been updated to increase the death toll from Israel’s 
latest airstrikes on Gaza as new numbers emerged./

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