Intercept: Netanyahu Destroys Gaza Ceasefire and Trump is the Biggest Loser in Public Opinion

An article published by the American website Intercept stated that Israel "blew up" the ceasefire that U.S. President Donald Trump boasted about, putting Washington in a difficult position before the world as attention turned to it to see its reaction to the actions of its ally.

The report came after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered violent airstrikes on Gaza on Tuesday, resulting in the deaths of at least 20 Palestinians, including children.

The site's political correspondent, Jonah Valdez, noted that these attacks came just days after U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio visited a new U.S. military base in Israel, in an attempt to affirm Washington's commitment to the ceasefire, but Tel Aviv's actions undermined those efforts.

Interestingly, according to the report, Israel had informed the Trump administration in advance of its intention to carry out the airstrikes, raising questions about whether the United States would hold its ally accountable or continue to overlook its repeated violations.

Youssef Manayer, the Palestine and Israel program officer at the Arab Center in Washington, commented on this, saying: "All eyes are on Washington to see if it will be a fair judge or just a political facade that allows the Israelis to escape punishment as has been the case before?" according to the site.

What happened was the second option, as U.S. Vice President Jay D. Vance downplayed the attacks, describing them as "minor skirmishes," affirming that "the ceasefire is still holding," according to the report.

The report indicated that the bodies of the Palestinian prisoners were mutilated and showed signs of torture and mistreatment.

The site quoted Rami Abdu, head of the Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor, an organization that monitors Israel's violations against civilians in Gaza, stating that Israel was never serious about adhering to the ceasefire but was looking for justifications to resume its attacks.

Abdu believes that the goal of the Israeli attacks is to provoke Palestinians into a military response, aiming to undermine the ceasefire, saying: "They are trying to provoke the Palestinians and push them to respond; this is their strategy. They want any response from the Palestinians just to justify continuing their destructive mission."

However, Israel did not wait for the results of its strategy but tried to justify its repeated violations of the ceasefire, either by claiming that the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) attacked Israeli soldiers or by alleging that the movement was deliberately obstructing the process of delivering the bodies of Israeli prisoners, according to the report.

Indeed, Israel claimed that the movement fired at Israeli soldiers just before its attacks on it the day before yesterday, despite the movement denying responsibility.

In contrast, Abdu confirmed that "if Israel had a genuine intention to return the remains of its prisoners, it would have facilitated all efforts to achieve that, instead of fabricating these stories about violating the ceasefire and inventing fabricated images."

According to the report, Hamas adhered to the terms of the ceasefire and returned all living prisoners within the specified timeframe, in addition to the bodies of 15 out of 28 Israeli fatalities, but it faces Israeli obstacles preventing search teams from completing their work.

It added that Israel was the party that undermined the ceasefire from the beginning, as it continued to impose restrictions on humanitarian aid and destroy infrastructure in the areas it controls in Gaza (over 50%), and it also closed the vital Rafah crossing and bombed the sector several times already.

Manayer believes that the Israeli government exploited the ceasefire to alleviate the intensity of anti-government protests demanding the return of prisoners, then returned to military escalation as soon as public pressure decreased, which is the same pattern of "violence" it followed in previous ceasefires in 2023 and 2024.

He questioned: "The Israelis are now trying to create a narrative that Hamas is the one that violated the ceasefire and that is why the agreement is no longer valid, but do they really think the international community will be convinced of that?"

The report concluded that by insisting on sabotaging the ceasefire, Israel not only harms the Palestinians but also weakens the United States' position before the world, which allowed Netanyahu to breach Trump's promises without any accountability.