On Monday and Tuesday, Israeli forces killed at least seven Palestinians in Gaza, following the announcement of a “ceasefire” last week.
Medical sources confirmed to Al Jazeera that Israeli snipers fatally shot five people in Gaza City’s Shejaiya neighborhood on Tuesday, claiming they were “neutralizing a threat” as Palestinians approached the boundary known as the “yellow line” which is part of the ceasefire agreement.
According to multiple sources, the yellow line is not Gaza’s border but a line drawn inside the territory that permits Israel to maintain military control over roughly half of Gaza, including strategically significant areas like the Philadelphi Corridor, much of Rafah, and parts of Khan Younis and northern Gaza.
According to the ceasefire plan, Israeli military forces are required to withdraw to the yellow line in the first phase of the plan. This arrangement means that after the hostages were released, Israeli troops are positioned behind this yellow line, retaining dominance over key population centers and crucial transit routes.
The peace plan specifies further phases where, under international supervision and the establishment of transitional government, Israeli forces would move to a “red line” marking additional withdrawal, ultimately ending with Israeli control of a buffer zone along the Gaza-Israel border.
The Israeli military claimed the individuals killed were “suspects” who “crossed the yellow line,” directly contradicting the supposed withdrawal of troops stipulated in the peace agreement.
Monday saw similar violence in Khan Yunis, where occupation forces shot and killed Khalid Barbakh while he inspected his home in Al-Sikka, according to local reports.
The fact that the Israeli military has begun firing on and killing Palestinians before the first phase of the cease fire is even complete, exposes Trump’s agreement as a sham designed to maintain imperialist domination of Gaza and to deny Palestinians their fundamental rights.
The killings in Gaza are undeniable proof that the Trump-brokered “peace agreement” is not worth the paper it is printed on. The shootings in Shejaiya and Khan Yunis, right after the ceasefire supposedly went into effect, reveal how the entire arrangement does nothing to restrain Israeli violence.
Eyewitnesses interviewed by hospital staff and the local press described scenes of chaos and arbitrary violence. “The Israeli soldiers began firing without warning,” a survivor told reporters outside al-Ahli Arab Hospital in Gaza City. Another local, Amal al-Saqqa, said, “We heard the ceasefire was in place, so we tried to go back to our homes. The shooting began before we could even reach the yellow line.”
As in every act by the Israeli military since the Gaza genocide began government representatives turned reality on its head, claiming the troops were engaged with armed suspects who violated the terms of the ceasefire. An official statement Tuesday declared: “Soldiers took action to protect themselves against individuals attempting to approach and compromise our positions in northern Gaza. We will defend our forces and our mandate under the October 10 agreement.”
Meanwhile, reports and maps shared by Trump administration negotiators reveal that more than half of Gaza remains under direct Israeli occupation, casting doubt on claims of any meaningful withdrawal. These contradictions highlight the political context of the violence on Monday and Tuesday and that the so-called “ceasefire” rests on the continued assertion of Israeli military control over Gaza and its population.
As analyzed by the World Socialist Web Site on Tuesday, Trump’s Gaza ceasefire is a calculated political campaign aimed at institutionalizing Israel’s occupation of Gaza and entrenching US imperialist control of the Middle East. The WSWS stated that the agreement “turns Gaza into a colonial protectorate, supervised by a board led by the American president,” under conditions that guarantee the “permanent Israeli occupation of a large portion of Gaza.”
The WSWS also called the agreement a “return to the open colonial domination of the Middle East that prevailed in the 19th century,” emphasizing that under Trump’s plan, Gaza would be governed by a “Board of Peace” chaired by Trump and including Britain’s Tony Blair—a structure that “ensures the exclusion of Palestinian voices from the decision-making of Palestinian futures.”
The hollowness of the bogus peace deal has been further exposed by the ongoing Israeli blockade of humanitarian aid before, during and after the supposed ceasefire. The Rafah crossing—Gaza’s only direct land connection to Egypt—remains closed, even after the agreement promised renewed aid flows. Israel slashed the daily number of aid trucks allowed into Gaza to 300, half of the already inadequate quota of 600 previously agreed.
Israeli officials openly admit using the blockade as leverage. “The reduction in aid and closure of Rafah are sanctions against Hamas until all bodies of slain hostages are returned,” reads the official justification for the ongoing restriction. These measures, executed under the pretense of enforcing the hostage remains deal, are in reality part of the systematic policy of punishing Gaza’s entire population.
The humanitarian impact continues to be dire with UN agencies warning that food shortages and medical supply deficits are deepening, threatening the lives of hundreds of thousands of civilians. The current situation replicates the catastrophic conditions seen throughout the previous months, when aid flow was similarly weaponized to exert pressure on Gaza’s population and its government.
Eyewitnesses describe a climate of fear and despair that permeates Gaza. “Every day we wait for trucks that never arrive. Our children are starving, and the hospitals have no medicine left. They promised peace, but all we have is more suffering,” said Dawoud al-Khalil, a father waiting at a distribution site near the Rafah crossing.
Despite the ceasefire provisions including a promise to restore infrastructure and hospitals, aid organizations report that deliveries remain “a fraction of what is needed,” and widespread famine and malnutrition persist unaddressed. While 55 detained healthcare workers were released as part of the prisoner exchange, at least 115 remain imprisoned, and hospitals in Gaza remain desperately short of resources.
The Trump administration—with the support of the Democratic Party and the corporate media—continues to tout the agreement as a world historic breakthrough. Yet the facts on the ground—continued killings, restricted aid, unaddressed displacement—reveal a picture of ongoing imperialist barbarism.
In other developments that expose the Gaza ceasefire agreement as a cruel hoax, Israeli settler violence against Palestinians in the West Bank has sharply escalated in the past three days. Dozens of Palestinians—including journalists—were injured by assaults carried out both by settlers and Israeli soldiers, notably during the olive harvest season around Nablus and villages like Beita, Huwara, and Deir Sharaf.
Settlers, often armed and sometimes accompanied by soldiers, attacked farmers, set vehicles and property on fire, and committed acts of physical violence against civilians and members of the press. In Bardala (Jordan Valley) on Monday, settlers destroyed 150 olive trees essential to local livelihoods, while similar attacks occurred in Beit Fajjar south of Bethlehem, where assailants unleashed dogs on Palestinians and set fire to vehicles.
The Palestine Red Crescent treated multiple injuries, and witnesses described the aggression as coordinated and intended to intimidate and displace Palestinian communities.
UN and humanitarian groups have documented an unprecedented wave of settler attacks in recent months. Over 1,000 such assaults have taken place in the first eight months of 2025 alone, primarily concentrated in governorates like Ramallah, Nablus and Hebron. Since October 2023, more than 1,000 Palestinians have been killed and nearly 10,000 injured in the West Bank due to actions by Israeli settlers and armed soldiers, with 178 Palestinian fatalities recorded in 2025 alone.
This violence is part of the broader strategy of Israeli settlement expansion and de-facto annexation of Palestinian land, with the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Aid reporting that at least 3,400 Palestinians have been displaced by settler violence and access restrictions throughout the Gaza genocide and the subsequent ceasefire.
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