I would like to say that I was wrong, but the genocide has only transitioned to a new phase. It's slower and quieter, but no less consistent and no less lethal. In the last two days alone, more than 100 people have been killed in Gaza, dozens of them children. The blood hasn't stopped flowing; it's just that the nightly news has stopped reporting on it — though in Israel, the media never did.
—Hanin Majadli in Haaretz, October 30

“Every time we wake up in this nightmare—they surprise us with the nightmare of returning to war.”
—Dr. Sami Jabr, Nuseirat Refugee Camp, Gaza

Around 4 am on Tuesday, October 28, Israel unleashed massive airstrikes and tank barrages across Gaza hitting residential buildings, tent camps and schools. They bombed places where civilians displaced by Israel’s U.S.-backed genocide were sheltering. 

Trump’s ceasefire was in effect, but earlier that day Palestinian militants had reportedly attacked and killed one Israel soldier in Rafah. This is an area controlled by Israel and Hamas said it had “no connection” to the attack (a claim reportedly backed by Israeli intelligence).¹

Yet Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu ordered “forceful attacks” anyway, claiming (without evidence) that Hamas was also stalling on returning the remains of deceased Israeli hostages. Netanyahu checked with Trump regime officials, who gave it the OK. 

Twelve hours later, Israeli bombs and shells had struck 26 other places, killing at least 104 Palestinians, including 46 children. More than 250 more were wounded, 78 of them children. One of those murdered was journalist Mohammed al-Munirawi, the 256th journalist killed by Israel since October 7, 2023. His wife was also killed.

None of the victims had anything whatsoever to do with any attack in Rafah or returning any remains to Israel. They were people desperately trying to survive—amidst death and hunger and rubble—but Israel slaughtered them anyway.

“I was starting to fall asleep when, Boom! A succession of bombs targeted the house of our neighbors, the Abu Dalal family—our loved ones and friends,” Dr. Sami Jabr told Drop Site News from the Nuseirat Refugee Camp. “It was a massacre. A massacre. A massacre. We went out and found no one. Only body parts and dismembered bodies. There was no one left alive… there was a child without a head. Scenes that break your heart… We had nothing to do with any of this. What is the cause for all of this?”

Some 11 members of the Abu Dalal family, including four children, had been slaughtered.

Trump defended Israel’s massive October 28 attack, saying, “As I understand it, they took out an Israeli soldier… So the Israelis hit back and they should hit back.” Like a vicious gangster, he said “If they (Hamas) are good, they are going to be happy and if they are not good, they are going to be terminated—their lives will be terminated." He declared that “Nothing is going to jeopardize” the ceasefire.

The next day, Vice President JD Vance stated the ceasefire “is holding,” and dismissed the slaughter of 46 children as “little skirmishes here and there.” Meanwhile, Israel announced it had “returned to the agreement,” but warned it had the right to “respond forcefully to every violation.” 

What Does Israel’s October 28 Slaughter Tell Us About Trump’s “Peace” Plan?

Since October 7, 2023, Israel has rained down terror, death and destruction on Gaza that would be the equivalent of 13 Hiroshima’s. (Hiroshima is one of the Japanese cities where the U.S. dropped nuclear bombs incinerating tens of thousands of people in an instant.) The devastation in Gaza is total—all paid for and supported by the U.S. The official death toll is 68,865, over 20,000 of them children. But this is a vast undercount with thousands still buried under the rubble. 170,670 more have been injured, thousands permanently. Israel has destroyed more than 90 percent of Gaza’s housing and the vast bulk of its schools, commercial buildings, road networks, medical facilities, farmlands, sewage system, bakeries—the whole infrastructure—gone. The terror, suffering, trauma and heartbreak inflicted on the 2 million Palestinians in Gaza is incalculable. 

According to a classified State Department report revealed by the Washington Post, Israel likely committed “many hundreds” of human rights violations, so many it could take many years to review them all.

With this as the backdrop, we have to ask: what kind of ceasefire allows for the slaughter of 104 people, including 46 children?

An imperialist ceasefire and “peace” plan that has nothing to do with protecting the Palestinian people, ensuring their basic rights, or giving them a “better life” as Trump brags.

As we’ve written, it’s a ceasefire favoring the apartheid state of Israel, presided over by the fascist Trump, and driven by U.S. imperialist interests: deepening America’s overall domination of the Middle East, elevating Trump’s stature at home and abroad, strengthening Israel, and reinforcing the subjugation of the Palestinian people. 

Extending U.S. domination of the region—in particular deepening the ties between the U.S., its Arab allies, and Israel—requires that Israel’s genocidal obliteration of Gaza and its threats to openly annex the West Bank must be tamped down to a certain degree. As we spoke to last week, there are tensions and contradictions between the U.S. and Israel, having to do with how openly and wantonly Israel continues its slaughter and devastation of Gaza. But these differences are both very real, and exist within the context of the U.S. relying on Israel as its most needed and reliable killing machine in the region, Israel’s dependence on the U.S., and their shared objective of maintaining an iron grip on the Middle East and beyond.²

Let’s be clear: Trump’s “peace plan” has nothing to do with repudiating Israel’s U.S.-enabled genocide in Gaza. It's furthering it, in a new form.

This Is Why—Under This “Ceasefire”—Israel Can Continue Killing, Starving, and Threatening 

Under this imperialist-Zionist “ceasefire” Israel can still threaten, kill, starve, and occupy over half of Gaza, while constantly violating what was agreed to in Trump’s plan. While Israel can use any pretext for raining down more terror.

226 Killed: On October 29, the day the Israeli military announced it had “returned to the [ceasefire] agreement,” its airstrikes killed at least two Palestinians. The next day it launched some 10 airstrikes in Khan Younis. On October 31, Israel killed at least one Gazan. 

These killings bring the total since the ceasefire took effect on October 11 to 226 killed and 594 wounded.

Hunger and Starvation Continue: After murderously blockading food, water, medicine, and other basic supplies for over two years, Israel is now allowing some more aid into Gaza. But it’s a drop in the bucket compared to what’s needed. Israel is continuing its genocide, albeit more slowly, by imposing various restrictions on deliveries:

* Under the ceasefire, 600 trucks are supposed to bring deliveries into Gaza every day, but the number of trucks carrying the most urgently needed aid has never exceeded 200 a day.

* Meanwhile, most trucks coming in are commercial, bringing food and goods to sell—not aid deliveries. The food is often not nutritious, such as biscuits, chocolate and soda, or are too expensive for most people to afford. “If you have malnourished people, they need protein and fresh fruit and vegetables, not chocolate,” a Palestinian aid worker said.

* Repairs to Gaza’s devastated water and sewage systems are desperately needed, but Israel has barred the parts and construction materials needed.

* Some 41 international organizations report that Israeli authorities had denied their requests to bring aid into Gaza 99 times since the ceasefire began.

* Israel continues to block the entry of the equipment needed to uncover and return the remains of the estimated 10,000 Palestinians still buried under the rubble from Israel’s devastating assault. (So far the remains of 499 Palestinians buried under rubble have been recovered.) 

* The remains of 120 Palestinians returned by Israel are missing eyes, corneas, and/or internal organs—indicating systematic organ theft. Others are returned without any identification, but with clear signs of abuse, torture or execution. 

Israel’s 125 Violations of the Ceasefire. The Future of the Ceasefire Is Unclear, but It Won’t End the Abuse and Oppression of the Palestinian People by Israel.

By October 28, Gaza’s Government Media Office had tallied 125—yes, one hundred and twenty-five—Israeli violations since the ceasefire began on October 11.

These included 52 shootings and 55 incidents of shelling, nine incursions into areas Israeli forces were barred from, and the seizure of at least 21 people. Israel has also refused to open the Rafah crossing between Gaza and Egypt as the ceasefire calls for. This crossing is vital for bringing in aid and allowing Palestinians to leave Gaza for urgent medical treatment. The Palestinian Ministry of Health reports that because of this, 983 patients have died while waiting to cross into Egypt for emergency care.

The fate of Trump’s predatory, imperialist “peace plan” remains uncertain. But the genocidal monsters—in the U.S. and Israel—are still on the loose, and their plans and schemes do not offer the Palestinian people, or the peoples of the Middle East, the future they so urgently need and deserve.

The murder, oppression, and genocide of the Palestinian people in Gaza, the West Bank and within Israel must end. The millions around the world who’ve stood up must continue to demand that this imperialist domination and oppression end, and that we fight for a whole different, and much better world!

Stop the U.S.-Israeli Genocide of the Palestinian People!

End the Siege on Gaza!

This whole system is rotten and illegitimate! We need and we demand: a whole new way to live, a fundamentally different system!