#ceasefire-strain

#ceasefire-strain

The closure of the international humanitarian law cell means that funding for the Conflict and Security Monitoring Project, run by the Centre for Information Resilience, will also end. This project has been crucial in documenting incidents in Gaza since the war began in October 2023.

The plan would see disarmament as one of the components of the October ceasefire to end Israel's genocidal war on Gaza, implemented gradually over an eight-month, multiphase process.

On March 1, Israel closed Gaza's Rafah border crossing with Egypt. The Israeli military's Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) said the move was a part of several necessary security adjustments that have been implemented in the region due to the war with Iran. The Rafah crossing is considered vital for the delivery of humanitarian aid and the evacuation of critically ill patients from Gaza.

In October, Hamas and Israel signed a peace deal supposedly intended to stop two years of slaughter in Gaza. Since then, more than 420 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire-an average of about four people a day-in what international mediators continue to describe as a successful de-escalation. The distance between that official narrative and the facts on the ground reveals how the language of ceasefire has been repurposed: It no longer describes a pause in violence but rather a mechanism for managing it, sanitizing ongoing military force under the guise of restraint.

The ceasefire agreement, brokered by the United States and France, formally aimed to end active hostilities between Hezbollah and Israel. In practice, however, the agreement never truly halted the conflict. Israeli forces maintained a presence in Lebanese territory, and military strikes against Lebanon continued on an almost daily basis.