The Israeli military massacred over 104 people on Tuesday and Wednesday in a series of attacks throughout the Gaza Strip, demonstrating the complete fraud of the “ceasefire” adopted on October 10. The attacks killed 46 children and 20 women and injured over 200 people, according to Gaza’s health ministry.

On Tuesday, the office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that a decision had been made “to immediately carry out forceful strikes in the Gaza Strip,” and that US President Trump was informed “before the action was taken.”

The Israeli military boasted that it carried out a “series of strikes, in which dozens of terror targets and terrorists were struck.”

On Tuesday, Trump declared that if Hamas does not “behave,” then “they’re going to be terminated. Their lives will be terminated.”

US Vice President JD Vance declared, “The ceasefire is holding,” despite “little skirmishes here and there.” He added, “We expect the Israelis are going to respond” when fired upon.

In other words, an essential feature of the “ceasefire” is “little skirmishes” in which a hundred Palestinians are slaughtered within a 24-hour period.

The ongoing Israeli massacres and deliberate restriction of food make it clear that the “peace” agreement was nothing but a cover for the ongoing genocide. Governments in the Middle East and in Europe and all major media publications hailed the agreement as a breakthrough and a major step toward peace. It is no such thing. It merely cements and makes permanent the Israeli occupation of Gaza and gives diplomatic cover for daily massacres and deliberate mass starvation by Israel.

Haneen Mteir, whose nephews and sisters had been killed in southern Gaza, told the Associated Press, “These are massacres ... They burned children while they were asleep.”

Dr. Mohammed al-Mughir, an official from Gaza’s civil defense agency, declared that “Among these attacks was the targeting of a cancer patient camp, the Insan camp.”

Khadija al-Husni, a displaced mother living in Gaza’s Shati refugee camp, told Al Jazeera, “Either there is a truce or a war—it can’t be both. The children couldn’t sleep; they thought the war was over.”

In the three weeks since the announcement of the “ceasefire,” Israel has killed 200 people in an increasingly violent and unrestrained series of attacks.

In a statement, the Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor declared that the “ceasefire” does not “signify an end to the genocide, as Israeli authorities continue to perpetrate it systematically and continuously, despite the decrease in overt bombings. They persist in directly targeting civilians and enforcing arbitrary measures, including a suffocating blockade, the closure of crossings, and severe restrictions on the entry of heavy equipment needed to clear rubble and search for missing persons. They also impose arbitrary limitations on the entry of food, humanitarian aid, and medical supplies.”

Israeli politicians have meanwhile called for a total repudiation of the ceasefire and an even greater assault on Gaza. “The time has come to say we made a mistake, we failed, and end this ceasefire,” said Moshe Sa’ada, a member of Netanyahu’s right-wing Likud party, in a statement Wednesday to Israel’s Army Radio.

The Wall Street Journal called for Israeli escalation in an editorial, declaring that “Gaza’s demilitarization... This requires Israeli military action, which resumed after the Hamas shooting Tuesday. Israeli forces may take some more territory from Hamas for now, but the pressing need is for regular intervention to pressure Hamas and disrupt its reconstitution.”

The newspaper once again praised Trump’s “ceasefire” agreement because it “dictated that Hamas free all the hostages up front and leave Israel in half of Gaza until Hamas disarmed.” In other words, it created the conditions for the resumption of the Israeli assault at any point.

Hamas has returned all living hostages it captured on October 6, 2023, and has so far returned the bodies of 15 of the 28 dead hostages. The US and Israel have accused Hamas of not acting quickly enough to return the bodies, using this claim as a pretext for attacks.

In addition to the ongoing and escalating bloodbath, Israel continues to restrict food entering Gaza, in violation of the terms of the ceasefire, with far fewer than the 600 aid trucks Israel had promised entering Gaza each day.

Last week, the Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor published a series of statistics, based on its own independent investigation, showing the scale of the devastation inflicted on Gaza during two years of genocide. The figures showed that more than 270,000 people, around 12 percent of the population, have been killed, injured, or detained since October 7, 2023.

The report concluded that “Over more than two years, the Israeli army has killed about 75,190 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, including at least 70,248 civilians, representing 90 percent of the total. Among them are 21,310 children, accounting for 30 percent of the fatalities, and 13,987 women, representing 20 percent.”

It added that 45,600 children have become orphans after losing one or both parents in Israeli attacks.

The organization estimated that since the start of the genocide, 482 Palestinians have died due to malnutrition, including 160 children. It added:

The entire population of the Gaza Strip continues to suffer from severe food insecurity, as Israel maintains restrictions on crossings and prevents the entry of essential food supplies, despite allowing limited humanitarian aid and goods to enter.

It further noted:

1,701 health workers have been killed, including 194 doctors and 376 nurses, while around 2,195 others have been injured. In addition, 255 journalists, 140 civil defense workers, 800 teachers, and 200 academics and university professors have lost their lives.

Ninety-nine percent of Gaza’s population has been forcibly displaced at least once in the past two years, while the vast majority of Gaza’s buildings have been destroyed or damaged, including 555,000 housing units and 621 schools. Ninety-five percent of schools and universities, and every single hospital in Gaza, have either been destroyed or damaged.