The ceasefire in Gaza is an illusion: violence, hunger, and displacement continue, while the international order keeps ranking human lives according to double standards
The “ceasefire” in Gaza exists only for those watching from Washington, Tel Aviv, or Brussels. For Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank, the war continues by other means and in a somewhat quieter mode. Amnesty International recently warned that the ceasefire creates a “dangerous illusion” of returning to normality, while the organization continues to describe what is happening in Gaza as genocide against Palestinians.
The author exposes the gap between the rhetoric of de-escalation and the reality on the ground through a series of figures and examples. According to the data cited, Israel violated the ceasefire nearly 600 times, killing and injuring more than 1,350 people, including 136 Palestinian children. These attacks are not isolated incidents but a pattern—bombing so-called “safe zones” in Gaza, drones over refugee camps in Lebanon, attacks in Syria, and ongoing violence in the occupied West Bank. In this context, Kanj argues that the ceasefire was operational and one-sided, with its key purpose being the release of Israeli hostages, while the security and rights of Palestinians never seriously entered the focus.
A particularly important part of the text concerns the West Bank, which global discourse often completely ignores when speaking of a ceasefire in Gaza. Kanj refers to a new, extensive, and disturbing Human Rights Watch report, All My Dreams Have Been Erased, which documents the forced displacement of around 32,000 Palestinians from the Jenin, Tulkarem, and Nur Shams camps in early 2025. HRW labels these mass displacements and the demolition of hundreds of homes as war crimes and crimes against humanity. During the same period, according to the UN and HRW, Israeli forces and armed settlers killed more than a thousand Palestinians in the West Bank since October 2023, while administrative detention reached record levels.
The key political argument of the text is the accusation of double standards: that in the eyes of Western governments and media, a Palestinian life is worth less. Kanj illustrates this by converting the number of Palestinian victims into an Israeli equivalent—352 Palestinians killed since 10 October would, adjusted for population, correspond to more than 1,500 Israeli victims. The author poses a counterfactual question—would the ceasefire still be hailed as a “success” if that many Israeli civilians had been killed? The answer is, of course, no—we would see emergency sessions, special broadcasts, political processions, and total moral mobilization.
This framing is not just a rhetorical device—it strikes at the heart of how the international order ranks human lives. Western governments, and much of the media, continue to reproduce a hierarchy of victims in which an Israeli death automatically generates moral panic, while a Palestinian death becomes a statistic, a “side effect,” or at best a call for “restraint” and “de-escalation”—terms that the author, rightly, mocks as empty platitudes.
Kanj further supports his thesis of a “fictional ceasefire” with an analysis of the diplomatic process. He describes the ceasefire as a tactical pause that limits the ability of Palestinian factions to resist, while allowing Israel to continue violence at a lower media and political cost. He is highly skeptical of the role of Arab mediators: they are, in his view, primarily focused on maintaining relations with Washington and avoiding confrontation with Israel, and thus willing to help maintain the illusion that “the ceasefire holds” while Palestinians are buried daily.
Amnesty International, in earlier analyses, has already argued that Israel is committing acts in Gaza that fall under the legal definition of genocide—killings, infliction of serious bodily and mental harm, and the creation of living conditions intended to bring about the physical destruction of the group. Despite the reduced intensity of bombardment, Amnesty stresses that the genocide continues even after the ceasefire agreement. HRW, meanwhile, speaks of war crimes, crimes against humanity, and ethnic cleansing in the West Bank. The report relies on extensive documentation from reputable organizations such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch.
To speak of a “ceasefire in Gaza” without mentioning the West Bank, forced deportations, administrative detention, systematic expansion of settlements, and everyday settler violence means accepting a very narrow, state-convenient definition of “peace.”
In the end, the text poses an uncomfortable but important question—what does it actually mean to say that “the ceasefire is holding”? If it means that the number of Israelis killed has dropped to zero while Palestinians continue to die in large numbers, be expelled, and imprisoned without trial, then that ceasefire is merely a political façade. The answer is clear: such a ceasefire is “a tool of deception,” a means of normalizing violence and making it tolerable for observers who do not have to bear its consequences.
Amnesty International – Commentary on the Report of 27 November 2025
Already in December 2024, Amnesty International published its most comprehensive study on Gaza, concluding that Israel is committing genocide—according to the strict, legally defined terminology of the Genocide Convention. According to the report, Israel has committed at least three of the five legally prohibited acts: mass killings, infliction of severe physical and mental harm, and the deliberate creation of living conditions “calculated” to bring about the physical destruction of the Palestinian population in Gaza. Amnesty emphasizes that the genocidal pattern spans two years of uninterrupted bombardment and deliberate, systematic starvation policies that have pushed the population to the brink of famine and public health collapse.
Although the intensity of attacks decreased after the declaration of the ceasefire, Amnesty clearly states that the key elements of the genocide have not changed. The Israeli military continues to restrict or block delivery of essential humanitarian supplies, including medical equipment needed to maintain infrastructure such as water, sewage, and electrical systems—in direct violation of several binding orders of the International Court of Justice. Since the ceasefire was announced on 9 October, at least 347 Palestinians have been killed, including 136 children. Behind the illusion of “calming,” Israel continues to prevent the restoration of infrastructure, the removal of unexploded ordnance, contaminated rubble, and sewage—creating conditions Amnesty describes as “slow but predictable dying.”
The study particularly stresses that the Palestinian population is effectively confined to less than half of Gaza’s territory—in areas with the lowest capacity for survival—while Israel continues to limit access to the sea, destroy arable land and livestock, and block the return of displaced persons. The consequences are clear: Palestinians are almost entirely deprived of the ability to supply themselves with food, water, or energy, creating long-term conditions for the physical destruction of the population. Although the number of aid trucks has increased slightly, actual nutrition has not: many families can barely secure two modest meals a day, almost without protein or fresh produce.
Amnesty also warns of a key political problem: the complete absence of accountability for Israeli authorities. Israel has not prosecuted any official or soldier for potential genocidal acts, despite abundant evidence and public statements by some ministers that bear the hallmarks of incitement to genocide. Even the ceasefire itself, the report notes, resulted from international pressure, not from any shift in Israeli policy or intent.
Particularly concerning is the fact that in recent weeks the international community has eased its pressure: Germany has lifted the suspension of certain arms-export licenses, and the vote on suspending the EU–Israel trade agreement has been halted. Amnesty calls this trend “an entirely wrong signal” that encourages the continuation of crimes. The study therefore calls on states to urgently halt all arms transfers to Israel, ensure unrestricted access for humanitarian aid, allow entry to journalistic and monitoring missions, and insist on accountability for officials who commit or enable genocide.
“The ceasefire must not become a smokescreen for the continuation of genocide,” warns Secretary-General Agnès Callamard. Although the war may appear to be quieting on screen, Amnesty argues that in reality it continues through hunger, disease, displacement, and the targeted collapse of social conditions—leaving the Palestinian population in Gaza facing a long, silent, and extremely deadly horizon.
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