What kind of ceasefire is this – one ridiculed, stabbed, and mocked in broad daylight by the powerful oppressor?
The so-called Gaza ceasefire that came into effect on October 10 has proven far easier to violate than to be honoured. The obstinate, intransigent, and arrogant settler-colonial state of Israel – intoxicated with military power – has breached the truce not a dozen times but hundreds of times. It has shredded the sanctity of this fragile pause, staining its hands yet again with the blood of innocent children and helpless civilians.
And still, no powerful state dares question these blatant, repeated violations or discipline the aggressor that defies every international norm with utter contempt.
Emboldened by global impunity, Zionist warlords continue to rain fire. Vandals in uniform, backed by unmatched firepower, leave behind death, rubble, and the desperate cries of innocents.
Crimes against humanity unfold in real time as the ruthless campaign to erase an entire people marches on. For Israel’s extremist leadership, this so-called ceasefire is nothing more than a tactical pause – a brief interval between bombardments – because every truce, every agreement, every humanitarian pause is mocked, ridiculed, and devoured by its insatiable thirst for Palestinian blood.
The calculated, premeditated genocide continues unabated. And history offers a cruel and tragic irony: yesterday’s “undesirables” of Nazi Germany – persecuted, hunted, and brutalized – are today inflicting unspeakable atrocities upon another oppressed people who had no part whatsoever in the crimes of the Nazi oppressors.
Should innocent Palestinians – who neither authored nor supported Nazi crimes – pay with their lives, land, and future? Should a people be punished for sins they never committed?
The question now is not how this horror is happening, but why it is allowed to happen at all.
For how long will the most terrorized, traumatized, besieged, and brutalized people on earth continue receiving coffins and shrouds instead of moments of peace? How many more fragments of loved ones must be collected from the rubble before the world wakes up?
The world must reflect. The world must not abandon the oppressed- now cornered by a gluttonous, rampaging, militarized elephant, fattened and emboldened by the powerful states. The drums of “humanity” sounded by the so-called civilized world ring hollow when they fall silent before Israel’s unrestrained aggression, including its violation of sovereign borders of neighbouring states.
Bleeding Gaza calls for a complete and durable peace. The mediator – Qatar’s Prime Minister, Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdul Rahman Al-Thani, rightly states that the Gaza truce remains incomplete without Israel’s full withdrawal and a return to stability. Attempts to displace Palestinians from Gaza have been out-rightly rejected by Muslims, including the Arab Muslims. Why must indigenous people be expelled from their ancestral lands they have inhabited for centuries to appease colonial settlers? What greater injustice exists than terrorizing a people into abandoning their homes under military coercion?
The peace plan does not, and must never legitimize such arbitrary and unjustifiable designs to uproot the ancient dwellers of the land.
For true peace to take root, an International Stabilisation Force (ISF) must immediately replace the Israeli Defence Forces, who continue illegally occupying besieged Palestinian territories. Peace remains a mirage so long as an occupying army holds an oppressed population at gunpoint.
The world must pursue a permanent and just solution to the Palestine question. Temporary ceasefires are not a substitute for justice. Unless the world recognises the Palestinians’ right to exist with dignity, sovereignty, and statehood, the Middle East will never know lasting peace. Every genuine effort must now be dedicated to a settlement that guarantees life, liberty, honour, and equal treatment for all parties.
President Donald Trump, the broker of this long-awaited ceasefire, must ensure that the truce he claims credit for is honoured – in both letter and spirit. A ceasefire is meant to be upheld, not trampled upon. It must bring Palestinians genuine respite – allowing them to breathe freely, heal, choose their own leadership, and manage their affairs without external dictates or coercion.
If President Trump seeks to be remembered as a real peacemaker, he must repair what has been brutally broken. He must realize that the ceasefire he brokered is fractured, violated repeatedly by the very state America shields at every forum. Only the United States – the godfather and guarantor of Israel’s impunity – possesses the leverage to compel the bandit state to respect international law, honour its commitments, and halt its campaign of destruction.
The world now waits for America to act – not with words, but with moral courage and political will.
This is President Trump’s moment. If he is sincere in seeking a historic legacy, he must embrace a just and lasting solution – one that withstands all pressures, resists all fractures, and stands firm on the timeless foundations of justice and fairness.
The writer is a Shikarpur-based retired civil servant. The views expressed in this article are not necessarily those of the newspaper