As collapsed ceasefire talks were reestablished in Qatar, Israel’s genocidal war on Palestinians in Gaza persisted. After 21 months of bloodshed between Israel and Hamas, the cycle of destruction, starvation, displacement, and terror of the Palestinian people continues.
As mediators met in Qatar, Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu held closed-door talks in Washington with President Donald Trump on a U.S. ceasefire proposal for Gaza and the crisis lingering from the U.S.-Israeli military aggression on the Islamic Republic of Iran in June. As the leaders met, Gaza’s carnage escalated, leading observers to question if peace is an illusion.
“This is really aimed at both Trump and Netanyahu having an interest in keeping up the illusion that there is a peace process underway,” said Phyllis Bennis, director of the New Internationalism Project at the Institute for Policy Studies in Washington, D.C.
She doubts the renewed talks will bring peace, but perhaps only a pause in fighting. “It’s without the key question, which is fundamental for Palestinian lives,” said Ms. Bennis. “Will this lead to an end to the war?”
“So far, the answer is, there’s absolutely no guarantee” the U.S. would order Netanyahu to end the war, using the political capital gained in Israel and with Netanyahu for joining Israel’s fight directly against Iran, that killed over 1,000 Iranians, Ms. Bennis explained. Past mediation efforts resulted in two temporary ceasefires and captive exchanges but failed to lay the groundwork for a lasting resolution.
The war raging since October 2023 has a staggering human toll of over 57,000 Palestinians massacred—the majority being women and children, according to Gaza health authorities. Counting the missing, presumed dead and buried under Gaza’s bombed-out ruins, some sources place the death tolls higher.
The American-backed Gaza deal includes a 60-day truce, a prisoner swap of 10 living captives and several bodies in exchange for Palestinians held in Israeli prisons.
After internal consultations and discussions with other Palestinian groups, Hamas wants a permanent ceasefire, guarantees that Israel won’t use the pause to rearm and attack, international oversight of humanitarian aid, phased prisoner swaps, and a withdrawal of Israeli forces.
Mr. Netanyahu said in a recorded video on X, notwithstanding negotiations, his aim is to continue bloodshed under the guise of eliminating Hamas, which has not been achieved in nearly two years of war.
“Any permanent agreement must be made in accordance with the minimum conditions set by Israel, which include the complete disarmament of Hamas,” stated Mr. Netanyahu on July 10.
“If it is not achieved within 60 days, we will work to achieve it by other means, foremost of which is military force,” he said.
Peace has long eluded the Middle East since Israel’s founding as an occupying power on stolen land. Backed by America’s military, economic, and political might, Israel acts with impunity. Yet voices of justice have warned—not only Israel, but especially the U.S., for its decades of mischief-making and complicity.
The Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad, Eternal Leader of the Nation of Islam, was clear and consistent in his critique of America’s destructive foreign policy.
Today, under the guise of deterrence, U.S. aircraft carriers sit in the Eastern Mediterranean, armed with fighter jets and tens of thousands of troops—firepower that shields Israel’s active devastation of the Palestinian people.
“America wants everyone to believe she is right in her wicked dealings with the people of earth. With her might of arms commanding the high seas and the land around the globe, she wishes everyone to think she is right in building up arms and forts in foreign countries and on their shores a bristling, deadly navy with guns trained on foreign peoples’ towns and cities, as a dare without any cause.
This only shows her pride and daring aggressive acts against people who would like to be at peace,” the Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad wrote in Chapter 33 of his monumental book, “The Fall of America.”
Deceptive intelligence
Despite ceasefire talks, Palestinian erasure is still in play. The U.S.-backed occupier state announced intentions to deport Palestinians from their ancestral lands, framing it as “voluntary migration” or what some are calling “concentration camps” to allegedly hold Palestinians before transferring them to other countries.
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz told reporters on July 7 that Israel was planning to establish a so-called “humanitarian city” in southern Gaza, on the destroyed city of Rafah.
The plan would move 600,000 Palestinians and eventually the entire population of over 2 million to the tent city and block the return of displaced people to other areas of Gaza. Haaretz reports that the perimeter of the camp would be guarded by the Israeli military, and that Mr. Katz said he is “seeking international partners to manage the zone.”
The announcement met swift condemnation by rights advocates. For the Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor, advocates for persons subjugated under occupation in Europe, the Middle East and North Africa, the move marks a “dangerous escalation in the ongoing genocide” and deliberate effort to depopulate Gaza. It aims to alter Gaza’s demographics and erase the Palestinian presence.
“This effectively constitutes the establishment of a closed mass concentration camp, where the population will be forcibly held outside any legitimate legal framework,” said Euro-Med in a statement.
They point out that using “misleading terms” like “humanitarian zone” in the context of ongoing crimes, including bombing, starvation and forced displacement, is an attempt to conceal a full-fledged crime and mislead the international community and public opinion.
“It is a direct continuation of the policies of ethnic cleansing pursued by Israel since the Nakba of 1948, aimed at erasing the Palestinian presence and uprooting them from their land permanently,” the statement said.
Nakba, means “catastrophe,” referring to the forced displacement of 800,000 Palestinians during Israel’s establishment.
The plan comes amid a widely rejected U.S./Israeli plan to expel all Palestinians from Gaza. During July 7-8 meetings with President Trump, Mr. Netanyahu reaffirmed his goal of Palestinian removal, echoing the U.S. president’s earlier stance.
“I think President Trump had a brilliant vision,” said Mr. Netanyahu. “It’s called free choice,” he added, answering a question on whether relocating Palestinians to other nations is still on the table.
If Palestinians “want to stay, they can stay,” he said. But if they want to leave, they should be able to leave, he added. He stated the U.S. and Israel were close to identifying third countries willing to take in Palestinians. But critics argue, Mr. Netanyahu is cloaking “ethnic cleansing” and “forced displacement” under the noble language of free choice.
Ms. Bennis rejects the notion that Palestinians have freedom of choice.
“It’s the worst kind of cynical lie,” she said. “This is ethnic cleansing, and there’s no other way to describe it. The notion that you would somehow use this as an example of freedom of choice is simply unfathomable,” said Ms. Bennis.
No place is safe
Israel destroyed 90% of the structures on the land where Palestinians lived and obliterated access to food, water, medicine, doctors, and everything that makes life possible. To say: you can stay in this devastation, or you can leave, is not a choice, Ms. Bennis argued.
Most Palestinians in Gaza were refugees driven from their homes in the current southern Israel in 1948. Given a choice, they would return, she explained.
“Staying in Gaza is an unacceptable third choice, but relative to the notion of being forced out of their homeland altogether, that would be much worse, said Ms. Bennis. “There’s no illusion here that this is somehow a free choice,” she added.
It’s coercion, argues Euro-Med. Making conditions so unbearable, remaining is practically impossible. Fear of violence, persecution, detention, intimidation, and starvation compels them to flee. Departures under these conditions are involuntary and constitute forced displacement, prohibited by international law.
Homes, hospitals, UN shelters and so-called humanitarian “safe zones” are frequently fired on. Children live with psychological trauma and the sound of drones and explosions is their normal. UN officials and rights organizations describe the scale and intensity as collective punishment, a war crime.
“For the people in Gaza, everything is running out. Time is running out. Food is running out. Medicine is running out. Safe places have already run out,” said UNRWA (United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees) in a multimedia appeal to end the war.
“Gaza is dying,” said Philippe Lazzarini, commissioner-general of UNRWA.