end of list<\/span><\/section>\nThe attacks have come despite ceasefire agreements in both Lebanon and Gaza and a major pronouncement by United States President Donald Trump that the Middle East is now at peace.<\/p>\n
But as far as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is concerned, Israel\u2019s war on the region is not over.<\/p>\n
In a speech to Israel\u2019s parliament on November 10, one month to the day after a ceasefire ostensibly went into effect in Gaza, Netanyahu said the war \u201chas not ended,\u201d according to The Times of Israel, and he claimed that Israel\u2019s enemies are rearming.<\/p>\n
The ceasefire should have brought Israel\u2019s more than two years of war on Gaza to an end but attacks have not ceased. Israel has killed more than 280 Palestinians since then.<\/p>\n
And Israel\u2019s war is not limited to Gaza, either. In Lebanon, Israel has killed more than 100 civilians in the last year, despite a ceasefire with Lebanon on November 27, 2024, while Israeli attacks also continue in the occupied West Bank.<\/p>\n
Israel keeps attacking<\/h2>\n
Netanyahu\u2019s words are of little surprise given Israel\u2019s ongoing attacks on people in the region. In fact, analysts say, the precedent was clear even before the ceasefires were signed.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere was never any evidence that the Israelis would respect the ceasefire in Gaza or Lebanon,\u201d Elia Ayoub, a Lebanese-Palestinian researcher, told Al Jazeera.<\/p>\n
\u201cNetanyahu can rely on the lack of international accountability, especially with the backing of the US, to continue his war on civilians,\u201d Ayoub added.<\/p>\n
On October 13, 2025, Trump gathered with political representatives from more than two dozen nations in Egypt\u2019s Sharm el-Sheikh to declare peace in Gaza and the wider region.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt long last, we have peace in the Middle East,\u201d Trump said.<\/p>\n
But a little more than a month later, Israel\u2019s attacks on both Gaza and Lebanon continue on a near-daily basis.<\/p>\n
On Wednesday, November 19, the death toll from Israel\u2019s genocidal war on Gaza since October 7 rose to 69,513 Palestinians.<\/p>\n
Pressure had begun to build on Israel over its war on Gaza in recent months as Israeli human rights groups and the world\u2019s top scholars joined the institutions saying that Israel was committing genocide.<\/p>\n
But the Sharm el-Sheikh summit and the public announcement of a ceasefire seem to have eased pressure on Israel.<\/p>\n
On the ground in Gaza and Lebanon, people from areas where Israel continues to attack are unable to go back to their lives or rebuild their homes.<\/p>\n
Not only has Israel attacked reconstruction equipment, but, in the case of Gaza, for example, it has also stopped much of the aid promised to Palestinians in the enclave.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs long as Netanyahu expects impunity, there is no reason to believe that anyone in Lebanon or Palestine is safe from Israel,\u201d Ayoub said.<\/p>\n
Why the war isn\u2019t over<\/h2>\n
Netanyahu\u2019s recent comments show that he \u201cis determined to keep Israel in a perpetual state of war, as evidenced by his repeated stalling and sabotage of previous ceasefire negotiations,\u201d Rida Abu Rass, a Palestinian political scientist, told Al Jazeera.<\/p>\n
Protests in Israel have occasionally called for an end to the war. But they were largely centred around calls for a deal with Hamas to release the remaining Israeli captives in Gaza. The living captives have all been released, though Hamas is still reportedly looking for the remains of three captives.<\/p>\n
Netanyahu himself says the war must continue because Israel\u2019s enemies are regrouping.<\/p>\n
\u201cThose who seek to do us harm are rearming. They did not give up their aim of destroying us,\u201d Netanyahu said during his speech to the Knesset.<\/p>\n
Despite the widespread destruction of Gaza, Netanyahu says his goal of dismantling Hamas has not yet been completed. Israeli officials and media also report that Hezbollah is rebuilding, despite analysts saying the group is not in a position to attack Israel.<\/p>\n
Experts have cast doubt on Netanyahu\u2019s justifications for continuing the war. They believe Netanyahu\u2019s stated goals of dismantling Israel\u2019s enemies were purposefully unachievable in order for him to keep the war going and avoid domestic and international accountability.<\/p>\n
\u201cHis political career hangs in the balance: far-right coalition partners demand the war\u2019s resumption, seeing a historic opportunity to advance their vision of ethnically cleansing Palestine,\u201d Abu Rass said.<\/p>\n
\u201cNetanyahu would like to sell his supporters and coalition partners the narrative that the war isn\u2019t over.\u201d<\/p>\n
In Israel, Netanyahu is on trial in three corruption cases. The cases have been delayed<\/a> repeatedly due to the war, with courts citing \u201cnational security priorities\u201d.<\/p>\n\u201cKeeping Israel on a constant war footing is good for [Netanyahu] since it allows him to keep delaying his trial and the demands of his far-right coalition to reshape Israel\u2019s internal governing principles, which caused him so much trouble in the past,\u201d Rob Geist Pinfold, a lecturer in international security at King\u2019s College London, told Al Jazeera.<\/p>\n
He\u2019s also reportedly fearful of any investigation into the failures to prevent the operation by Hamas and other Palestinian factions that took place on October 7, 2023. However, Netanyahu also has a long game, analysts say.<\/p>\n
\u201cThroughout his career, he has consistently worked to displace Palestinians and expand settlement. For him, the war provided an opportunity to advance these goals,\u201d Abu Rass said.<\/p>\n
Internationally, the International Criminal Court has issued an arrest warrant for Netanyahu and his former Defence Minister Yoav Gallant for war crimes in Gaza.<\/p>\n
\u201cI view the so-called ceasefires as gaslighting campaigns designed to indefinitely delay accountability,\u201d Ayoub said.<\/p>\n
In this sense, Ayoub said, Netanyahu\u2019s comments show that the conditions of the ceasefire are not applied universally.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Israeli strategy is clearly \u2018you cease, we fire\u2019. And if any actor fires back, the Israelis simply intensify what they\u2019re already doing.\u201d<\/p>\n
These attacks seem set to continue as the international community has turned its focus away from Gaza. While the ceasefires in both Lebanon and Gaza have eased the ferocity and frequency of attacks, violence continues in both places and in the occupied West Bank. Such conditions will continue, analysts say, until the root cause is confronted.<\/p>\n
\u201cInternational stakeholders \u2013 governments, civil society groups, and media \u2013 must continue to apply pressure on the Israeli and US governments,\u201d Abu Rass said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe will inevitably face new escalations unless the root causes \u2013 namely, Israeli apartheid and military occupation \u2013 are dismantled.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
On Tuesday, Israel\u2019s target was the largest Palestinian refugee camp in Lebanon. The two missiles its forces fired killed at least 13 people. A drone attack on the same day in the city of Bint Jbeil killed another person. And the next day Israeli airstrikes hit villages in southern Lebanon. Meanwhile, in Gaza, Israeli air […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2681,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2680","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-middle-east-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2680","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2680"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2680\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2681"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2680"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2680"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2680"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}