On March 18, Israeli forces killed over 400 people in Gaza in overnight attacks, which officially broke the ceasefire agreement the nation signed with Hamas that began on Jan. 19.
The agreement had three stages that led to a complete ceasefire. The second stage of the agreement was never reached.
“It’s one of the great crimes of the 21st century and it’s happening right in front of our eyes,” said Shaun Narine, a political science professor at St. Thomas University who specializes in international relations.
The first stage of the ceasefire ended on March 1, officially lasting 42 days. Over that time, Hamas released 25 living Israeli hostages and Israel released around 1,900 Palestinian hostages to Hamas.
Israeli officials claim they broke the agreement in an attempt to force Hamas to release the remaining captives being held in Gaza.
Negotiations to work out the details for the second stage of the ceasefire were supposed to begin 16 days after the start of stage one, but those talks never took place.
“People had said from the beginning that they didn’t think Israel would get beyond stage one,” said Narine. “[Israel] finally acted on what was always the intention of breaking the ceasefire.”
Related: STU professor says ceasefire brings temporary relief to Gaza, not resolution
On March 2, Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that he had a plan to “extend the temporary ceasefire by 50 days” to give them more time to discuss the second stage.
Hamas rejected this extension, referring to it as “a blatant attempt to evade the agreement and avoid entering into negotiations for the second phase.”
Since the ceasefire was broken, over 140,000 people have been displaced in Gaza. Israel has also returned to attacking Beirut, the capital city of Lebanon.
This was the first time Beirut was bombed by Israel since a ceasefire agreement was signed with Hezbollah, a Lebanese political party, in November.
As of March 28, there have been 896 reported deaths and nearly 2,000 reported injuries. Since the beginning of the war on Oct. 7, the confirmed death total is over 50,000, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.
“Gaza has been annihilated. The people who live there now have no future whatsoever,” said Narine. “The Israelis will drive them out. That’s the plan. They’ll kill as many people as they want to … history never stops, right?”
“This whole cycle of violence might be not coming to an end. It might be about to hit a new peak that will precede the end of the Palestinian national dream.”
It has been reported by multiple outlets that the White House has said Israel had consulted the United States before resuming their attacks and breaking the ceasefire.
President Donald Trump’s press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, said that “all hell will break loose” to all those who “seek to terrorize not just Israel, but also the United States.”
Trump has previously made claims that the U.S. will take ownership of the Gaza Strip.
Related: STU professor calls Trump’s comments a ‘horrific violation’ of international law
“For the next four years Donald Trump’s going to be in control of the White House, he’ll let the Israelis do anything … The Americans could stop [Israel] right now,” said Narine.
“When you look at the overall Palestine situation, none of it had to happen, all that it required was for the Western world to enforce international law.”
