'Who is the Israeli army really fighting in Gaza?'

A ceasefire was supposed to be in effect between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip since October 10, 2025. Yet more than 1,500 Palestinians, mostly civilians, have been killed by the Israeli army since then. The army, on the other hand, has not suffered any direct losses since October 28, 2025, when one of its soldiers was killed in a clash with Palestinian militants in Rafah, in the south of the enclave. Three Israeli soldiers had already been killed on October 19, 2025, during fighting in this same area, which has been systematically destroyed and is now under the exclusive control of the Israeli army and its Palestinian auxiliaries.

Read more Subscribers only 'The Trump plan changed nothing': One year later, Gaza still lives in ruins, under bombs This means that for a year, all deaths among the occupying forces have been the result of "friendly fire" between Israeli units or the premature collapse of a building during demolition. This only makes it more legitimate to ask who the Israeli army is really fighting in Gaza, where more than two million women, men and children remain condemned to survive in extreme conditions.

During my stay of more than a month in the Gaza Strip in the winter of 2024-2025, I was already struck by the paradox of a "war" waged in effect by only one of the belligerents. The United Nations recorded, from January 3 to January 10, 2025, 527 "acts of war" by Israel (including 375 air, land or sea bombardments and 10 ground incursions), compared with six Palestinian mortar shots. While about 50 Palestinians, mostly civilians, were killed on average each day, I tried to describe such a lopsided conflict with the expression "one-sided war."

But the ceasefire declared on January 19, 2025 , under pressure from Donald Trump, proved just as one-sided, since Israel reimposed a strict blockade on the enclave as early as March 2, before resuming massive bombardments on March 18, in coordination with US intelligence . During the summer of 2025, thousands of Palestinian civilians died from famine, whether starving to death, succumbing to disease or wounds worsened by malnutrition, or being killed during chaotic food distributions run by a foundation close to the White House.

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