A brief history of Israeli ceasefire violations, from 1948 until today

On August 18, 2026, 10 months after the so-called ceasefire between Israel and Hamas had come into effect, Donald Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, held a marathon meeting with Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem. The discussion centered around efforts to advance the US-drafted “peace plan” in Gaza, but reports circulated that Kushner also requested Netanyahu “draw down attacks in the Strip.” The following day, the Israeli military would strike a seaside cafe in Gaza City, killing at least seven people, including a child. Fourteen more were wounded, many critically. This time, as on many occasions before, the US remained silent. What should have been seen as a major breach, one akin to a declaration of war, has instead become normalized in Gaza. As it stands, Israel has killed over 1,400 Palestinians since the ceasefire came into effect on October 10, 2025, striking the enclave every single day. While the number of violations have been egregious, the injustice of post-ceasefire Israeli aggression is nothing new. In fact, what has played out in the last year fits into a broader historical pattern, one that innocent civilians across the Arab world have borne witness to time and time again. A long precedent From late 1947 onwards, after the UN voted to partition Palestine into separate Jewish and Arab states, Zionist militias began an expulsion campaign known as the Nakba. After British control formally expired on May 14 1948, Israel declared independence the same day, and the ethnic cleansing of Palestinian villages accelerated. Active fighting would only end with the 1949 Armistice agreements, the first major ceasefire in Israeli history. The agreements prohibited military action and established the Green Line between the nascent Jewish state and neighboring Egypt, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon. Despite a UN commission set up for each treaty to ensure compliance, cross-border violations were recorded from the outset. In the post-Nakba years, thousands of Palestinian refugees would be killed after crossing the demarcation line, often after attempting to return to their farms to harvest crops, visit family or retrieve lost items. Dubbed ‘infiltrators’ by the Israeli state, military commander Yigal Allon implemented a free-fire buffer zone along the border, issuing a directive that “every stranger found will be shot, without interrogation.” While Palestinian-led attacks also occurred, Israeli troops would routinely respond with disproportionate force. One of the deadliest episodes took place in 1953, in the Jordanian-Controlled West Bank village of Qibya. Following an attack that killed three Israelis, the army unleashed a raid which came to be known as the Qibya massacre, murdering 69 Palestinians, two-thirds of whom were women and children. Although cycles of violence were common, it was only in 1967 that the original agreements collapsed decisively, after Israel launched a strike on Egyptian airfields, igniting the Six-Day War. Israel would go on to advance well beyond the demarcation line, occupying the West Bank, Gaza, the Sinai and the Golan Heights. Despite boasting a far more powerful army, inflicting over 16,000 casualties and tripling its territory, Israel successfully framed the pre-emptive attacks as a matter of national survival. Years later, Menachem Begin, who went on to become Prime Minister, admitted that there was no proof of an incoming attack, yet maintained that “This was a war of self-defense in the noblest sense of the term.” The outcome of the Six-Day War transformed the relationship between Israel and the US. Once a political afterthought, the American administration now viewed the Jewish State as a principal ally in the Middle East, one capable of countering Soviet influences in the region. This newfound allegiance would give diplomatic cover for the violence that was to be unleashed, permitting Israel to both entrench its occupation of the West Bank and Gaza, and later violate ceasefires without consequence. Such was the case in Lebanon. In July 1981, the US brokered a ceasefire between Israel and the PLO, who at the time were exiled in Beirut. While the goal was to end escalating cross-border violence, Israel repeatedly broke the truce in hopes of drawing a reaction that could lead to a war. Although that effort proved feckless, Israel invaded eleven months later after the attempted assassination of their ambassador to England, an endeavor the PLO played no part in. By the time another ceasefire would come into effect, over 17,000 Lebanese had been killed. As part of the agreement, the PLO agreed to relocate to Tunis, and did so at the end of August 1982, under supervision of an international peacekeeping force. The following month, despite the PLO’s evacuation, Israeli forces broke the ceasefire, entering West Beirut and encircling Sabra and Shatila, two Palestinian refugee camps. Sending in a Lebanese Christian militia, Israeli forces watched on, as the right-wing Phalange executed up to 3,500 men, women and children over the course of 40 hours. News reports and eyewitness accounts of the massacre sparked widespread condemnation, both internationally and within Israel. Despite the pushback, which included mass protests in Tel Aviv and a UN resolution condemning the massacre as an “act of genocide ,” the military remained undeterred. Israel would go on to occupy southern Lebanon for 18 years, later enforcing an “ Iron Fist ” policy aimed at crushing any resistance to their presence. Two decades of strikes Given their history of violence across the region, Israel’s actions in Gaza — particularly after blockading the Strip in 2007 —were merely the continuation of an established practice. Between 2008 and 2023, Israel launched four successive wars on Gaza, on top of several smaller military operations. While each would be temporarily halted via a ceasefire, humanitarian pause or a hudna — an Arabic term for low-intensity truce — such agreements meant little to the occupying force, which would often carry on striking with impunity. During this period, 5,278 Gazans were killed, and more than 140,000 were injured. Over 1,000 of those deaths came outside the four major military operations. Furthermore, weekly UN reports showed that Israel routinely struck Palestinian militants during periods in which a ceasefire had taken effect, often harming civilians in the process. For Israeli historian Ilan Pappé, a misaligned view of the Palestinian liberation movement played an important role in shielding Israel from accountability. “Whether leftist and secular or Islamist in nature, the Western perception was that they were already guilty of “irrational” and “intransigent” behaviour,” he told Mondoweiss . This distorted perception permitted Israel to perpetually frame Palestinians as the aggressors, a position that Ilan Pappé explained is detached from reality. “Facts on the ground showed precisely the opposite,” he said, emphasizing the “continued willingness of Palestinians, including Hamas, to allow for a long ceasefire to enable a genuine process of reconciliation, which Israel always rejected.” This dynamic unfolded in 2017 when Hamas updated its charter, accepting a Palestinian state along 1967 borders. Instead of welcoming the agreement as a step towards peace, Benjamin Netanyahu declared that “Hamas is attempting to fool the world, but it will not succeed.” In the past three years since October 7, 2023, Hamas officials have also repeatedly told mediators that they would lay down their weapons if the occupation comes to an end. But for many of Israel’s allies, the belief that Hamas is incapable of political compromise was cemented on October 7, and has also served as a justification for the genocide that Israel has carried out since. The death toll in Gaza since October 2023 has now surpassed 74,000 with over 175,000 injured. Since the ceasefire was signed, 5,000 more Palestinians have been injured, on top of the 1,400 killed. Israel has further breached their commitments by allowing insufficient aid to enter, severely restricting access to the Rafah crossing and occupying 65% of the enclave. And yet, many in the international community continue to insist that Hamas’ unwillingness to disarm is what’s preventing a peaceful resolution . All the while, the conditions of the Palestinians in Gaza remain dire. Instead of halting the killings and ushering in meaningful negotiations, the ceasefire has only provided the illusion that the genocide is over and allowed Israel to continue killing with no accountability. With diminished global attention paid to the ongoing violence, Israel’s impunity may be stronger than ever.