Benjamin Netanyahu, Prime Minister of Israel who has been accused of genocide and has certainly been starving the people of Gaza to death for months, ordered the Israeli military to carry out “forceful strikes” in Gaza in response to what Israel claims was an attack by Hamas on Israeli soldiers in Gaza on 28 October 2025. The next day the Israeli military announced a reservist soldier had been killed.

At least 50 Palestinians were killed in a wave of Israeli strikes in Gaza that night.

Hamas issued a statement denying that its fighters had attacked Israeli troops and condemning the Israeli strikes affirmed its commitment to the ceasefire agreement. “The criminal bombardment carried out by the fascist occupation army on areas of the Gaza Strip represents a blatant violation of the ceasefire agreement,” Hamas’ statement said.

But Israel’s murders did not break the ceasefire, according to President Trump, who believes what he wants to believe despite reality. He said:  “As I understand it, they took out, they killed an Israeli soldier. So the Israelis hit back and they should hit back. Nothing is going to jeopardise [the ceasefire] You have to understand Hamas is a very small part of peace in the Middle East, and they have to behave.”

His Vice-President JD Vance said that the ceasefire was “holding” despite “little skirmishes” between the two sides.

Donald Trump sees what he wants to see and ignores reality. Apparently the killing by Israel of over 100 Palestinians in return for the accused killing by Hamas of one Israeli is probably about the normal ratio of deaths on the two sides since this appalling war began.