By Jordan Beaubois, News Editor
A damaged traffic sign stands in a neighborhood of Gaza City after an Israeli assault – photo by Ahmed Zakot
On March 18, 2025 the nation-state of Israel ended its commitment to the ceasefire agreement after just 42 days with a surprise attack. An Israeli official stated that “deception was the point” on National Public Radio (NPR). The violation of the ceasefire itself was undertaken by naval strikes alongside aeronautical attacks perpetrated against the Gaza strip, in one of the worst days during the entire war’s tenure.
With over 400 human lives taken on the night of the attack, according to the health officials of Gaza. Among the dead were five Hamas officials, followed by an enormous number of women and children. Israel claimed that their goal was to remove mid-level Hamas leaders, however the death toll reflects that the military could not nor would not distinguish between combatants and civilians.
This came not only as a shock to the rest of the world, but also to the citizens of Israel. A little more than half of Israeli hostages had been released over the 42 days and many were hopeful of greater exchange between the captive persons on both sides of the conflict. This violation of the cease-fire ensures that the Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu remains as the head of state. If Israel does not resume a national budget, his coalition in parliament faces collapse, which would trigger new elections. Netayahu’s military operations have created an apartheid-like conditions on Palestinians, which delays this inevitability of Netanyahu’s potential re-election and unlikely prosecution by the International Criminal Court.
According to Reuters New Agency, this war has already claimed the lives of 48,348 as of March 1. President of the United States of America, Donald J. Trump has vocalized his support for Israel and Netanyahu, and has made verbal threatening remarks to Hamas, the Houthis and the Islamic Republic of Iran alike. Whether or not additional nations, states, or non-governmental organizations (NGOs) will respond or be dragged into this conflict remains unclear.
Israel’s right to respond to the October 7th attacks, is legitimized by Saint Thomas Aquinas’s Just War Theory under jus as bellum (justice to go to war), however their perpetration of the war and violations of human rights forfeited the just during the war. When one purposefully intends to harm civilians with absolute totality and at the expense of human dignity, it therefore violates the jus in bello (the right to conduct in war) The only hope must be that when this conflict reaches its inevitable conclusion, that parties make amends with jus post bellum (justice after the war).
“O daughter of Babylon, who art to be destroyed. Happy shall he be, that rewardeth thee as thou hast served us. Happy shall he be, that taketh and dasheth thy little ones against the stones.” (English King James Version Bible, 1996, Psalm 137:8-9) The Netanyahu administration continues to wage its war in Gaza against Hamas and the Palestineans.
A wounded Palestinian woman hugs an injured girl at a hospital following the Israeli bombardment in southern Gaza – photo by Belal Khaled/AFP
The Saint 