A stunning silence has greeted Israel’s deadly breach of Gaza ceasefire deal

There was an operational meeting in London last week of commanders of the so-called coalition of the willing to secure the non-existent ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine but not a word about securing the agreed ceasefire in Gaza.

Coalition of the willing is an unfortunate phrase that comes from the coalition of countries willing to invade Iraq unlawfully without a UN Security Council resolution in 2003.

It was a coalition of the usual suspects – the US, UK and Australia – that used to get involved in foreign wars on false evidence – usually collective self defence on flimsy evidence or humanitarian intervention that made matters worse. France to her credit was very unwilling to take part in the invasion of Iraq in 2003 and neither was Russia – now in the dock for unlawfully invading Ukraine

The coalition of the willing in 2025 does not include the US which is unwilling to gang-up on Russia. The meeting in London involved some Nato allies headed by UK and France to prepare for a mission to prevent Russia from breaching a ceasefire in Ukraine even though one has not yet been agreed. Planning for a breach of a ceasefire that has not yet been agreed seems a belligerent way of going about trying to get a ceasefire.

Russia has said repeatedly it will not agree to Nato troops on the ground in Ukraine and is likely to treat such a deployment as a cause of war. Europe has learnt nothing from its terrible history last century when it plunged the world into two world wars in which millions died. It was said of World War I in the summer of 1914 that Europe sleepwalked into a pointless war; this time round Europe is poised to risk a war in which even more millions could die.

Worse still the Nato commanders were playing war games against Russia in a simulated breach of a ceasefire in Ukraine while they and their political masters ignored an actual breach by Israel in Gaza that occurred in plain sight as they gathered in London. Six hundred Gazans, many of them children, perished in Israel’s bombardment last week and not a single Nato country has been willing set up a coalition of the willing to protect Gaza. Not even the US that seemingly guaranteed that Israel would keep to the terms of the ceasefire the US itself brokered has been heard to protest at the massacre of 600 civilians in one fell swoop.

The ceasefire between Israel and Hamas was to proceed in three phases. The first phase involved the end of the bombing and killing and the release of Israeli hostages and Palestinian prisoners. The second was to involve the release of the last remaining hostages in exchange for more prisoners coupled with the withdrawal of Israeli Defence Forces from Gaza. The final phase was to be the reconstruction of Gaza.

President Donald Trump helped broker the ceasefire before he took office and took pride in his achievement but then changed policy on a whim. In a throwaway remark at a press conference during Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s visit to Washington he said he wanted to turn Gaza into the Riviera of the Middle East by relocating its Palestinian population to Egypt and Jordan.

This was manna from heaven for Netanyahu and his government who never intended to keep to the terms of the ceasefire agreement – their plan has always been to clear the Palestinians out of their ancestral lands in Palestine ‘from the river to the sea’.

Trump encouraged the Israeli government to renege on the ceasefire agreement that he helped clinch a few days before he became president only to rubbish it a few weeks into his presidency. Israeli spokespersons claim that Hamas was no longer prepared to release the remaining hostages but no one with knowledge of the facts believes them. The deal was that they would be released as and when the IDF withdrew from Gaza in phase two, not that phase one would be extended to enable the release of the remaining hostages and that Hamas’ refusal to extend the first phase was a breach that entitled Israel to restart killing innocent civilians.

Trump goes on about how painful he finds all the killing in Ukraine but is callous about the destruction of so many Palestinians by Israel: “if you prick them, do they not bleed? If you tickle them, do they not laugh? If you poison them, do they not die? And if you wrong them, shall they not revenge?”: Merchant of Venice Act 3 Scene 1 with change in pronouns.

Most Europeans have fallen out with Trump over his soft spot for Putin and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine – some even suspect the Russians have kompromat (compromising material) on him and believe he is being played by Putin.

But they have not been as vociferous about Trump’s unconditional support of Israel’s cruelty to the Palestinians, and while they are prepared to play war games against Russia, they are not prepared to lift a finger to stop Israel bombing innocent children in breach of the ceasefire in Gaza – more than one hundred little ones were killed in the attack last Tuesday.

Alper Ali Riza is a king’s counsel in the UK and a former part time judge