Published 05/02/2026 19:39 | Edited 02/06/2026 16:14
Four months after its signing, the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas appears fragile, while the situation of Palestinians in Gaza remains serious, unstable and uncertain. In the midst of all this are the “reconstruction” plans outlined by Donald Trump, the resumption of Israeli attacks and the growing discredit in Benjamin Netanyahu. Evidence that has recently come to light demonstrates, once again, how much the prime minister lied to try to manipulate international opinion in his favor.
A few days ago, the local press published that the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) believe that more than 70,000 Palestinians died between October 2023 and 2025, a period in which Gaza was brutally attacked by the country. In addition, another 450 were reportedly killed after the ceasefire.
The total sum represents around 3.5% of the population of the Palestinian territory. Despite its enormity, international organizations believe that this count may be an underestimate.
The number is close to what the Palestinian Ministry of Health had been publishing, but Netanyahu and his government argued that the account was being inflated by Hamas.
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The information now published has not been officially recognized, but it is still an admission, coming from an important government body, that the estimates were correct and that Israel did, in fact, commit a genocide, which has always been denied by Netanyahu.
One of his most recent denials occurred during the UN General Assembly in September, in front of an empty plenary in protest against Israel’s actions. At the time, he also lied that there was a famine due to the conditions imposed by his government on the Palestinian population.
Lies as a method
In the assessment of the professor of International Relations at PUC-SP, Reginaldo Nasser, the recognition of this number by the IDF “greatly hurts the credibility of the Israeli government and reaffirms what the Palestinians were saying”.
Nasser adds that to this fact are added two others, also recent, that further discredit Netanyahu and call into question his performance in these years of attacks.
In January of this year, the international press reported that, in 2024, during the Joe Biden government, the then United States ambassador to Israel, Jack Lew, and his deputy, Stephanie Hallett, blocked the release of alarming internal reports on the humanitarian situation in Gaza.
The document, created by the US Agency for International Development (USAID), used the term “apocalyptic desert” to classify the horror scene in Gaza, with remains of bodies and starving people in the streets.
Another fact recalled by the professor that contradicts the Israeli discourse appears in the newspaper The Guardian. According to reports, researchers at Human Rights Watch (HRW), including the director for Israel and Palestine, Omar Shakir, resigned from their positions this Tuesday (3) in protest against the organization’s decision to prevent the publication of a scathing report on the situation of the Palestinians. Among other points, the document pointed out that the ban on the return of refugees constitutes a “crime against humanity”.
Nasser recalls that “the evidence of this genocide did not come from an investigation in retrospect — which often happens. Everything is being filmed and reported live”, which reinforces the omission of other powers in relation to the Palestinian crisis and Israeli excesses.
Dismal prospects
To this scenario of death, misery and a high degree of destruction, there are other issues that form a discouraging picture for the formation of a Palestinian State. Among them are, for example, the occupation plans of Israel and the USA (which exclude the Palestinian Authority); the division of the population between Gaza and the West Bank and the existence of 700 thousand Israeli settlers in the West Bank, who will certainly not be removed from there.
“The prospect of creating a Palestinian state is increasingly distant”, comments Nasser. He adds that even if the Palestinian Authority participated in the proposed “reconstruction” process, “it would obviously be a puppet; after all, the entire design of this occupation is done by the United States with Israel, as are the resources and military structures with them.”
Even so, the professor points out that there is a clear impasse in the region: “despite its immense military power and the support it has from the greatest military power on the planet, Israel was unable to defeat Hamas, nor definitively occupy Gaza.”
He concludes by saying that, given this general picture, “it is also very likely that this attempt to occupy Gaza, this US project, will fall apart. Not only because it is unfair, illegitimate and inhumane, but because they will in fact not succeed. It is an impasse that, unfortunately, will continue at the cost of a lot of suffering and a lot of lives.”
Source: vermelho.org.br
