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WASHINGTON DC, UNITED STATES – OCTOBER 17: United States President Donald Trump departs at the White House to Florida in Washington D.C, October 17, 2025. [Celal Güneş – Anadolu Agency]
US President Donald Trump warned Israel on Thursday that it would lose “all American support” if it proceeded with annexing the occupied West Bank, insisting that such a move “will not happen.”
In an interview with Time magazine, Trump said: “We have had great Arab support. It will not happen (annexation of the West Bank) because I promised the Arab countries that it would not. It will not happen. Israel will lose all US support if it happens.”
The president also claimed he intervened to stop Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu from continuing military operations in Gaza, citing concerns over Israel’s waning international backing. “I did it in part to warn of the deteriorating global support Israel enjoys,” Trump said.
Trump’s remarks come amid rising tensions between Washington and Tel Aviv following the Israeli Knesset’s (parliament) preliminary approval on Wednesday of a bill to impose “Israeli sovereignty” over the West Bank—a step widely viewed as a prelude to formal annexation.
The bill, submitted by MK Avi Maoz, leader of the far-right Noam party, passed by a narrow margin of 25 votes to 24, despite Prime Minister Netanyahu’s reported attempts to delay the vote to avoid further friction with Washington.
According to Israel’s Channel 12, internal divisions surfaced within Netanyahu’s governing coalition during the vote. National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir welcomed the measure, declaring, “The time to impose sovereignty over the West Bank has come now.”
Trump’s remarks mark one of the sharpest warnings yet from Washington toward Israel since the onset of the Gaza conflict, underscoring the growing rift between the two allies over settlement expansion and the future of the occupied territories.
Keir Starmer objects to criticism of the IDF. He asks how could anyone object to them starving people to death, forced marches like the Nazis did, bombing Gaza’s hospitals and universities, mass-murdering journalists, healthworkers and starving people queuing for food, killing and raping prisoners and murdering children. He calls for people to stop obstructing his genocide for Israel.Genocide denier and Current UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer is quoted that he supports Zionism without qualification. He also confirms that UK air force support has been essential in Israel’s mass-murdering genocide. Includes URLs https://www.declassifieduk.org/keir-starmers-100-spy-flights-over-gaza-in-support-of-israel/ and https://youtu.be/O74hZCKKdpAOrcas discuss Genocide-supporting and complicit Zionists. Donald Trump, Keith Starmer, David Lammy, Rachel Reeves, Angela Rayner and Wes Streeting are acknowledged as evil genocide-complicit and supporting cnuts.
In Gaza, the word “ceasefire” feels more like a loophole than a real promise. The 10 October truce, hailed by Washington as a “turning point” was never designed to stop the bloodshed. While in practice it functioned as a calculated break, a short interval that allowed Israel to regroup, re-arm and resume its mass killing campaign with the full backing of the US.
The playbook was all too familiar: announce a hiatus, collect the PR points and then pick up right where things left off with the same objectives and impunity. Only this time, it comes with the package of having played the “peace” card.
The deal was never about peace in the first place. It was literally a hostage swap disguised as diplomacy. President Trump might seem to help broker the deal but its main goal actually was the return of Israeli captives not the protection of Palestinian lives.
Even Trump made it clear that Israel would be “free to act” once the exchanges were complete, signalling that military operations could resume with zero consequences. Obviously, this was all part of a bigger game plan being played out between Washington and Tel Aviv.
And the game plan unfolded exactly as expected. Just days into the truce, explosions in Rafah shattered the pause. Israel as usual, immediately blamed Hamas for violating the agreement and resumed its strikes. Instead of re-assessing the situation, Trump insisted the ceasefire was still “in effect”—a rhetorical move that swept the renewed brutality under the rug and allowed Israel to continue its offensive, all while the US maintained the illusion of diplomacy.
This is the reality Palestinians face: a world where pauses are rebranded as progress and impunity is re-labelled as immunity. The ceasefire was never a commitment to peace; it was a strategic pause that allowed the violence to continue under a different name with a different justification.
The US was not just a silent bystander in this repackaging but rather a manager of the brand itself. While Israel again treated the ceasefire as a pit stop, Washington did nothing to challenge that view. If anything, it helped to sell the illusion of restraint while its “little brother” kept stretching the limits of what a truce is supposed to mean.
Under Trump, the priorities could not have been more transparent. At a summit after the initial hostage exchange, he applauded the Gaza ceasefire as “the greatest deal of them all,” celebrating the return of Israeli captives while ignoring the broader question of peace. His framing was not just tone-deaf but revealing.
Clearly, the primary concern here was solely Israeli lives, never about Palestinian survival and suffering. Trump’s message to his partner in crime, Netanyahu was loud and clear: as long as the hostages were returned, military aggression would face no serious pushback.
Moreover, the rhetoric must match the reality on the ground. Calling this fragile ceasefire just a “pause” between attacks is not being cynical—it is just stating the obvious. Saying Washington’s complicity is not a wild accusation either; when you cover for violations with diplomatic spin, you are part of the problem.
It is totally ridiculous to claim a ceasefire is still “in effect” when bombs keep dropping all over Gaza. What is more, blaming “rebels within Hamas” for every breach without any single shred of proof is just a cheap old trick played and recycled again and again to divert the world’s attention from Israel’s ongoing relentless genocidal campaign.
Trump must stop acting like ceasefires are just for show and start treating them as serious commitments. That means enforceable terms, independent monitoring and actual punishment that are not subject to political shielding. A ceasefire should not be a PR tool—it should be a binding agreement that protects civilians and holds the violator, none other than the Zionist regime to pay the price.
For Palestinians in Gaza, the truth could not be more obvious. That ceasefire? It was a mere gimmick—gone almost as soon as it began. What came next was more of the same or even worse: chaos, grief and the dream of self-determination pushed even further out of reach.
A ceasefire that jumps right back into war is not a ceasefire—it is a dirty tactic. This whole thing is not about finding peace but totally about keeping control. Unless the international community starts holding Tel Aviv and its powerful enabler, Washington, accountable, these so-called peace deals will keep being empty gestures.
Gaza does not need another “pause” dressed up as progress. It needs real, lasting peace—not another round of diplomatic theatre.
The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Monitor.
Keir Starmer objects to criticism of the IDF. He asks how could anyone object to them starving people to death, forced marches like the Nazis did, bombing Gaza’s hospitals and universities, mass-murdering journalists, healthworkers and starving people queuing for food, killing and raping prisoners and murdering children. He calls for people to stop obstructing his genocide for Israel.Genocide denier and Current UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer is quoted that he supports Zionism without qualification. He also confirms that UK air force support has been essential in Israel’s mass-murdering genocide. Includes URLs https://www.declassifieduk.org/keir-starmers-100-spy-flights-over-gaza-in-support-of-israel/ and https://youtu.be/O74hZCKKdpAOrcas discuss Genocide-supporting and complicit Zionists. Donald Trump, Keith Starmer, David Lammy, Rachel Reeves, Angela Rayner and Wes Streeting are acknowledged as evil genocide-complicit and supporting cnuts.
This work by Middle East Monitor is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Some Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails will be transferred throughout the day to the Ketziot Prison in south Israel and the Hasharon Prison in central Israel on October 16, 2011[JACK GUEZ/AFP via Getty Images]
Videos circulating online have shown Israeli security officers mistreating Palestinian prisoners in the Ketziot Prison, located in the Negev Desert in southern Israel, where the detainees are reportedly held in harsh and degrading conditions, according to Anadolu Agency.
The Hebrew-language website Kikar HaShabbat published what it described as a “large-scale documentation,” showing images from inside Ketziot Prison, where Palestinian inmates are subjected to humiliating treatment and strict inspection measures.
According to the website, Israeli photographer Chaim Goldberg entered the prison in February 2025 to document what he called the “lives of security prisoners.”
It added that some of the prisoners shown in the images were later released as part of the latest prisoner exchange deal, which included the release of all Israeli hostages, both alive and deceased, from the Gaza Strip.
The report claimed that Israeli authorities recently permitted the publication of photos and videos of Palestinian prisoners taken inside their cells and courtyards.
The images released by the Hebrew website show Palestinian inmates in severe and humiliating conditions. Some depict overcrowded living spaces and harsh inspection procedures, while others show prisoners shackled or sitting on the ground in ways that highlight degrading treatment.
On 23 October, Israel’s far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir once again boasted about depriving Palestinian prisoners of their basic rights inside Israeli prisons.
Keir Starmer objects to criticism of the IDF. He asks how could anyone object to them starving people to death, forced marches like the Nazis did, bombing Gaza’s hospitals and universities, mass-murdering journalists, healthworkers and starving people queuing for food, killing and raping prisoners and murdering children. He calls for people to stop obstructing his genocide for Israel.Genocide denier and Current UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer is quoted that he supports Zionism without qualification. He also confirms that UK air force support has been essential in Israel’s mass-murdering genocide. Includes URLs https://www.declassifieduk.org/keir-starmers-100-spy-flights-over-gaza-in-support-of-israel/ and https://youtu.be/O74hZCKKdpAOrcas discuss Genocide-supporting and complicit Zionists. Donald Trump, Keith Starmer, David Lammy, Rachel Reeves, Angela Rayner and Wes Streeting are acknowledged as evil genocide-complicit and supporting cnuts.
This work by Middle East Monitor is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
A view of makeshift tent clinics set up in the courtyard of Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital to treat the growing number of wounded amid Israel’s intensified attacks in Deir al-Balah, in the central Gaza Strip on October 05, 2025. [Mohammed Nassar – Anadolu Agency]
The World Health Organization (WHO) said on Thursday that Gaza’s health system has been devastated by Israel’s war on the Palestinian territory, which began on 7 October 2023.
“There are no fully functioning hospitals in Gaza,” said WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, warning that “the total cost of rebuilding the Gaza health system will be at least $7 billion.”
The organisation’s chief added that no significant progress has been recorded in the quantities of food allowed to enter since the ceasefire, nor any improvement in reducing hunger among the population.
“The situation still remains catastrophic because what’s entering is not enough,” Ghebreyesus told reporters, adding that, “there is no dent in hunger because there is not enough food.”
He further clarified that hunger has not declined despite the ceasefire agreement that came into effect on 10 October, brokered by the United States between Israel and Hamas.
The WHO’s chief warned that ““The crisis is far from over, and the needs are immense,”confirming that “Although the flow of aid has increased, it is still only a fraction of what’s needed.”
Keir Starmer objects to criticism of the IDF. He asks how could anyone object to them starving people to death, forced marches like the Nazis did, bombing Gaza’s hospitals and universities, mass-murdering journalists, healthworkers and starving people queuing for food, killing and raping prisoners and murdering children. He calls for people to stop obstructing his genocide for Israel.Genocide denier and Current UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer is quoted that he supports Zionism without qualification. He also confirms that UK air force support has been essential in Israel’s mass-murdering genocide. Includes URLs https://www.declassifieduk.org/keir-starmers-100-spy-flights-over-gaza-in-support-of-israel/ and https://youtu.be/O74hZCKKdpAOrcas discuss Genocide-supporting and complicit Zionists. Donald Trump, Keith Starmer, David Lammy, Rachel Reeves, Angela Rayner and Wes Streeting are acknowledged as evil genocide-complicit and supporting cnuts.
London – The High Court has today denied interim relief, granting police access to the work phone of solicitor Fahad Ansari – a clear violation of legal privilege and confidential client material. This is an egregious violation of privacy rights and an unprecedented assault on the legal profession, striking at the very foundation of legal privilege and the public’s trust in the justice system.
The decision follows a secret hearing held under the UK’s discredited closed material procedure, from which Mr. Ansari, his lawyers, and the public were excluded while so-called “evidence” was presented in private. The use of this system – which is long condemned by rights groups and even senior judges, means that the state was able to make allegations that Mr. Ansari could neither see nor challenge.
