Israel’s repeated ceasefire violations are part of its strategy to keep waging war on Gaza

Here’s Israel's strategy to continue the war on Gaza: find a pretext, no matter how baseless, use it to kill dozens of civilians and fighters, stop fire and claim you’re honoring the ceasefire. Then do it again.

By Tareq S. Hajjaj  October 29, 2025 

https://mondoweiss.net/2025/10/israels-repeated-ceasefire-violations-are-part-of-its-strategy-to-keep-waging-war-on-gaza/

The Israeli army announced that a soldier in Rafah had been killed by gunfire on Tuesday. Before the source of the gunfire could be confirmed, Netanyahu blamed it on Hamas, and gave the order for the army to launch “powerful strikes” on Gaza. The resumption of the Israeli bombing campaign killed over 100 people, 46 of whom were children, and 20 of whom were women, according to the Gaza Ministry of Health on Wednesday. 

Hamas released a statement saying it had nothing to do with the incident and that it remained fully committed to the ceasefire agreement in all areas. Nevertheless, the Israeli army carried out the attacks across several locations in Gaza. An army statement later said that Israeli forces had struck “30 terrorists holding command positions” in the Strip.

Later on Wednesday, the Israeli army announced that it was “resuming the ceasefire” agreement after having killed over 100 people in a single night. The killing of the Israeli soldier and the bombing campaign came on the heels of days of rhetoric from Israeli politicians, who have accused Hamas of violating the ceasefire due to the slow return of the bodies of deceased Israeli captives – something Hamas has attributed to the lack of equipment and the massive amounts of rubble to dig through in Gaza.

Tuesday’s airstrikes were not the first time Israel bombed Gaza during the ongoing ceasefire agreement, under the pretense that Hamas had violated the ceasefire. On October 19, the Israeli army said that Hamas had violated the ceasefire following an explosion in Rafah that led to the death of two Israeli soldiers. Israel claimed Hamas was responsible, despite the resistance group’s denial of the accusation and the later emergence of reports that the explosion was from an Israeli bulldozer running over unexploded ordnance. The army killed over a dozen people in its “retaliation.” 

On the same day, Israel assassinated Yahya al-Mabhouh, a commander in the al-Qassam Brigades who took part in the October 7 attack and also led an elite battalion east of Jabalia refugee camp, according to local journalists. Israel also assassinated Ramez Zaqout, another fighter who participated in October 7. 

These strikes are part of an emerging pattern in which Israel continues to manufacture pretexts to launch a flurry of strikes across the Strip, targeting both civilians and Hamas members.

Mondoweiss reviewed the records of the people killed in airstrikes since the ceasefire went into effect. The evidence points to an Israeli tactic of assassinating resistance fighters that had evaded detection during the war, under the pretext of “retaliation” for alleged violations of the ceasefire by Hamas. In essence – Israel is continuing to carry out its war during the ceasefire.

On Tuesday’s strike, the Israeli army took advantage of the alleged sniping attack to assassinate several resistance fighters, although local authorities indicate the majority of deaths were civilians.

Among the dead were commander Hatem al-Qudra, a leader in the al-Qassam Brigades, as well as Abdullah al-Liddawi, the commander of the western battalion in the North Gaza Brigade, who had also been targeted four times during the war but survived until last night’s strikes, according to local sources.

The Israeli army stated that the fighters it had targeted included three battalion commanders, two deputy battalion commanders, and sixteen company commanders, in addition to targeting observation posts and rocket launch sites. The army named al-Qudra as one of the participants in the October 7 attack.

The attack came after a tense week in Israel amid a flurry of visits from top U.S. officials seeking to ensure Israel adheres to the ceasefire, which has precipitated an internal crisis in Israeli political circles.

According to the Gaza Government Media Office on October 28, the Israeli army has committed 125 violations of the ceasefire. The Media Office added that the Israeli army has carried out 52 shootings, nine incursions into residential neighborhoods with military vehicles across its designated withdrawal line, 55 bombing operations, and 11 demolitions of civilian buildings.

Since the ceasefire on October 10, Israel has killed 211 Palestinians and injured 597, according to the Gaza Health Ministry. A majority have been civilians.

Families burned alive in their tents

Among the civilians killed in Tuesday’s attacks were entire families. At Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, the Al-Shawaf family mourned five martyrs – a husband, wife, and their four children – who were all killed inside their tent. In a video testimony for Mondoweiss, an elderly woman who identified herself as the grandmother says that the family had been alone in the tent, with no connection to the resistance or military work.

Witnesses said that three men in a tent adjacent to theirs were also killed in the same incident, although their background remains unknown.

The slain children’s aunt, Huda al-Shawaf, said that the family had been sleeping in their tent in the Mawasi area, which was considered relatively safe even during the war.

“I was preparing for the dawn prayer in my tent, and before I prayed, I heard the sound of intense bombing,” she told Mondoweiss in a video testimony. “I knew the bombing was very close to our location, so I covered my eyes and ears and sat on the ground to avoid seeing or hearing the same horror we’ve experienced over the past two years. But after the explosion, my father screamed, saying, ‘it’s Muhammad’s sons, their tent’s burning.’”

She rushed toward their tent as the fire was still burning, Huda says.

“The seven-year-old girl had been torn apart. The rocket had hit her and torn her into pieces,” she continues. “I could not bear to look at the sight. I was the first to arrive and saw all the mangled and burned bodies. I went to my sister-in-law, she was taking her last breath, uttering the shahada. I then went to the other two children, they were still alive. I dragged them outside the tent, away from the fire, and comforted them, saying, ‘You are safe, you will be fine.’ They responded and spoke a little.”

The 7-year-old girl later succumbed to her wounds, Huda clarifies.

“I then went to the eldest son, who is 17, who had finished his schooling in recent months and was now seeking a scholarship to study engineering abroad. He had been killed in his bed, as had his younger sisters.”

Canadian charities channeling millions to fund Israeli army, illegal West Bank settlements

Ottawa's complicity in supporting Israel’s occupation of Palestine through unchecked financial networks persists despite growing public opposition

News Desk

OCT 28, 2025

https://thecradle.co/articles/canadian-charities-channeling-millions-to-fund-israeli-army-illegal-west-bank-settlements

A new investigation by The Fifth Estate, the investigative program of Canada’s public broadcaster CBC, has revealed that several Canadian charities funneled large sums to organizations tied to Israel’s military and the expansion of illegal Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank.

The investigative episode released on 16 October found that registered charities, including the Jewish National Fund of Canada (JNF), Mizrachi Organization of Canada, and the Canadian Zionist Cultural Association (CZCA), issued tax receipts for donations that ultimately supported illegal settlements and the Israeli army.

According to The Fifth Estate, Mizrachi Canada alone sent $50 million between 2007 and 2022, followed by another $5 million in 2023 and 2024. The CZCA transferred millions more to Israeli military-linked institutions, such as the Association for Israeli Soldiers and Friends of the IDF.

While Canadian law prohibits funding foreign militaries, these organizations retained nonprofit status, allowing donors to claim tax deductions. 

Critics told CBC that these practices violate tax regulations and contradict Ottawa’s stated opposition to settlements.

The JNF, founded before the establishment of Israel, has long been accused of expropriating Palestinian land. 

Its Canadian branch has sponsored over 180 projects since 2000, including “Canada Park,” built over 7,000 dunams of occupied West Bank land.

In 2023, the JNF raised $4.4 million for projects in occupied Palestine and set a new goal of up to $30 million for its “Israel Resilience Campaign.”

Public pressure during Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza prompted Ottawa last year to revoke the JNF’s charitable status for failing to restrict the use of donations. 

However, JNF officials immediately formed a new entity, Friends of JNF Canada, to continue fundraising while the original fund appealed the decision.

JNF Canada President Nathan Disenhouse told National Post that the new charity would “fundraise for Israel in a similar way that JNF Canada did, but with the ability to issue tax receipts,” adding that its focus would include “the mental and physical health of Israelis.”

Independent Jewish Voices, which first filed the complaint leading to the delisting, accused the JNF of financing discriminatory and harmful projects in Israel and the occupied West Bank. 

The organization has since lost a judicial appeal and vowed to take the case to the Supreme Court of Canada.

Meanwhile, The Fifth Estate documented the human toll of these donations in the occupied West Bank, where Israeli settlers continue to attack Palestinian civilians with impunity.

In one case, Khader Nawajah, from the village of Khirbet Susya, recounted how settlers beat him and his wife with stones and sticks. His doctor said such cases occur “many times, sometimes daily.”

Since May 2024, Ottawa has sanctioned 17 individuals and seven entities for what it called “extremist settler violence against civilians,” even as Canadian charities continued to channel funds that sustain the same system of occupation and abuse.

Israeli lawmaker urges world to act to prevent ‘genocide’ in West Bank

October 25, 2025

https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20251025-israeli-lawmaker-urges-world-to-act-to-prevent-genocide-in-west-bank/

An Israeli Knesset member urged the international community not to wait for another genocide, warning that Israel is moving toward mass atrocities in the occupied West Bank, Anadolu reports.

“I appeal to the international community. You waited too long before intervening to stop the genocide in Gaza. Don’t wait for a similar scenario in the West Bank because we are getting close to that,” Ofer Cassif told Anadolu.

“And don’t wait for a civil war inside Israel because we are getting close to that, too. Engage now. Do everything possible to stop these two dangers — they threaten both Palestinians and Israelis alike, and ultimately the entire region and the world. It’s not only a matter of justice; it’s in your own interest to stop this. You can do it. We can’t do it alone. We need you,” he added.

– Incident during Trump’s Knesset address

Regarding the incident when he and fellow lawmaker Ayman Odeh were expelled from the Knesset during US President Donald Trump’s speech last week, Cassif said, “It wasn’t really a speech. As you know, it was just a collection of words that weren’t necessarily connected. It was a theatrical performance, a show of three self-obsessed egomaniacs, especially (Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin) Netanyahu and Trump, and to some extent Speaker of the Knesset Amir Ohana as well.”

He added, “It was a display of flattery, truly disgusting. I must say it had no real substance other than boasting about each other.”

Cassif noted that he and Odeh were expelled because they raised a sign that read: ‘Recognize Palestine.’

“Everyone should understand, though many in Israel refuse to, that the only solution to the conflict, the only way to stop the bloodshed, destruction and suffering for both Palestinians and Israelis, is to recognize Palestine and to establish a real, independent, sovereign Palestinian state alongside Israel. That was our message.”

“Let’s not forget that Trump himself was complicit in sacrificing Israeli hostages and in the massacre of Palestinians. He supported the Israeli government last March when it violated an agreement that was already on the table, one that could have saved thousands of lives among Palestinians, hostages and soldiers. We must remember that. Trump is part of the problem. He is not the savior,” he continued.

Cassif said their message also concerned the future. “A Palestinian state and an end to the occupation, that’s the only path forward. Ayman Odeh and I held a sign that said, ‘Recognize Palestine.’ That’s all. We didn’t shout, we didn’t speak, we didn’t say anything — just that sign. It was necessary, given the past and the future.”

 ‘The government wants to complete a fascist coup’

Regarding the Knesset’s winter session that began Monday and is expected to be the last of the current parliament, Cassif said, “There is no doubt that the government wants to achieve two main things in the coming months, whether elections take place as planned in October or earlier, like June or even before that.”

“The government wants, first and foremost, to continue the coup, what they call ‘judicial reform.’ It’s neither reform nor judicial. It’s a coup, fascist in every sense of the word. It’s dictatorial, a coup aimed at completely eliminating the independence of the judiciary. That’s something I criticize strongly, but that’s not the point; they want to destroy it,” he added.

He said that another aspect “is the complete destruction of media independence, which I also criticize severely. Despite everything, it remains somewhat independent, but the government wants to destroy it.”

“Third, the government wants to eliminate whatever civil rights are left. This government is waging war on every remaining element of democracy in Israel — whether it’s the judiciary, the attorney general, the media, civil society, or individual citizens. That’s what they’re doing. They want to complete a fascist coup,” Cssif added.

He said in recent days, Israel has seen “a horrifying level of violence in the occupied West Bank, especially against Palestinians and activists harvesting olives.”

“Occupation forces expelled them from their lands to make way for terrorist settlers, not only to beat Palestinians and attack them but also, as activists reported, to steal their food, for example, and take over the land. This is part of the annexation plan. It’s not just a fascist mob acting against the government’s policies. It’s part of government policy itself, and that’s another reason for deep concern.”

– Struggle is over who will be next Netanyahu

Asked about Israel’s political opposition, Cassif said, “There is only a nominal opposition, not a real one, because the vast majority of those who call themselves opposition members are aligned with the government and the coalition. They don’t offer a political alternative, only a personal one. Right now, the struggle in Israel between the so-called opposition and the coalition is over who will be the next Netanyahu.”

“We must never accept that, at the very least. We will continue our struggle as we always have. We were the pioneers of resistance inside the Knesset, and we will continue to fight against the genocide in Gaza and do exactly the same regarding the West Bank and the fascist coup. Unfortunately, I have no expectations from the opposition, but we will do our work,” he added.

– Israel has turned into a fascist regime

Reflecting on the changes in Israel in recent years, Cassif said, “As you know, everything is 100% negative, if not worse. It’s destroying Israeli society — at the expense of Israelis and, of course, Palestinians. It has turned Israel into a fascist regime.”

“So, in that sense, apart from the genocide, which is itself a crime, the ethnic cleansing in the West Bank, and other atrocities, it’s clearly negative,” Cassif noted.

Occupation will end ‘in the coming years’

“If I may describe it as positive under such circumstances, I believe it has actually made it easier to establish a Palestinian state, end the occupation, and even democratize Israel to some extent. In the near term, everything is negative, but in the long term, I believe we will see positive outcomes. The occupation will end, in my opinion, within a few years. A truly independent Palestinian state will emerge — that means liberation for both the Palestinian and Israeli peoples. I believe this will happen in the coming years.”

“In that sense, there is hope. We must remain optimistic, but we must also struggle and fight. We need the international community on our side. There must be a combination of our internal struggle and international efforts. Once we achieve that, nothing can stop us,” Cassif continued.

– Elections, Netanyahu’s prospects

Regarding the upcoming elections and Netanyahu’s chances, Cassif said, “There are two main issues here. First, the assumption that elections will even be held. Obviously, if it were up to Netanyahu and his fascist fanatics within the coalition, they would do everything possible to cancel or at least postpone them.”

“But if elections are held on time or earlier, the main danger right now is that the coalition and its extremist supporters outside parliament are already planning to turn the elections into a sham — unfair and biased at best. They are trying to pass laws that would, for example, prevent us from running in the elections. That plan has already started,” he said.

“Moreover, the police no longer exist as an independent force. It has turned into a private militia in the hands of the government in general, and specifically in the hands of the fascist extremist and convicted terrorist Itamar Ben-Gvir. On top of that, there are private armed militias of fascists just waiting for an order – and once they get it, whether from (National Security Minister) Ben-Gvir, Netanyahu, or others in this gang, they will do everything they can to prevent Palestinian and leftist citizens from voting. So, I expect elections that will not be fair.”

He added, “If that happens, as I fear it will, it will make victory for the fascist right even easier. But even if we succeed in fighting these plans and preventing such bias, we must remember that 50% of the people under Israel’s control are still deprived of the right to vote, I mean the Palestinians in the occupied territories. But hypothetically speaking, if we ignore that, and if we manage to hold fair elections, then I believe the fascists have no real chance of winning.”

“But I fear we will see violence, either before the elections, on election day, or even afterward if they lose. Who knows? Maybe after the results are published, as we saw in the United States when Biden won. We saw what happened there. I fear we will see something very similar here, maybe even worse. I hope I’m wrong,” added Cassif.​​​​​​​

 

Clearing Gaza’s surface of bombs will take up to 30 years, aid group says

https://www.arabnews.com/node/2620018/middle-east

GENEVA: Clearing the surface of Gaza of unexploded ordnance will likely take between 20 to 30 years, according to an official with aid group Humanity & Inclusion, describing the enclave as a “horrific, unmapped minefield.”

More than 53 people have been killed and hundreds injured by lethal remnants from the two-year Israel-Hamas war, according to a UN-led database, which is thought by aid groups to be a huge underestimate.

A US-brokered ceasefire this month has raised hopes that the huge task of removing them from among millions of tons of rubble can begin.

“If you’re looking at a full clearance, it’s never happening, it’s subterranean. We will find it for generations to come,” said Nick Orr, an Explosive Ordnance Disposal expert at Humanity & Inclusion, comparing the situation with British cities after World War Two.

“Surface clearance, now that’s something that’s attainable within a generation, I think 20 to 30 years,” he added.

“It’s going to be a very small chipping away at a very big problem.”

Orr, who went to Gaza several times during the conflict, is part of his organization’s seven-person team that will begin identifying war remnants there in essential infrastructure like hospitals and bakeries next week.

For now, however, aid groups like his have not been given blanket Israeli permission to start work on removing and destroying the ordnance nor to import the required equipment, he said.

COGAT, the arm of the Israeli military overseeing Gaza aid, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. It blocks items into Gaza which it considers have “dual use” — both civilian and military.

Orr said it was seeking permission to import supplies to burn away bombs rather than detonate them, to ease concerns about them being repurposed by Hamas.

He voiced support for a temporary force such as one foreseen in the 20-point ceasefire plan.

“If there is going to be any kind of future inside of Gaza, there needs to be an enabling security force that allows humanitarians to work,” Orr said.

How Israel Lost the American Public

by James Rushmore | Oct 22, 2025

https://libertarianinstitute.org/articles/how-israel-lost-the-american-public/

A new poll published by Quinnipiac University finds that only 21% of Americans hold a positive opinion of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Meanwhile, 49% hold a negative view of the Likud leader. And while 47% of respondents believe that U.S. support for Israel is in the national interest, 41% disagree. This represents a marked shift in public opinion. A Quinnipiac poll conducted in December 2023 found that 69% of Americans believed their nation’s support for Israel was in the national interest.

Of course, the Quinnipiac poll is no outlier. In July, a Gallup poll found that 29% of voters, including 9% of Democrats and 19% of independents, held a favorable view of Netanyahu, while 52% viewed him unfavorably. Gallup also found that only 32% of Americans supported Israel’s military actions in the Gaza Strip, down from 42% in September 2024. This tracks with the results of an August Quinnipiac poll, which found that 32% of Americans supported the provision of additional military aid to Israel. Meanwhile, 60% of voters, including 75% of Democrats and 66% of independents, opposed sending more aid. 50% of respondents, including a majority of independents, also indicated their belief that Israel is committing a genocide in Gaza. Just last week, a poll conducted by The New York Times and Siena found that 40% of voters, including 66% of those between the ages of 18 and 29, believe that Israel is deliberately killing Palestinian civilians.

The reasons behind Israel’s reputational collapse are self-evident. For two years, Americans’ social media feeds have been flooded with photos and videos of Palestinian civilians, many of them children, being killed or maimed by the Israeli Defense Force (IDF). Social media has also made the destruction of the Gaza Strip a palpable reality for Americans living 5,000 miles away. According to the Israeli online marketing platform Humanz, 109.6 billion posts bearing pro-Palestinian hashtags were posted to Instagram and TikTok in October 2023. Palestinian journalists and content creators like Motaz Azaiza, Bisan Owda, and Hind Khoudary have gained millions of Instagram followers since Israel began bombing Gaza. As of September 2025, 5.6 million videos bearing the hashtag #Palestine have been posted to TikTok, racking up 59.5 billion views. The more Americans see of the war, the more they grow disillusioned with the mainstream media’s coverage of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, as well as their government’s complicity in Israel’s atrocities.

According to the Gaza Ministry of Health, over 67,000 people have been killed in Gaza since October 7, 2023, while over 169,000 have been wounded. In terms of both the ratio of combatants to noncombatants killed and the rate of death relative to population, the Gaza War ranks as the deadliest armed conflict of the century. On September 16, a United Nations commission of inquiry published a report concluding that Israel is guilty of committing genocide. The commission found that Israel was guilty of four acts—killing members of a group, causing serious physical or mental harm to its members, deliberately inflicting conditions of life intended to bring about the group’s physical destruction, and imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group—which satisfy the criteria for genocide. The Israeli human rights organization B’Tselem has also described the war as a genocide, accusing Israel of “taking coordinated, deliberate action to destroy Palestinian society in the Gaza Strip.”

Last October, Harvard economist Linda J. Bilmes and policy analysts Stephen Semler and William D. Hartung calculated that the U.S. government had spent at least $22.76 billion on military operations in the region since October 7. Under President Donald Trump, Washington’s spending has exploded even further. In February, the Trump administration approved an $8.4 billion arms sale to Israel, the largest since 2015. The following month, Secretary of State Marco Rubio signed a declaration that would expedite the transfer of an additional $4 billion in military assistance. By March 1, only a little more than a month since returning to the White House, Trump had already signed off on $12 billion in weapons sales to Israel. And just last month, his administration proposed the sale of another $6.4 billion in attack helicopters, troop carriers, and other equipment.

Many of Israel’s most strident defenders have blamed Tel Aviv’s public relations struggles on Qatari and Iranian disinformation campaigns. This faulty analysis ignores what should be obvious. For millions of Americans, bearing witness to the atrocities of the war in real time has reified what was previously intangible, and the scale of the Palestinian death toll has proven unshakable. The knowledge that taxpayer money is being used to cause and prolong such suffering only adds insult to injury. It should come as no surprise that the American public is no longer as uniformly pro-Israel as it was prior to October 2023. What remains mystifying is why Washington remains so intent on ignoring this unmistakable shift.

US growing worried Israeli prime minister could jeopardize Gaza ceasefire deal: Report

US Vice President JD Vance’s visit to Israel aims to pile pressure on Netanyahu to abide by ceasefire deal, US media says

Betul Yilmaz 21.10.2025

https://www.aa.com.tr/en/americas/us-growing-worried-israeli-prime-minister-could-jeopardize-gaza-ceasefire-deal-report/3722555

ISTANBUL

The administration of President Donald Trump is growing worried that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu could jeopardize the Gaza ceasefire deal with Hamas, US media reported on Tuesday.

The New York Times, citing anonymous White House officials, said Vice President JD Vance’s visit to Israel aims to put pressure on Netanyahu to abide by the ceasefire in Gaza and “add an extra symbolic layer to illustrate the administration’s commitment to keeping the deal intact.”

US Middle East Envoy Steve Witkoff and President Donald Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, already landed in Israel on Monday for talks with Netanyahu and other officials on the implementation of the deal.

A senior US official told the US daily that both Witkoff and Kushner believe that the ceasefire deal is “in danger of falling apart.”

The two envoys’ strategy in Israel is “to try to keep Netanyahu from resuming an all-out assault against Hamas,” the sources said.

The NY Times said that the talks of Witkoff and Kushner in Israel focused on “some of the trickier areas that were left undefined in their initial deal,” such as the formation of a stabilization force and the disarmament of Hamas.

Israel launched a series of deadly airstrikes across the Gaza Strip on Sunday, killing at least 44 Palestinians after alleging that Hamas had attacked its troops in the southern city of Rafah. The Palestinian group denied any involvement and reaffirmed its commitment to the ceasefire.

Trump has already affirmed that the Gaza ceasefire remains effective despite the Israeli strikes.

The ceasefire deal took effect on Oct. 10 in the Gaza Strip, based on a phased plan presented by Trump. Phase one included the release of Israeli hostages in exchange for Palestinian prisoners.

The plan also envisages the rebuilding of Gaza and the establishment of a new governing mechanism without Hamas.

Since October 2023, the Israeli genocidal war has killed over 68,200 people and injured more than 170,200, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.

How ‘Little Marco’ Became Trump’s Top Hawk in Latin America

Trump has long flirted with toppling Venezuela’s Nicolas Maduro, and he has effectively positioned Marco Rubio to do it.

Kelley Beaucar Vlahos

Oct 20, 2025

https://www.theamericanconservative.com/how-little-marco-became-trumps-biggest-asset-in-latin-america/

On the day the Gaza peace deal was signed, President Donald Trump told his audience at the Israeli Knesset that Marco Rubio will go down as the greatest secretary of state in “the history of the United States.” He compared him to Henry Kissinger and bestowed upon him much of the credit for the brokered plan that resulted in the ceasefire and celebrated hostage release.

This, a week, after the Miami Herald described how Rubio had amassed so much power inside the White House—just like Kissinger under President Richard Nixon, wearing both the hats of chief diplomat and head of the National Security Council—that he wasn’t just surviving the tumultuous Trump orbit, he was “thriving.”

This is clearly bad news for Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro, who is reportedly preparing his country for an invasion. Reports that regime change is the endgame in an aggressive U.S. military counter narcotics operation in the Caribbean get more detailed every day, including plans for CIA covert operations in the country and “Little Bird” Army helicopters ostensibly carrying U.S. special forces 90 miles off the coast of the country. The administration has done little to deny it.

More importantly, these reports indicate that Rubio, a former Florida senator who came to Washington in 2011 and immediately cleaved to the neoconservative foreign policies driving the heady, regime-change crazy Global War on Terror, is at the helm of this operation’s policy and planning. This is no surprise, since toppling Maduro and the Castros in Cuba have been constants in his otherwise shifting foreign policy persona. 

But unlike his days as a reliable vote for old-guard hawks who used democracy and freedom to justify overturning governments they did not like, he is now seen as an enlightened adherent of the New Right, which espouses a more nationalist approach that in part seeks to revitalize the Monroe Doctrine for the 21st century. 

His views on regime change, however, haven’t changed. 

“The United States remains firm in its unwavering support to Venezuela’s restoration of democratic order and justice. Maduro is not the President of Venezuela and his regime is not the legitimate government,” Rubio said in a State Department statement on July 26. “The United States will continue working with our partners to hold accountable the corrupt, criminal and illegitimate Maduro regime. Those who steal elections and use force to grasp power undermine America’s national security interests.”

For many realists in the MAGA coalition, Rubio was never an easy fit. While Trump in 2016 was a strident critic of regime-change wars, democracy promotion, and global policing, Rubio ran his own presidential campaign opposing him on all of these fronts. His ascension to the inner circle today and seeming predominance over the diplomacy and national security realms, sidelining figures like Ric Grenell (who was recalled from talks with Maduro earlier this month) and even Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, is a red flag, they say.

“Rubio was a hawk and still is a hawk. It’s just that the kinds of justifications that he’ll use to get the policy outcomes he wants have evolved in light of the necessities of what’s happened to the Republican Party with Trump's takeover,” Damon Linker, longtime political columnist and now a senior lecturer in the political science department at the University of Pennsylvania, told TAC.

“I think Rubio is sort of he has assimilated himself to what he understands to be the reality of what it means to support Trump and be a foreign policy guy in this world, and there’s a weird way in which his hatred of Maduro in Venezuela can like mesh with Trump’s strong, sort of neo-Monroe Doctrine outlook,” he added. “[This] allows someone like Rubio to treat Maduro as like an unrepentant communist who’s a kind of a holdover from the Cold War, and he’s a bad actor, and he’s sending drugs here, and so many of the refugees who came in under Biden came from Venezuela. That’s going to keep happening if we don’t stop the outflow of people from this failed state down there, and that’s how you talk to Trump if you want to topple the government.”

Vice President J.D. Vance is considered the spearpoint of the realist-restraint movement, having been one of the most vocal critics of the GWOT neoconservatives, regime change, and for putting military before diplomatic solutions during his time in the Senate. Some wonder if his voice on these matters has been sidelined too. And yet, the Miami Herald piece talked about Rubio, Vance, and White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles as forming a “triumvirate of power, along with a personal bond” alongside the president.

One senior career official who had worked in multiple Republican administrations in both the State Departments and NSC, said Rubio, with his own long experience in government and politics, now inhabits a space ripe for imposing a singular, even personal, agenda. In the radical shrinking and reshuffling at both agencies, much of the traditional processes have been tossed, along with institutional memory and experience. After decades of failed, sclerotic thinking isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but it leaves little room for healthy debate and red teaming on the use of force in this situation, critics say.

“It allows for any one person to have outsized power and influence. You have a very manipulatable situation and I think that’s potentially allowed Rubio to pick up on this fever dream” of regime change in Venezuela, the source said.

But is it only his fever dream? Other conservatives who spoke with TAC insist that while Rubio has been at the forefront of a movement to depose Maduro for sometime, he is still merely pursuing what Trump wants. Recall, Trump actively encouraged Maduro’s ouster during his first administration, recognizing opposition leader Juan Guaido as the legitimate president and even at one point encouraging Venezuelan military leaders to turn on Maduro. 

A failed “Bay of Piglets” invasion in 2020 headed by retired U.S. special forces operators and connected to Venezuelan exiles raised the specter of more covert, kinetic Washington operations, yet the connections to the administration were too tenuous to confirm. At the time, reports said Rubio was “running” Trump’s Latin America policy, though he leaned heavily on another hawkish ideologue, Mike Pompeo, then serving as secretary of state.

Grenell was sidelined in early October, sources tell TAC, because he was trying to “freelance” a diplomatic policy that the president did not want. Rubio, on the other hand, has worked hard to earn Trump’s trust and in the early days of this administration was able to help pull off a deal with Panama and has been integral on both the Ukraine and Israel portfolios.

“Rubio is very smart. I think Trump came to realize that this is a guy who has enormous skills … and that he can trust him,” said the former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich in an interview with TAC. “What is driving Trump is not Rubio, but the degree to which Venezuela is a direct threat to the United States, and that’s why I think they just sank the fourth boat today, if I read the newspaper correctly, and they’re clearly moving towards regime change in one way or another.”

The conservative journalist and podcaster Emily Jashinsky said much of the skepticism over Rubio has been over his roots in conventional Republican party politics and neoconservatism, which have since been discredited in the new populist-nationalism, or the MAGA “New Right.” But he doesn’t think that his foreign policy contradicts what Trump has set out to do in this second term, which is to focus more on the Western Hemisphere and “protecting the homeland.”

“The biggest misconception about Marco Rubio is that his MAGA flip-flop was cynical and not sincere. It was entirely sincere,” she tells TAC. “It’s hardly surprising that Rubio is still interested in regime change in the Hemisphere, given his longtime involvement in Latin American anticommunism, but it also doesn’t mean he’s still the same Rubio of 2016. It’s easy both politically and morally to frame hemispheric hawkishness under the auspices of America First because proximity does change security calculations and drug trafficking is important to MAGA voters who’ve seen their communities ravaged by fentanyl.”

“Some realists on the right like myself are skeptical of plans that sound like reheated Cold War era follies,” she adds, “but others see a coherent strategy that maintains America First rather than undermining it.”

Rubio of course enjoys a base of support for his agenda inside and outside Washington which is bipartisan in nature, very wealthy, super-connected, and already positioned at the highest levels of administration. Neocon think tanks as well as those representing oil and corporate interests have been making the case for Maduro’s ouster for years. An opposition is already primed to move in and has been courting American business and media in anticipation. By connecting narco-terrorism and the country’s illegal drug crisis directly to Maduro, conservative Americans (and voters) are ripe for support, too.

In essence, Maduro’s problems go way beyond Rubio. Yet the instrumentalization of this preferred policy rests on the ability of the American government, in particular the U.S. military buttressed by the State Department and National Security Council, to execute it. Rubio has his hands on the levers of power, and sources say he is clearing the decks of internal dissent. If this fails, or if Trump decides not to go forward with full scale regime change, it may be Rubio’s political fortunes that ultimately hang in the balance.

Iran, Russia, China Send Letter to UN To Mark Official End of the 2015 Iran Nuclear Deal

The three countries criticized the E3 nations for triggering the 'snapback' mechanism of the deal

by Dave DeCamp | October 19, 2025 

https://news.antiwar.com/2025/10/19/iran-russia-china-send-letter-to-un-to-mark-official-end-of-the-2015-iran-nuclear-deal/

On Saturday, Iran, Russia, and China sent a letter to the UN Security Council declaring that the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, known as the JCPOA, has officially expired.

The official termination of the JCPOA comes seven years after the US unilaterally quit the deal during the first Trump administration in 2018.

In the letter, the three countries condemned France, the UK, and Germany, known as the E3, for triggering the snapback mechanism of the JCPOA, which re-imposed UN Security Council sanctions that were lifted back in 2015. Russia and China’s opposition to the move signals they will not follow the sanctions, which include an arms embargo.

“The attempt by the E3 to trigger the so-called ‘snapback’ is by default legally and procedurally flawed,” Iran, Russia, and China said, adding that the E3 “ceased to perform their commitments” under the JCPOA and UN Security Council Resolution 2231, which endorsed the agreement and created the snapback mechanism.

The ability to snap back the sanctions would have expired with the JCPOA, which is why the E3 countries ensured they were reimposed beforehand, a step they likely took at the behest of the US. The sanctions came just a few months after the 12-day US-Israeli war against Iran, which involved the US bombing of Iranian nuclear facilities.

Iran, Russia, and China told the Security Council that the end of the JCPOA and the “conclusion of Resolution 2231 marks the end of the Security Council’s consideration of the Iranian nuclear issue and contributes to strengthening the authority of the Council and the credibility of multilateral diplomacy.”

Iran’s Foreign Ministry also released a statement that said all of the “provisions (of the deal), including the restrictions on the Iranian nuclear program and the related mechanisms, are considered terminated.” The Foreign Ministry reiterated that Tehran was still open to diplomacy over its nuclear program, though any diplomatic progress with the US is unlikely due to the Trump administration’s demands.

Iran remains a signatory to the Non-Proliferation Treaty, and its leadership has reaffirmed in recent months that Tehran is not seeking nuclear weapons and is still bound by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei’s fatwa that prohibits the development of nuclear weapons.

Israel, which is always accusing Iran of moving toward nuclear weapons, is not a signatory to the NPT and has a secret nuclear weapons stockpile, making it the only nuclear-armed country in the Middle East.

Israel heavily bombs Gaza in major ceasefire violation

Attacks across war-torn strip leave at least 15 killed

By MEE staff

Published date: 19 October 2025

https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/israeli-air-strikes-hit-rafah-amid-reports-clashes-abu-shabab-gang

Israeli air strikes hit several areas across the Gaza Strip on Sunday, killing at least 15 Palestinians, in the latest violation of the ceasefire.

Strikes were reported in Rafah and Khan Younis in the south, Jabalia in the north, and parts of central Gaza.

Among the sites hit were a cafe, a mobile phone charging station, and a group of journalists.

The Israeli military said the strikes were in response to an alleged "attack" by Palestinians on its troops in southern Rafah involving a rocket-propelled grenade and sniper fire.

There were no immediate reports of Israeli casualties. 

Middle East Eye could not independently verify the Israeli claim. 

The armed wing of Hamas, the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades, denied any knowledge of or connection to the alleged attack, which Israel said took place in an area under its control.

Hamas said it has had no contact with its fighters in that area since March.

“We have no involvement in any events occurring in those areas and cannot communicate with any of our fighters there, if any of them remain alive,” the group said in a statement, adding that it remains committed to the ceasefire.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said earlier that the army will take "firm action against terror targets in the Gaza Strip" after the alleged attack, which local media said took place beyond the so‑called “Yellow Line” - a demarcation inside Gaza where Israeli forces are stationed. 

Earlier, Israeli media reported an explosion in a military vehicle in Rafah, which was followed by air strikes in the area. The cause of the explosion was not immediately clear. 

Initial unconfirmed reports from both Israeli and Palestinian sources suggested the incident may have involved an attempted attack by Hamas on the Israeli-backed Yasser Abu Shabab gang. 

The militia has been accused of stealing humanitarian aid and attacking Palestinian civilians during Israel's two-year genocidal war on Gaza. 

Israeli ministers Itamar Ben Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich urged action after the incident. 

Ben Gvir called on Netanyahu to “renew full‑scale fighting in the Strip at full strength”, while Smotrich posted the single word “War!” on X.

Izzat al-Risheq, member of the Hamas' Political Bureau, said in a brief statement that the group was still committed to the ceasefire.

"Hamas movement reaffirms its commitment to the ceasefire agreement and emphasises that the Zionist occupation is the party continuing to violate the agreement and fabricate baseless pretexts to justify its crimes," Risheq said. 

"Netanyahu’s attempts to evade and disavow his commitments come under pressure from his extremist terrorist coalition, in a bid to escape his responsibilities before the mediators and guarantors." 

Since the ceasefire came into effect on 11 October, Israeli forces have violated it around 50 times, including through artillery shelling, drone strikes, tank fire and quadcopter attacks.

More than 50 Palestinians have been killed in these incidents.

Israel has also violated other terms of the agreement, including restrictions on the entry of humanitarian aid and the continued closure of the Rafah border crossing with Egypt.