Despite ceasefires in Gaza and Lebanon, the war isn’t over for Netanyahu

On Tuesday, Israel’s target was the largest Palestinian refugee camp in Lebanon. The two missiles its forces fired killed at least 13 people. A drone attack on the same day in the city of Bint Jbeil killed another person. And the next day Israeli airstrikes hit villages in southern Lebanon.

Meanwhile, in Gaza, Israeli air raids and drone attacks continue. At least one person was killed on Wednesday, as Israel struck Rafah and Khan Younis.

The attacks have come despite ceasefire agreements in both Lebanon and Gaza and a major pronouncement by United States President Donald Trump that the Middle East is now at peace.

But as far as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is concerned, Israel’s war on the region is not over.

In a speech to Israel’s parliament on November 10, one month to the day after a ceasefire ostensibly went into effect in Gaza, Netanyahu said the war “has not ended,” according to The Times of Israel, and he claimed that Israel’s enemies are rearming.

The ceasefire should have brought Israel’s more than two years of war on Gaza to an end but attacks have not ceased. Israel has killed more than 280 Palestinians since then.

And Israel’s war is not limited to Gaza, either. In Lebanon, Israel has killed more than 100 civilians in the last year, despite a ceasefire with Lebanon on November 27, 2024, while Israeli attacks also continue in the occupied West Bank.

Israel keeps attacking

Netanyahu’s words are of little surprise given Israel’s ongoing attacks on people in the region. In fact, analysts say, the precedent was clear even before the ceasefires were signed.

“There was never any evidence that the Israelis would respect the ceasefire in Gaza or Lebanon,” Elia Ayoub, a Lebanese-Palestinian researcher, told media.

“Netanyahu can rely on the lack of international accountability, especially with the backing of the US, to continue his war on civilians,” Ayoub added.

On October 13, 2025, Trump gathered with political representatives from more than two dozen nations in Egypt’s Sharm el-Sheikh to declare peace in Gaza and the wider region.

“At long last, we have peace in the Middle East,” Trump said.

But a little more than a month later, Israel’s attacks on both Gaza and Lebanon continue on a near-daily basis.

On Wednesday, November 19, the death toll from Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza since October 7 rose to 69,513 Palestinians.

Pressure had begun to build on Israel over its war on Gaza in recent months as Israeli human rights groups and the world’s top scholars joined the institutions saying that Israel was committing genocide.

But the Sharm el-Sheikh summit and the public announcement of a ceasefire seem to have eased pressure on Israel.

On the ground in Gaza and Lebanon, people from areas where Israel continues to attack are unable to go back to their lives or rebuild their homes.

Not only has Israel attacked reconstruction equipment, but, in the case of Gaza, for example, it has also stopped much of the aid promised to Palestinians in the enclave.

“As long as Netanyahu expects impunity, there is no reason to believe that anyone in Lebanon or Palestine is safe from Israel,” Ayoub said.

Why the war isn’t over

Netanyahu’s recent comments show that he “is determined to keep Israel in a perpetual state of war, as evidenced by his repeated stalling and sabotage of previous ceasefire negotiations,” Rida Abu Rass, a Palestinian political scientist, told media.

Protests in Israel have occasionally called for an end to the war. But they were largely centred around calls for a deal with Hamas to release the remaining Israeli captives in Gaza. The living captives have all been released, though Hamas is still reportedly looking for the remains of three captives.

Netanyahu himself says the war must continue because Israel’s enemies are regrouping.

“Those who seek to do us harm are rearming. They did not give up their aim of destroying us,” Netanyahu said during his speech to the Knesset.

Despite the widespread destruction of Gaza, Netanyahu says his goal of dismantling Hamas has not yet been completed. Israeli officials and media also report that Hezbollah is rebuilding, despite analysts saying the group is not in a position to attack Israel.

Experts have cast doubt on Netanyahu’s justifications for continuing the war. They believe Netanyahu’s stated goals of dismantling Israel’s enemies were purposefully unachievable in order for him to keep the war going and avoid domestic and international accountability.

“His political career hangs in the balance: far-right coalition partners demand the war’s resumption, seeing a historic opportunity to advance their vision of ethnically cleansing Palestine,” Abu Rass said.

“Netanyahu would like to sell his supporters and coalition partners the narrative that the war isn’t over.”

In Israel, Netanyahu is on trial in three corruption cases. The cases have been delayed repeatedly due to the war, with courts citing “national security priorities”.

“Keeping Israel on a constant war footing is good for [Netanyahu] since it allows him to keep delaying his trial and the demands of his far-right coalition to reshape Israel’s internal governing principles, which caused him so much trouble in the past,” Rob Geist Pinfold, a lecturer in international security at King’s College London, told media.

He’s also reportedly fearful of any investigation into the failures to prevent the operation by Hamas and other Palestinian factions that took place on October 7, 2023. However, Netanyahu also has a long game, analysts say.

“Throughout his career, he has consistently worked to displace Palestinians and expand settlement. For him, the war provided an opportunity to advance these goals,” Abu Rass said.

Internationally, the International Criminal Court has issued an arrest warrant for Netanyahu and his former Defence Minister Yoav Gallant for war crimes in Gaza.

“I view the so-called ceasefires as gaslighting campaigns designed to indefinitely delay accountability,” Ayoub said.

In this sense, Ayoub said, Netanyahu’s comments show that the conditions of the ceasefire are not applied universally.

“The Israeli strategy is clearly ‘you cease, we fire’. And if any actor fires back, the Israelis simply intensify what they’re already doing.”

These attacks seem set to continue as the international community has turned its focus away from Gaza. While the ceasefires in both Lebanon and Gaza have eased the ferocity and frequency of attacks, violence continues in both places and in the occupied West Bank. Such conditions will continue, analysts say, until the root cause is confronted.

“International stakeholders – governments, civil society groups, and media – must continue to apply pressure on the Israeli and US governments,” Abu Rass said.

“We will inevitably face new escalations unless the root causes – namely, Israeli apartheid and military occupation – are dismantled.”