Illinois Global Review

"What is his fault? What is his crime? He should be wearing a wedding suit at his cousin's today, but instead, he wore a shroud stained with blood,"-- Hader Al-Malahi, cousin of Yahya Al-Malahi

“There is a line that we define. They don’t know where this line is, but we do.”-- Daniel Raab, IDF Sniper, University of Illinois Alumnus

Since the so-called ceasefire took effect on October 10, 2025, the terror being inflicted on Palestinians has not ended. In fact, much of the same violence that has become a daily reality for Palestinians has continued: apartheid movement restrictions, settler violence, and extrajudicial killings– including of children– have not ceased. The death toll as of April 27, 2026, has surpassed 800 in Gaza alone.

West Bank settler violence has continued after the ceasefire, and some say has even intensified. While usually committed by Israeli civilians, these acts largely go unpunished by the Israeli government; no Israelis have been prosecuted for killing Palestinians in the West Bank since the start of this decade, despite the death toll being over 1,100. In fact, more often Palestinians are arrested after settler attacks. For example, Saqer Salman describes how he was arrested after settlers clubbed him in the back of the head, and soldiers beat him with the butt of their guns when he attempted to explain how the settlers entered his land. He called the IDF “a protection for the settlers.” One man, 75 year old Abdullah Daraghmeh, was beaten so severely by settlers that his skull was fractured, multiple bones in his face broken, and teeth knocked out. A video given to CNN by his family shows his bloodied face shortly after the attack. In a more recent incident, Israeli settlers attacked a school in the West Bank, shooting a rifle at least eight times at the school as children were in the schoolyard outside. The bullets killed two Palestinians, 14-year old student Aws Al-Naasan, as well as 32-year-old parent Jihad Abu Naim, who rushed to the school when he heard the gunfire before he was shot himself. Sometimes the link between West Bank settler violence and state-sanctioned violence is far more direct; on April 11, an Israeli settler in an IDF reserve unit opened fire on a group of Palestinians in Deir Jarir. Video of the incident shows a lone gunman firing at a group of about ten Palestinians attempting to flee, with one collapsing to the ground after being shot in the back; Israeli human rights group B’Tselem says this was 23-year-old Ali Hamadneh, who died from his wounds. Some argue that the war in Iran is being used as cover by the settlers to escalate their attacks in the West Bank; since US and Israeli airstrikes began in Iran, over 600 Palestinians have been driven from their homes, and the death toll has reached thirteen.

The Israeli Knesset also passed a controversial new death penalty law that allows for the hanging of Palestinians convicted of deadly military attacks. Even before the law was passed, Israel began retrofitting facilities for execution. One such facility has been dubbed "Israel's Green Mile,” where hangings will be carried out using remote-controlled gallows. The law allows for the hanging of Palestinians convicted in military court of killing Israelis. However, the military court only tries Palestinians and has a nearly 100% conviction rate; a similar court does not exist for Israelis. The law was introduced by Minister of National Security Itamar Ben Gvir, who has openly called for the expulsion of Arabs, has praised the “minimum of minimum” conditions in Israeli prisons, and has defended violent settlers in the West Bank that consistently terrorize the area’s indigenous population. Considering this, and that the goal of genocide is the destruction of a people, this law can be understood as making the killing of some Palestinians explicitly legal under the law. One former prison chaplain and cofounder of the group L’Chaim: Jews Against the Death Penalty, Michael Zoosman, said the law was “an unambiguous human rights disaster in the making.”

The attacks on journalists have also continued. A CNN crew was detained by the IDF while attempting to report on a recent settler attack in Tayasir. The soldiers point their guns at the crew and order them to kneel on the ground. One crewmember was then put in a chokehold by a soldier shortly before the Palestinian journalists were separated from the rest. One of the soldiers then says that the entire West Bank was their land: “not just for the soldiers, for the Jews.” The journalist, Jeremy Diamond, says he found it “striking” that the battalion that detained him shared the exact same ideology as the settlers, leading him to conclude they were there “in service” of the settlers. As a result of this incident, this particular battalion was later suspended. However, the settler ideology displayed by the soldiers continued even after their suspension; in this same village a month later, settlers bulldozed a school.

Extrajudicial killings of Palestinians have also continued, including of children. For example, just 19 days after the ceasefire agreement took effect, Israel launched a series of strikes that came after the IDF accused Hamas of killing a soldier, a claim which Hamas denies; however, the result of the strikes was the death of 104 Palestinians, including 46 children and 20 women. In another case, two cousins, 14 and 13 years old, were killed while collecting firewood. The Israeli military claimed they had crossed the “Yellow Line,” the demarcation line to which Israeli forces withdrew, and that the boys were not children. The family, however, claims this was a lie, and that “those are innocent children they killed in cold blood.” This is not the first time children have been killed collecting firewood since the ceasefire took effect; 8 year-old Fadi and 10 year-old Jumaa were killed in a drone strike while collecting firewood for their disabled father. The IDF claimed it had identified the two children as an “immediate threat” for crossing the Yellow Line before they "eliminated the suspects in order to remove the threat.” The result of this “elimination” was later described to CNN by the father: “I removed the shroud and hugged them. My little Juju’s head was blown off; God rest his soul… His arms were severed and parts of his torso were gone… Fadi’s right hand and left leg were cut off.”

One of the most horrific cases was the shooting of a 14-year-old boy by an IDF soldier in November of 2025, a month after the ceasefire took effect. The soldiers– 14 in total– then stood around the boy for 45 minutes as he bled to death, refusing to allow paramedics to treat him. They also prevented his mother from reaching him. They claimed he was throwing rocks, but security camera footage does not support this; Jad does not only appear to be empty-handed, but was also running away when the soldier opened fire. Additionally, one soldier is seen on cell phone video placing a rock next to the boy as he dies from his wounds, then taking a picture. Thus, the evidence suggests that the boy was not throwing rocks and that this was an attempt to frame the boy and justify the shooting.

On April 14, separate incidents led to the deaths of 11 Palestinians, including Yahya Al-Malahi, a three-year-old boy. His bloodied body, like many bloodied bodies before him, was wrapped in a white shroud as he was carried to the hospital by his father. How many more children will have to be wrapped in the same white shroud, stained red, before the world understands that these are not accidents? How can one claim that the genocide is "over" as families, schoolchildren, and journalists seeking the truth continue to be attacked? And with continued attacks on journalists and healthcare workers in Southern Lebanon, how can it be claimed that Israel's end goal is anything but destruction across the Levant?

The ceasefire failed to curb violence because it was meant to stop a war, not a genocide. When one fails to label Israeli violence against Palestinians as what it is– genocide– outside actors are bound to solve the wrong problem, addressing symptoms rather than the root causes. Consider the definition of genocide; “the intent to destroy a group as such.” By definition, the intention of genocide is not peace, but destruction, and the deaths that result are not accidents. Thus, when the US treats this as merely a “war,” any ceasefire agreements will not address the root cause of the violence; the ideology– the end goal– of destruction. This may be an uncomfortable truth for Zionists, but many Israeli government officials have made this ideology very clear. For example:

1. Security minister Itamar Ben Gvir once carried signs in 2007 that said “Expel the Arab enemy,” for which he was convicted for insighting racism; now he runs Israeli prisons where torture has become state policy.
2. Finance minister Bezalel Smotrich stated that he wished to “change the DNA of the system” to prevent the West Bank from becoming part of a Palestinian state, and referred to the period in Gaza from October 2023 to the start of the ceasefire as the “demolition phase,” emphasizing a need to build on the now flattened Gaza Strip. He has also called for “maximum territory and minimum Arab population.”
3. Former president Isaac Herzog stated after October 7 that there were no innocent Palestinians, a statement which preceded 70,000 Palestinian deaths, over 80% of which were civilians.
4. Knesset member Yitzakh Krozier was asked if inserting a stick into the rectum of prisoners was acceptable; he replied yes, and that “if he is a Nukhba, everything is legitimate to do, everything!”
5. Likud Party MK Ariel Kallner called for “A Nakba that will overshadow the Nakba of 1948,” referring to the founding period of the State of Israel in which 750,000 Palestinians were expelled from their land.
6. Defense minister Yoav Galant referred to Palestinians as “human animals.”
7. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a letter to IDF commanders and soldiers on November 3, 2023 to “remember what Amalek did to you,” that this was “a war between the sons of light and the sons of darkness.” Amalek was a Biblical battle in which God tells the Israelites to “utterly destroy all that they have; do not spare them, but kill both man and woman, child and infant, ox and sheep, camel and donkey.”
8. And in one of the most blatant examples, Eliezer Kashtiel, a Rabbi at Eli pre-military school which funnels thousands of soldiers to the IDF, told students that Arabs have “genetic problems” and that Adolf Hitler “was the most correct person there ever was, and was correct in every word he said… he was just on the wrong side.”

This is not the language of peace, but the language of annihilation– the language of genocide. If peace is to be achieved in the region, the international community– and especially allies of Israel– will need to contend with this reality.

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