400 Gazans are dead because the US wouldn’t stick to the ceasefire plan between the Palestinian territory and Israel.

It seems that US Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff had suggested that 11 living Israeli hostages be released, and the bodies of half of the deceased hostages, in an extension of phase one of the ceasefire, that should have ended on March 1.

There are understood to be 59 hostages still in Gazan hands, although only 24 are thought to be living.

Gaza’s Hamas-run government rejected the suggestion, understandably wanting to move on to phase two of the ceasefire.

This would in any case have required Gaza to hand over the remaining living hostages – but another requirement is that Israel must withdraw all its troops from the territory, and Israel doesn’t want to do that.

This reluctance suggests that Israel has never intended to honour the ceasefire but wants to keep a military presence in Gaza – probably in order to inflict on the Palestinians the ethnic cleansing that many fear, removing the native people to other countries in order to steal the land.

So Israel is betraying the ceasefire and possibly breaking international law (although if you’re David Lammy, you won’t be allowed to say that out loud). It is already violating the human rights of the citizens of Gaza, having stopped aid from getting into the territory and cut off electricity since earlier this month.

And now Israel has launched a wave of air strikes on Gaza, killing more than 400 people – because Witkoff provided an excuse for it. Or so it seems to This Writer.

The decision to betray the ceasefire has also infuriated relatives of the hostages, according to the BBC, which reports:

A group representing hostages’ families said the Israeli government “chose to give up the hostages”.

The statement by the Hostages and Missing Families Forum expressed shock and anger at what it called the “deliberate dismantling of the process to return our loved ones”.

The group later gathered for a protest outside the Israeli parliament, the Knesset, in Jerusalem, calling on the government to bring the hostages home. Some called for an end to the war and Netanyahu’s resignation.