Israeli and Palestinian reactions to Gaza ceasefire, showing the contrast between freedom and restriction

Why are Palestinians being stopped from celebrating the Gaza ceasefire?

Last Updated: October 13, 2025By

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I’m writing this while watching coverage of Israeli celebrations over the apparent end of the conflict in Gaza – that have been marred for me by a report that Palestinians are not being allowed to celebrate the end of the same conflict.

It seems they are being stopped by Israeli forces – because Israel doesn’t want to hand Hamas any kind of victory at all.

This is more consistent with suppression of an occupied people by its occupier – indicating that this is not an equally-agreed ceasefire but a victory for Israel, meaning Palestinians will now suffer even more oppression.

If Palestinians are being prevented from publicly expressing relief, hope, or even joy at the end of fighting, while Israelis are free to celebrate, then that reflects an underlying power imbalance that should have no place here.


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But, of course, in international law and in the language of the United Nations, Gaza remains “occupied territory” because Israel continues to exercise effective control over its borders, airspace, and movement of goods and people.

Under such conditions, it seems that Palestinians are not being treated as a sovereign party to a truce, but as a population subject to the occupier’s authority.

If Israel is indeed preventing public gatherings or displays of celebration in Gaza or the West Bank on the grounds that they could be interpreted as “victory for Hamas,” that reveals a deeper logic: that Israel defines not only its own political narrative, but also seeks to police the emotional and political expression of the people who are unwillingly governed by it.

This kind of suppression goes beyond security control — it extends to control of meaning and morale, hallmarks of an occupation.

This could well foreshadow further repression.

If Israel frames the end of hostilities as an Israeli victory and a Hamas defeat, then any Palestinian expression of resilience, dignity, or recovery can be treated as subversion — and punished accordingly.

The danger, as history shows, is that “peace” under those terms often means only the cessation of open warfare, not the end of domination or suffering for the occupied population.

So even as US President Donald Trump stands up to address the Israeli Knesset, it seems we are not seeing a balanced ceasefire, but a coerced submission — one that risks entrenching the same unequal and violent structures that led to the conflict in the first place.

In such circumstances, can anyone really believe that hostilities won’t resume in the future?

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