Across the Middle Eastthree separate ceasefire agreements are currently in force. In these three countries, deadly strikes remain frequent.
This contradiction has highlighted a growing question: What does a ceasefire really mean when the fighting never completely stops?
President Donald Trump appeared to suggest on Wednesday that promises to end fighting in the region cannot always be trusted, as he addressed the continuous exchanges of fire with Iran in the Gulf.
“It’s a different part of the world, you know,” he told reporters. “I would say that in this part of the world, a ceasefire is when you fire more moderately.”
The same day, Trump made his comments, Israeli strikes in Gaza killed at least nine Palestinians overnightaccording to local hospitals in Gaza, where a ceasefire agreement has been in effect since October as part of a peace plan brokered by Trump.
As the heaviest fighting has subsided, Israeli forces have carried out repeated airstrikes and frequently fired on Palestinians, killing more than 936 people since the deal took effect, according to Gaza’s health ministry. Israel and Hamas have accused each other of violating the ceasefire and their commitments under the agreement.
Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said last week that he would like Israel increase its control over the territory in Gaza, despite a stipulation in the peace plan that the Israeli army would first withdraw to a demarcation line, known as the “yellow line.”
Netanyahu said he had ordered the army to increase its control of Gaza to 70%. “We were at 50. We went to 60,” he added.
Progress toward peace in Gaza has largely stalled, with no sign of Hamas disarmament or further withdrawal of Israeli troops outlined in Trump’s 20-point comprehensive peace proposal.
The situation is also uncertain in Lebanon, where a ceasefire agreement between Israel and the Lebanese government was announced in April has not prevented near-daily airstrikes against people and targets Israel considers linked to the Iran-backed Hezbollah militant group. The Lebanese government says Israel’s actions constitute violations of the deal, which was also negotiated with U.S. help. Israel says Hezbollah continued to launch rockets and drones into northern Israel.
The Lebanese embassy in Washington said Tuesday that Hezbollah had accepted the terms of a US proposal for a “mutual cessation of attacks”, which would also block Israel to attack Beirut. His threat had sowed panic in the Lebanese capital, after the American ally’s deepest incursion into its neighbor in 26 years.
Since then, however, the clashes have continued. Hezbollah officials denied giving approval to the new ceasefire, rejecting calls for withdrawal which the group said would mean “surrender, defeat and the achievement of the enemy’s objectives.”
The Israeli army continued its strikes in southern Lebanon on Saturday, with the Lebanese armed forces condemning “repeated Israeli aggression against Lebanon” after the deaths of two officers. The Israeli military said it would review the incident.
Palestinians recover some of their belongings left intact under the rubble after the Israeli army violated the ceasefire by targeting a building in the Nuseirat camp in Gaza on June 5.Khalil Ramzi Alkahlut/Anadolu via Getty ImagesThe Israeli military did not immediately respond to NBC News’ request for comment on accusations that it violated ceasefire agreements in Lebanon and Gaza, or to Trump’s remarks on the meaning of ceasefires in the Middle East.
Trump’s comments “speak volumes” about what the word ceasefire really means, said Fawaz Gerges, professor of international relations at the London School of Economics.
Israel, he noted, can attack both Lebanon and Gaza “based on its own assessment of any serious or potential threat that Israel appears to consider threatening its security, and that is a very vague definition of ceasefire.”
“It seems that the term ceasefire no longer really has any operational meaning,” he added.
But HA Hellyer, a research associate at the Royal United Services Institute in London, said Trump considered it “pure bigotry” to suggest that a ceasefire meant something different in the Middle East.
“There have been ceasefires in the region many times throughout history, and they are as important as anywhere else,” he told NBC News.
The United Nations says there is “no single, universally accepted definition of a ceasefire.” A ceasefire can be expected to “define prohibited and permitted military and non-military activities,” he adds.
The ceasefire agreement in the US-Israeli war against Iran, concluded almost two months ago, managed to suspend large-scale strikes while negotiations were underway for a broader peace deal. But as negotiations publicly broke down last week, both sides launched new strikes.
On Friday, the U.S. Army said it shot down Iranian ballistic missiles and drones launched towards the Strait of Hormuz and Gulf Arab allies, while striking some of the Islamic Republic’s coastal surveillance radar sites in response.
Iran, which has accused the United States of violating the ceasefire by blocking its ports, said it was targeting American troops in the region. The White House did not immediately respond to requests for comment on accusations that it violated the ceasefire agreement.
“It’s pretty clear that the Trump administration just doesn’t want to return to fighting, but hasn’t found a way to get Iran to agree to terms that Washington finds acceptable,” Michael A. Horowitz, a geopolitical and security analyst, told NBC News.
“So we are stuck with a ‘ceasefire’,” he said. “These ceasefires do not mean ‘no fire,’ but simply that both sides agree not to return to full-scale war. »
Hellyer added that language is important because the war between the United States and Iran “is happening in the context of public relations.”
“The war has a huge economic impact,” he said, with stability dependent on the state of the markets. Trump is trying to calm markets by saying a ceasefire is still in effect, “but he just doesn’t mean we’re back to war.”