Despite the seven-day-long ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war, the violence in Gaza has not seen any improvement since Oct. 7. The truce was put into place on Nov. 24 to allow humanitarian aid to enter Gaza and help its citizens, but it was unfortunately not enough time. The truce was initially only supposed to last for four days, but with the help of Egypt and Qatar, it was extended until Dec. 1. During the ceasefire, Hamas freed a number of Israeli hostages in exchange for Palestinian prisoners.

The UN did report that during this truce on Nov. 29, Israel fired shots at Palestinian citizens in Gaza which led to the deaths of two people. While this did not lead to the truce ending immediately, it did end two days later and the fighting has fully resumed. Citizens have been told to evacuate Gaza, but the borders are reportedly closed and all they are able to do is move around in an attempt to find safety.

I’ve seen a number of varying opinions on what the reason for the truce was, and I believe it was an attempt to make protestors and people in support of Palestine forget or get distracted by all of the other news circulating. With the Thanksgiving holiday weekend just passing and many Christmas festivities underway, Americans and citizens of other countries may be distracted by their busy day-to-day lives throughout the holidays. The pause in the fighting may have taken some of the media attention off of the Israel-Hamas war, making the general public pay a little bit less attention to what was going on.

I think it’s important that we try to make ourselves as aware as possible of everything going on, even during a truce. The more it slips our minds, the more easily the IDF can get away with the genocide of innocent citizens. The war isn’t stopping just because of the holidays. In a time of the year where it’s so easy to get distracted by everything going on in our lives, it’s as important as ever to be paying attention to what’s happening in the world.

I wrote an article a couple of weeks ago on the boycotts taking place worldwide in support of Palestine. Those are still active and will be indefinitely until the humanitarian crisis is over and there is peace again. The boycotts were one of the easiest and most influential ways to show support to Palestine during the time and they are still important to be thinking about even with the holidays on our minds.