Israeli Troops Ran Over Unexploded Bomb, Blamed Hamas, Then Carpet Bombed Gaza
The USA's failure to deny reports show the truth of October 19
By Dominick Skinner | 21 October 2025
By the time the first explosion shattered what was left of Gaza’s night sky on October 19, the ceasefire signed between Israel and Hamas was already an illusion. There had been forty-seven recorded violations by Israeli forces since the truce began and thirty-eight Palestinians killed inside the Strip before the event that Israel used to claim Hamas had broken the agreement. Yet the world’s attention was focused on a single explosion that, according to nearly every available account not written by the Israeli government, had not been the fault of Hamas at all.
The official story from Israel was that a Hamas unit attacked its forces in Rafah, killing two soldiers and counted as a breach of the ceasefire. Within minutes, Israeli artillery and warplanes pounded Gaza again, the genocidal state justifying the strikes as retaliation.
The story fit neatly into the pattern Western audiences had been conditioned to accept, where any pause in fighting was always a prelude to an inevitable betrayal by the other side, specifically Hamas. But this time, the details fell apart very quickly. Hamas immediately denied responsibility and demanded that the mediators who had brokered the truce, the USA, Qatar and Egypt, produce evidence that a violation had occurred. None was ever presented. Israeli officials, usually eager to release drone footage or intercepted communications to reinforce their claims, released nothing. For a state with unparalleled surveillance of Gaza’s borders, streets, and skies, the absence of proof was as loud as the carpet bombing campaign launched on the innocent in Gaza.
Then another version of events began to circulate, According to journalist Ryan Grim, and later backed up by other sources, the explosion that killed the two Israeli soldiers and reignited the conflict was caused not by a Hamas ambush, but by an Israeli bulldozer running over unexploded ordnance, we must point out that it was very likely one of Israel’s own bombs. The U.S. has not denied that account, which is telling, since Washington has never hesitated to contradict false or exaggerated claims when it suits their interests.
The type of blast, the lack of any recorded Hamas engagement in the area, and the absence of follow-up footage all pointed to a single conclusion, this was a self-inflicted detonation, a tragic but politically convenient one.
The timing was suspiciously precise to ignore. That same weekend, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s long-running corruption trial was once again delayed, and may soon be entirely dismissed. He was due in court but instead cited urgent security and diplomatic matters, those same matters now filling headlines around the world accusing Hamas of breaking a ceasefire when they did not. Whenever Netanyahu’s legal troubles threaten to tighten around him, an external crisis appears. Each time, domestic scrutiny vanishes beneath the weight of national emergency. The October 19 explosion may have been an accident, it also may not have been, but it served his political needs perfectly.
Netanyahu’s grip on power has always depended on presenting himself as the irreplaceable guardian of Israel’s survival. Every crisis feeds that image. Each time he claims the country stands on the brink of annihilation, he buys himself another week, another vote, another reprieve from accountability. His government’s insistence that Hamas broke the ceasefire should be seen not as a matter of intelligence assessment, but of political reflex. The accusation came first, the evidence never followed, and by the time the truth began to emerge, the narrative had already done its work. The Israeli airstrikes that followed were framed as retaliation rather than continuation, and Netanyahu once again slipped free of the courtroom spotlight.
Today, two days later, a U.S. delegation arrived in Israel. Jared Kushner, Steve Witkoff, and Vice President JD Vance among them, tasked with what official statements described as “shoring up the ceasefire.” Washington was clearly aware that the ceasefire was crumbling, not because of Hamas, but because Netanyahu never intended to let it hold. Multiple reports from diplomatic circles suggested the U.S. had received word that Israel planned to resume operations regardless of the truce, and the delegation’s arrival was less a peace mission than a last attempt at control.
The American government may not have said outright that Netanyahu would break the ceasefire, but the urgency of their visit left little doubt that they believed it.
Netanyahu, for his part, had already made his intentions clear. In a speech the day before the U.S. delegation arrived, he declared that Israel would disarm Hamas and demilitarize Gaza, language that rendered any talk of peace meaningless. You cannot both hold a ceasefire and promise to eliminate your enemy’s weapons. For all the public insistence that Israel sought stability, its leader was already describing the next phase of war. The United States could not pretend not to hear him, but they also could not afford to alienate him. And so they arrived, shook hands, smiled for cameras, and spoke of “progress” while quietly acknowledging that progress was the last thing on Netanyahu’s mind.
The deaths that followed have done little to alter the narrative. As of now, roughly one hundred and one Palestinians have been killed since the start of the ceasefire that was supposed to end their suffering. The original thirty-eight deaths before the explosion have been folded into a larger number, one that grows daily.
In this sense, Netanyahu’s government has managed something remarkable. They have turned even the concept of a ceasefire into a weapon. Every truce becomes another stage for accusation, another opportunity to shift blame, another means of prolonging conflict under the guise of pursuing peace. They are aware that the media is complicit, and knowingly complicit. Any complaints or claims will be repeated by a lot of the Western press, regardless of fact checks, or indeed facts.
Is the U.S. is prepared to keep pretending that it doesn’t know Israel is behind the violence that has become second nature to them? The current regime is learning the same lesson its predecessors did; Netanyahu’s political survival depends on permanent instability, and as long as he remains in office, no peace agreement will hold for long.
What remains, then, is a theatre of diplomacy played out over the rubble of Gaza. The mediators meet, the statements are drafted, the jets take off, and Netanyahu walks free from another court hearing. The world is left to wonder how many times the same story can unfold before someone calls it what it is. The ceasefire was broken, yes, but not by Hamas. It was broken by the same forces that have broken every attempt at peace before it: political self-preservation, impunity, and a leader who understands that chaos is the only thing keeping him in power.
Until that changes, every ceasefire signed under Benjamin Netanyahu will carry the same fate. It will be announced with solemn promises, broken with convenient explosions, and buried beneath a silence that pretends not to notice. Because in this war, peace is never the goal. It is simply another weapon waiting to be used.