Jamila Levasseur is a retired registered nurse.

Israel’s genocide in Gaza continues every day, and yet it’s faded from the news. The “ceasefire” is in its eighth month. Palestinian resistance groups timely fulfilled their obligations under the first phase, returning all Israeli captives, alive and dead, while Israel relentlessly continues its mission to destroy all of Gaza.

If mainstream American media is your only news source, you might think that things are better in Gaza today. They are not. Daily horrors continue, like the killing of 8-year-old Jad Suleiman, who was walking home from school in Jabaliya refugee camp when an Israeli airstrike hit. Two others were killed in the attack, including a 70-year-old man, and many more were injured.

In May alone, Israel killed at least 119 Gazans, including 19 children; in the first nine days of June, at least 46, including several children. Israel has killed nearly a thousand Palestinians in Gaza since it signed the so-called ceasefire, with over 1,400 airstrikes and shelling attacks and over 1,200 shooting incidents. Over 3,000 have been wounded.

With attention diverted to Lebanon and Iran, Israel carries on its genocide in Gaza and escalates annexation of the West Bank with impunity. Israel’s military operations in South Lebanon are based on the Gaza model intended to make the area uninhabitable, destroying villages, driving away residents and targeting first responders, hospitals and journalists.

Nickolay Mladenov, President Trump’s “high representative” of his celebrated “Board of
Peace,” is attempting to rewrite the Gaza ceasefire agreement. He ignores Israel’s daily
ceasefire violations while conditioning entry of reconstruction materials on Hamas’ total
disarmament, which was never part of the original Phase One deal.

In the past eight months, Israel has allowed only 36% of agreed-upon aid, and just 15% of fuel, to enter Gaza. Overall, 77% of Gaza’s population faces acute food insecurity, according to World Food Program estimates, including 100,000 children and 37,000 pregnant women suffering from acute malnutrition.

World leaders look the other way as Israel destroys everything east of the so-called “yellow line,” creating massive earth berm barriers topped with military bases overlooking the shrinking portion of Gaza where Palestinians survive amidst mountains of rubble and bombed buildings. Everything near the “yellow line” is a death zone, as Israeli soldiers shoot to kill even small children. Humanitarian aid groups are afraid to service the area.

Phase One of the fake ceasefire gave Israel control over 53% of Gaza, but Israel
incrementally moved the scattered yellow concrete blocks west, squeezing Palestinians
into only a third of the Strip. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu recently called for full control of 70% of Gaza, adding, “We’ll start with that.” Israel’s clear intent is to permanently take over the entire Gaza Strip.

A new Pew Research Center survey shows that 60% of adults in the U.S. view Israel unfavorably and in both major political parties, the majority of adults under age 50 rate Israel negatively. Voters say no to arming genocide and funding Israeli apartheid. Politicians say what they think we want to hear, but do they follow through when elected? Whoever is on Maine’s November ballot, they must be held to their campaign promises.

In Maine, General Dynamics and Pratt Whitney make weapons components that kill kids in Gaza and Lebanon. Palantir, which provides Israel with AI systems used to kill entire families, is one of ICE’s biggest contractors and is used by hospitals including MaineHealth, mining our personal data and contributing to staff shortages.

Proposed AI data centers in Maine will destroy our land and water, sucking up electrical power for corporate profits. The price we pay for war on Iran includes rising costs at home and cuts to education, healthcare and infrastructure.

Impunity for Israel, repression at home, worldwide economic crisis, catastrophic environmental destruction — it’s all one struggle. Palestine must be amplified in every fight for a better world.