We join our steadfast people in Gaza in cautiously welcoming the latest ceasefire as a victory granted by Allah to a people who refuse to surrender despite unimaginable loss. Yet after two years of brutal genocide, the Zionist enemy has been forced to accept essentially the same ceasefire terms that Hamas proposed back in October 2023, with nothing to show for it. In other words, ‘Israel’ has not achieved any of its goals. 

Even ‘Israeli analyses’ admit it failed to dismantle Hamas or fully secure its captives. War criminal Netanyahu signs this deal not as a victor but as a man cornered by his own failures. We are witnessing Zionism, on the global stage, become humiliated, isolated, and compelled to concede to the very resistance it swore to erase. “Israel” did not destroy Hamas, nor did it retrieve all its hostages or break the will of Gaza’s people. This is because our resistance isn’t a headquarters you can bomb or a single leader you can assassinate. Resistance is a justified reaction to Israeli settler-colonialism – as long as that violent colonization exists, so will the resistance. Indeed, the very people the occupier tried to erase have now become the moral center of the world in the eyes of millions.

In following the lead of our steadfast people, we will only trust this agreement when we see its promises materialize on the ground in Gaza and not merely in the occupier’s rhetoric. As the honorable Palestinian resistance has emphasized, guarantees from credible third parties are needed to ensure that ‘Israel’ abides by the deal. In short, the implementation of this agreement is everything.

‘Israel’ has a notorious habit of signing an agreement with one hand and breaking it with the other. We saw this in November during the brief hostage truce, and again with the ceasefire that began in January. Within the first six weeks alone, the Zionist entity violated that truce more than 900 times. It ultimately collapsed when ‘Israel’ resumed its bombardment in March. We remain vigilant and will hold all parties – including the U.S. and President Trump – accountable to each clause of this deal, especially the occupier who has a long history of bad-faith behavior.

The devastation in Gaza is so vast that experts now estimate it will cost around $80 billion to rebuild. Entire cities will have to be literally rebuilt from piles of rubble. We assert that the same governments that armed, bankrolled, and politically shielded the Zionist war machine now have a duty to pay reparations to the people of Gaza. Nothing can restore the irreplaceable lives taken, but a Marshall Plan-scale reconstruction initiative is the very least the world owes our people. In practical terms, this means massive funding, material aid, and technical support starting now, not months or years from now. We insist that reconstruction planning begins immediately, in parallel with the ceasefire’s implementation, so that rebuilding is not delayed or held hostage to political wrangling. For two years, Western powers supplied the bombs to ‘Israel,’ vetoed UN calls for ceasefires, and even justified the mass killing of Palestinians. Now those same actors are obligated to commit to the rebuilding of Gaza on an unprecedented scale.

While Gaza’s physical infrastructure can eventually be rebuilt, the Zionist entity has subjected our people to irreversible human loss. There are mothers who will never again, in this life, be able to embrace their children and children who will never again be able to run on their two legs. We will not allow the last two years of crimes against our people to be forgotten, nor their immense sacrifices to be in vain. The Zionist political and military war criminals who ordered scorched-earth tactics and mass murder must be held accountable. Every individual involved, from the generals who gave the orders down to the pilots and soldiers who carried them out, must be brought to justice. ‘Israel’s’ military behaved with such utter brutality because it has never been punished for its past violence against Palestinians. That impunity must end now.

The world must impose real consequences, including an immediate arms embargo, international investigations, sanctions, and prosecutions of ‘Israeli’ war criminals. No country should continue supplying weapons to a regime that has carried out one of the most gruesome documented genocides in modern history.

Gaza authorities report more than 67,000 people killed; more recent studies put the death toll far higher, exceeding 680,000, which is a staggering civilian massacre that the international community can neither justify nor ignore. We demand that never again should a Zionist official think they can bomb a refugee camp one day and vacation freely in Western Europe the next. Never again should any leader believe Palestinian lives are disposable. The era of Zionist impunity is over and we will make sure that justice is pursued for every atrocity, no matter how long it takes.

Every martyr is an entire world unto themselves, an entire humanity. We did not lose over 680,000 nameless individuals alone. We lost doctors, journalists, nurses, civil defense volunteers, and countless innocent men, women, and children whose immense sacrifices are what made this moment of triumph possible. We have lost entire family trees, entire generations of our people — the kind of people who would have built a better world had they been allowed to live. In particular, we wish to honor the memory of Anas al-Sharif. It should have been Anas reporting this very news of ceasefire, instead he was murdered by an ‘Israeli’ airstrike while trying to ensure the world witnessed the genocidal horrors unleashed on our people. We say to Anas and to all of our martyrs that your sacrifice will never be in vain.

“Never say of those martyred in the cause of Allah that they are dead — indeed, they are alive, though you do not perceive it.” (Qur’an 2:154)

Let no one mistake this ceasefire as the end of our struggle. Our just cause, the total liberation of Palestine, still lies ahead of us. We remain steadfast in our commitment to dismantle Zionist settler-colonialism in all its forms. A ceasefire, however welcome, does not restore the hundreds of villages erased since 1948, nor does it end the ongoing settler terrorism and land theft in the Occupied West Bank or the oppression of our exiled refugees. We refuse any attempt to use this moment to pressure Palestinians into “calming down,” to normalize oppression, or accept half-measures that only entrench colonial domination.

Our movement therefore rededicates itself to a renewed strategy for full liberation. Politically, we will work towards reuniting the Palestinian body politic around a platform of resistance and decolonization and overcoming any divisions that may have weakened us in the past. Morally, we remain rooted in our Islamic principles that demand we side with the oppressed until they are free. As long as Palestinian land is colonized and our people are not free, the intifada (in all its forms) continues. Gaza has survived this onslaught purely by the grace of Allah and the steadfastness (sumud) of our people, not thanks to the “morality” of any Arab or Western regime. This resilience will continue to guide us in the battles ahead.

Most vitally, we appeal to the Arab and Muslim masses across the world: this is your moment to rise in unison and ensure that Palestine’s liberation remains a priority. Over the past two years, we have witnessed an unprecedented outpouring of popular solidarity as millions have filled the streets of our capitals from the Middle East to Asia to the West. These are the seeds of a new pan-Arab and pan-Islamic awakening. Yet, despite this groundswell of public support, many of our official governments remained shamefully complicit or silent during the genocide in Gaza. This gap between the people and their regimes can no longer be tolerated. We call upon the Arab and Muslim peoples to intensify their popular mobilization in every nation. We urge you to keep up the mass protests, organize strikes and workplace shutdowns, engage in civil disobedience, and refuse to cooperate with any state apparatus that enables Zionist aggression. The era of corrupt dictators and monarchs paying lip service to Palestine while secretly collaborating with its oppressors is over. If these regimes will not align with the righteous will of their people to free Palestine, then the people have the right – indeed the duty – to shake the thrones beneath them.

Our ultimate vision is the emergence of a unified regional front committed to ending Zionist settler-colonial rule in Palestine once and for all. The Zionist occupation has persisted in part because the Arab world was carved up and weakened by the old colonial Sykes-Picot order. Now, a new unity is possible. What unites this cause for so many of us, and what first ignited the resistance two years ago is our love for Al-Aqsa. That love isn’t purely symbolic, it is rooted in our Islam, our history, and our duty. We hold Al-Aqsa as the first qibla of Islam and the site of our beloved Prophet Muhammad’s ﷺ night journey. It remains a living reminder that Jerusalem belongs to its people, not to those who occupy it by brute force. We will never abandon our rights to Al-Quds and Al-Aqsa, and we will never forget that defending them was the start of this intifada.

Do not let your righteous anger dissipate now that a ceasefire has been reached. We urge everyone to make it impossible for any ruler to normalize with ‘Israel’ or to ignore Palestine’s struggle. Make it impossible for this genocide to ever happen again to anyone. The Palestinian people have endured the absolute worst and are still fighting. Now it is time for the entire region to rise. Let us all continue forward until every inch of our beloved Palestine is free and justice is achieved for our martyrs. The struggle continues until total liberation.

In solidarity,

The Palestine Diaspora Movement