Once again, Israeli bombs rained down on Gaza. The latest wave of strikes killed more than 100 people, mostly women and children, according to health authorities.

The bombardment marked the deadliest day since the weeks-old U.S.-brokered ceasefire between Israel and Hamas began on October 10 — a ceasefire Israel has repeatedly broken with impunity.

“As the Trump administration likes to say, the ceasefire is still in place. And the media has parroted that as well. But an overwhelming amount of people that we spoke to on the ground are saying that there is no ceasefire with killings being at this rate. This is a continuation of the genocide,” says Intercept reporter Jonah Valdez. Palestinians “have a very crystal-clear view of Israel’s policy and their goal of wanting mass expulsion from Gaza. … Those who are surviving it and living it are seeing through the propaganda that the ceasefire is still in place.”

On The Intercept Briefing, Valdez joins host Jordan Uhl and reporter Matt Sledge to explain why President Donald Trump “has a lot to gain from continuing to tell the public that there is a ceasefire” and to discuss the news stories published on The Intercept this week.

“It’s important to mention this layer of hope that exists. No one wants to call the ceasefire dead prematurely because if it surviving allows for other Palestinians and Gaza to survive,” Valdez adds, “then, you know, of course they have vested interest in seeing the truce live on.”

And back in the United States, Trump’s pay-to-play approach to running the government continues unabated. Trump recently pardoned the billionaire crypto king, Binance founder Changpeng Zhao, whose company has done business benefiting the Trump family.

“Binance overnight became the biggest customer of the Trump family venture, which is called World Liberty Financial,” Sledge points out. “I think a lot of skeptics out there are saying, like, ‘Boy, this sure just looks exactly like pay to play, like quid pro quo.’”

Listen to the full conversation of The Intercept Briefing on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen.

Transcript

Jordan Uhl: Welcome to The Intercept Briefing, I’m Jordan Uhl.

Once again, Israeli bombs rained down on Gaza. The latest wave of strikes killed more than 100 people, mostly women and children, according to health authorities.

The bombardment marked the deadliest day since the weeks-old U.S.-brokered ceasefire between Israel and Hamas began on October 10 — a ceasefire Israel has repeatedly broken with impunity.

Meanwhile, back in the United States, President Donald Trump’s pay to play approach to running the government continues unabated. Trump recently pardoned the billionaire crypto king and Binance founder Changpeng Zhao, whose company has done business benefiting the Trump family.

Today we’re going to get into the top stories Intercept journalists are reporting, with Jonah Valdez and Matt Sledge.

Welcome back to The Intercept Briefing, Jonah and Matt.

Jonah Valdez: Thank you. Glad to be here.

Matt Sledge: Howdy, Jordan.

JU: Jonah, let’s start with you. Tell us about what is happening with the ceasefire in Gaza.

Israel said it was back in place. Is that holding true now?

JV: Question to you is, what ceasefire, right?

JU: Sure.

JV: Since the beginning of the ceasefire at least since when it went into effect on October 10, Israel has continued to kill Palestinians in Gaza almost at a near daily rate, of course, at a lower volume, if you will, compared to other parts of the genocide.

“This gave so much leeway to the Israeli government to resume military attacks, military aggression, on Gaza whenever it sees fit.”

But as we’ve seen this past week on Tuesday with the new round of airstrikes, the death toll has reached back to that 100-a-day amount of deaths. And it could be a wake-up call to anyone who had the illusion that there was a ceasefire in place. And I think it’s becoming increasingly clear that the terms of the ceasefire from the beginning and what experts I spoke to, what Palestinians have been saying is that this gave so much leeway to the Israeli government to resume military attacks, military aggression, on Gaza whenever it sees fit — and basically having veto powers.

This time around, they’re accusing Hamas of not delivering hostages, the remains of former Israeli hostages on time. And they accused Hamas of returning remains that belonged to a body of an Israeli that was already returned earlier in the genocide. And using that on top of accusations that Hamas fighters had killed an Israeli reservist in the south and Rafah, which Hamas flatly denies. And Hamas has been saying that they’re trying their best to find the bodies, but of course are buried deep under billions of pounds of rubble.

And yet Israel is looking for these excuses to restart the aggression, as we’ve seen on Tuesday. So that’s where things are. And I think this sort of start and stop bombings is going to become the norm unfortunately, for as long as this ceasefire holds.

JU: Now in the immediate hours and days after this agreement was initially announced, you saw celebration, understandably from people in Gaza. You published a piece this week that spoke to Gazans on the ground. How are they feeling now about this ceasefire agreement?

JV: Yeah, in, in the story I co-wrote it with a Palestinian writer in Gaza, Taqwa Al-Wawi, and she basically interviewed over 40 people, I think was the count. Of people living in Gaza, whether they actually feel, if the ceasefire exists, if it’s in place. As the Trump administration likes to say, the ceasefire is still in place. And the media has parroted that as well. But an overwhelming amount of people that we spoke to on the ground are saying that there is no ceasefire with killings being at this rate. This is a continuation of the genocide.

And they have a very crystal-clear view of Israel’s policy and their goal of wanting mass expulsion from Gaza. I think it’s clear that the tactics have changed, but the goal remains the same.........

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