A CEASEFIRE in Gaza has been struck, and outgoing US President Joe Biden and incoming President-elect Donald Trump are falling over themselves to claim credit for it.

“After eight months of nonstop negotiation, my administration — by my administration — a ceasefire and hostage deal has been reached by Israel and Hamas,” said Biden during a farewell address on Wednesday.

In his typically combative style, Trump bragged on social media that “This EPIC ceasefire agreement could have only happened as a result of our Historic Victory in November.”

And an unnamed Trump aide claimed on Fox News that Biden was “lying to the nation trying to take credit for a deal that all parties credit President Trump for making happen.”

Throughout those deadly and grinding eight months, the Biden administration had continued to insist that a ceasefire deal was “imminent” and that the administration was working “tirelessly” to achieve it.

When it finally came, it was far too late for the tens of thousands of Palestinians bombarded since October 7 2023 by Israel’s long and bloody assault, and for the 34 Israeli hostages held by Hamas believed to already be dead.

And even as the deal was in final negotiations, the Biden administration announced yet another $8 billion package of weaponry for Israel.

The ceasefire is being celebrated more as political capital for Biden’s legacy and Trump’s triumphant return than as a relief for the besieged people of Gaza, for who 14 months was far too long a wait.

The “official” number of Palestinians killed — more than 46,000 — remains “a horrifying undercount,” according to consumer and human rights advocate, Ralph Nader, who sees the eventual toll, factoring in disease, starvation, and hypothermia, as “well over 300,000.”

A recent Lancet study concluded that 64,260 Palestinians had died between October 7 2023 and June 30 2024, but again, the number only takes into consideration those killed due to traumatic injury.

These undercounts, says Nader, are part of a “political rationale” by the US and other countries to downplay or dismiss the true atrocities committed by Israel.

“If the true count was known, it would devastate the mythology that the Biden administration and Congress are furthering, that the Israeli government does not purposely target civilian populations,” Nader said.

There is of course, and deservedly, profound relief and celebration in Gaza at the news of the ceasefire. Any cessation of the violence is a welcome respite. But a respite is not enough. For now, the ceasefire deal lasts only 42 days and it is couched in an ominous amount of conditional language, too many “ifs,” “woulds,” and “coulds,” all founded on hope.

Israeli hostages and Palestinian prisoners may indeed be released. Aid, “hopefully,” should now reach the stricken and starved Palestinian civilians in Gaza. Palestinians will be allowed to return to northern Gaza, even though the area is effectively a pile of rubble, lacking even fundamental services and necessities.

Meanwhile, inside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s cabinet, neonazi hawks like Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich are instead calling for his country to “cleanse the entire Gaza Strip,” language that serves as a reminder that ethnic cleansing and genocide remain the real agenda here.

Israel has already delayed cabinet approval of the ceasefire agreement, once again obliquely blaming Hamas for a “last-minute crisis,” an accusation Hamas wholeheartedly denies.

Israel’s genocidal war could have been halted early if the Biden administration had acted immediately to block all US arms sales to Israel. Instead, Biden spent the last 14 months sending massive weapons packages to Israel and denying the genocide, even after three reports, from Amnesty International, Medecins Sans Frontieres and Human Rights Watch, laid out the evidence in black and white.

Biden also ignored warnings of plausible genocide by Israel from the International Court of Justice and the International Criminal Court, calling the arrest warrants issued by the latter for Netanyahu and his former minister of defence, Yoav Gallant, “outrageous.”

Indeed, less than three weeks after the ICC issued its warrant, Gallant was at the White House receiving a warm welcome from Mideast czar Brett McGurk and Secretary of Defence Lloyd Austin.

The smiling selfies taken by White House officials with Gallant, a wanted war criminal, were reflective of the complete and continual denial by the Biden administration that a genocide is being committed in Gaza. “We have said previously and continue to find that the allegations of genocide are unfounded,” said White House spokesperson, Vedant Patel, in late December.

As the celebrations continued this week on the streets of Gaza, the tenacity and resilience of the Palestinians, besieged not just for 14 months but for more than 76 years, was palpable. “We will remove the rubble, we will rebuild, and Gaza will return to being even more beautiful than before,” proclaimed a Palestinian woman captured on video at one of the many festivities.

“We are the ones who remained steadfast and endured. None of them achieved anything. Not one leader or any country. The real achievement is here,” she said, placing both hands over her heart.

But even as she spoke, reports were coming in of an Israeli attack against Palestinians in the West Bank Jenin refugee camp. And then came a second report, this time another massacre in Gaza.

“We acknowledge that this ceasefire deal is not due to come into effect until Sunday,” responded Action For Humanity CEO Ohman Moqbel. “But this does not give Israel a blank cheque to commit as many war crimes as possible between now and then.”

At least 80 more Palestinians are now dead since the ceasefire deal was announced. And with the Israeli cabinet stalling on ratification of the agreement, the present joy felt by Palestinians could still be cruelly ripped away.

Linda Pentz Gunter is a writer based in Takoma Park, Maryland.