The short term “truce” mediated by Turkey on March 27 between Israel and armed groups in Gaza came to a screeching halt on April 2 with the killing of three Palestinians in an Israeli air strike. The attack, which killed members of Hamas’ armed wing, was carried out around midnight between Khan Younis and Deir Al Balah. A missile hit a car carrying the three men – Ismail Labad, 31, his brother Abdullah, 24, and Muhammad Ad-Dayah, 31. An Israeli military spokesperson said the strike was carried targeting Hamas fighters. Hamas has since vowed that Israel will “suffer consequences” for the strike.

Israel meanwhile, continues to hatch absurd ways of dealing with the Gaza Strip. On March 30, Israeli Transport Minister Yisrael Katz said his government was considering building an artificial island with sea and air ports off Gaza, as a long-term solution to shipping goods into the Strip.

He said he envisioned an international force controlling the island for "at least 100 years". Apparently, the minister had pitched the plan to the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu months ago, who told him to go full steam ahead.

PA spokespeople are calling the idea "pure fantasy" and an attempt "to divert attention from the real problems of Gaza resulting from the Israeli siege" with Hamas saying it was a “Zionist effort to internalize the siege.”

Netanyahu is working on yet another front urging UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon on April 1 to stop an international flotilla aimed at breaking the siege due to sail into Gaza next month. The flotilla of around 15 ships is carrying approximately 25 people who Netanyahu is calling "extremist Islamic elements whose aim is to create a provocation and bring about a conflagration.” Ban is not lending a completely sympathetic ear however, saying that “Israel should take meaningful steps to end the closure of Gaza."

The UN chief has been quite vocal of late in regards to Israel. On March 30, speaking in Uruguay, Ban said Israel’s occupation was “morally and politically unsustainable, and must end.” He also said that, “actions that prejudge the outcome of the process must stop,” in reference to Israel's continued settlement building in the West Bank and east Jerusalem, house demolitions and other forms of violence.

Settlement construction continued unabated this week, especially in east Jerusalem. On April 1, Peace Now announced that 30 homes in the Palestinian neighborhood of Ras Al Amoud were up for sale to the settler community. Hagit Ofran, Peace Now spokesperson said the Israeli landowner was selling plots for the homes in the heart of the neighborhood where 117 settler families already live. “We know the owner,” she said. “He is a settler himself.”

Furthermore, on March 29, the Israeli government said that in two weeks’ time it would ratify the construction of just over 1600 housing units in two east Jerusalem settlements: Har Homa Pisgat Zeev. The homes were first announced last year during the visit of US Vice President Joe Biden.

Also on March 29, seven Palestinians were injured in Susiya near the Hebron-area town of Yatta when Israeli occupation forces demolished tents belonging to the Hawur family. The families had been living in the tents for several months after their homes were demolished by Israeli authorities earlier. In the tents’ places, new homes in the Susiya settlement were erected.

On March 30 Palestinians everywhere commemorated the 35th anniversary of Land Day, in which six Palestinians from the Galilee inside Israel were killed during a peaceful protest against Israel’s confiscation of their land. Palestinians in the West Bank, Gaza and east Jerusalem used the occasion to continue calls for an end to the political division. Hamas security forces cracked down on protests in Gaza commemorating land day, injuring 20 people. The de facto government said the organizers had not obtained the proper permits to hold the protest, an excuse it has used frequently to quell demonstrations in the Strip.

Finally, with the September deadline for a declaration of a Palestinian state drawing closer, Fateh veteran Nabil Shaath said on March 31 that the leadership was mulling the option of a bi-national state. He said it was “one of many ideas being floated by the leadership given the failure of peace talks with Israel.

Shaath also said the leadership was considering dissolving the Palestinian Authority and ending its Palestinian commitments to Israel, putting full responsibility for the occupation back in Israel’s lap. Placing Palestine under UN General Assembly mandate was another option, Sha'ath said.

Israel, on the other hand, is threatening unilateral retaliatory measures should the Palestinians seek recognition of a state at the UN in September. Neither is Israel tolerating any reconciliation between Hamas and Fateh. On March 29 Netanyahu said he would not accept Hamas, maintaining that the PA could not have peace with Israel and Hamas at the same time. "It’s one or the other, but not both," he said.