(CNN) The triumphal parade of trucks and cars crawled from the Rafah border crossing with Egypt to Gaza City. I had scrambled into the back of a truck with Palestinian security forces not far behind the black Mercedes that carried a beaming, waving the V-for-victory sign, laughing Yasser Arafat in the car's sunroof. Women ululated and threw flowers. Children on their fathers' shoulders waved their arms. Boys and girls ran alongside the motorcade. The date was the first of July 1994: Arafat was returning to Gaza after 27 years in exile.

Less than a year after the signing of the Oslo Peace Accords in the White House Rose Garden, on that hot, humid, hectic day it seemed the Middle East's Gordian knot was starting to unravel. Peace in our time.

It was an illusion.

This Monday, May 14, 2018 was the day the last, fleeting remnants of that illusion finally died.

Medical units carry away a wounded Palestinian during a protest at the Gaza border on Monday.

Palestinians protest near the border fence with Israel on Monday.

On the same day Israeli troops killed more than 50 Palestinians taking part in what they called the Great March of Return, Israel and American leaders studiously ignored the bloodbath in Gaza and celebrated the inauguration of the US Embassy in Jerusalem.

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