Scott Jones
Israel’s security cabinet has approved a plan to expand its military offensive against Gaza, with some officials suggesting it plans to capture and occupy the whole of the strip.
The Israeli military has called up tens of thousands of reservists in preparation, claiming it is “increasing the pressure” on Hamas to hasten the return of Israeli hostages. But the father of one of the hostages has even called on soldiers “not to report for reserve duty for moral and ethical reasons”, while a hostage campaign group has accused the government of “sacrificing” them.
The immediate effect will also extremely worsen the already dire situation for Palestinians in Gaza as the plans are set to forcibly displace people by centralising aid. Even before this new offensive, the World Food Programme says it has already run out of food and the Red Cross has said the humanitarian response in Gaza was on the verge of “total collapse”. Israel even likely attacked a peace flotilla near Malta with drones which was attempting to deliver aid.
Further devastation
The health ministry in Gaza said on 4 May that at least 2,436 people had been killed since Israel resumed its campaign in March, bringing the overall official death toll from the war to 52,535. A new offensive aimed at capturing the whole of Gaza would surely see this figure rise dramatically.
But the views of the hostages’ families are reflected on the streets too, as Netanyahu’s Israeli government has seen protests and strikes against his regime and its policies.
The cycles of war and slaughter seem endless. But, the solution lies in mass struggle globally and the building of working-class parties in both Israel and Palestine, forging links between them, and with both adopting a socialist programme for an end to the conflict.
The Socialist Party fights for:
- End the siege of Gaza and the occupation of all the Palestinian territories. For the permanent withdrawal of the Israeli military from those areas
- For a mass struggle of the Palestinians, under their own democratic control, to fight for liberation
- For the building of independent workers’ parties in Palestine and Israel and links between them
- For an independent, socialist Palestinian state, alongside a socialist Israel, with guaranteed democratic rights for all minorities, as part of the struggle for a socialist Middle East
- No trust in capitalist politicians internationally. Fight to build workers’ parties that stand for socialism and internationalism
