By IWU-FI
19 June 2024. Israel intensifies bombing Gaza and night raids on refugee towns and settlements in the occupied West Bank, along with attacks by armed settlers. It continues the siege that prevents food, water, and other basic resources from entering Gaza, with the criminal aim of starving the Palestinian population. The death toll from starvation recently rose to 40, following the death of a child in Deir-al-Balah in central Gaza.
As of 18 June, 37,347 Palestinians had been killed in the Strip, 71 per cent of them women and children, with 85,000 injured and some 10,000 missing in the rubble. Meanwhile, in the occupied West Bank, settlers and the Zionist army have killed more than 500 Palestinians, including 126 children, in the last eight months.
The Nuseirat massacre was a dramatic display of the Zionist army’s genocide, resulting in the deaths of 274 people during a hostage rescue mission of 4 on 9 June. The event was presented as a great triumph by Netanyahu but hated and rejected by those who denounced the Israeli genocide.
After eight months of invasion, Israel had only released two more hostages before these four, out of the 240 who were captured in October by the Palestinian resistance. Another 105 were released in a truce with Hamas in November in exchange for 240 Palestinian prisoners. Some 120 hostages remained, of whom some 43 were reportedly killed, mostly by bombs from Israeli planes.
Heroic Palestinian resistance and global mobilisation continue
Despite the genocide, the heroic Palestinian resistance continues, and the Zionist army is militarily stalled. Fighting is going on all over Gaza. On 15 June, Israel suffered a heavy blow at the hands of the Palestinian resistance in Rafah, an area where the Zionist army has concentrated its war effort. On that day, eight Israeli soldiers were killed in an attack by Palestinian militiamen.
The Zionist army had to return to the north of the Strip, contradicting their earlier announcement of defeating resistance in that part of Gaza. The fiercest fighting is in Jabaliya, Gaza, showing the bogging down of the Zionist army. They failed to kill or capture resistance leaders, recover hostages, or destroy Hamas and other Palestinian resistance groups.
Massive marches against Zionist genocide and to support the Palestinian people have continued all over the world. The encampments in American, Canadian, and European universities were an important leap in the mobilisation for Palestine and against genocide, incorporating massively the youth. The encampments have resisted repression for months and reached 200 universities with encampments in 20 states, increasing worldwide support for the Palestinian resistance. Today, the encampments have been reduced for the holiday period. Still, they will return with the workers and the people as the conflict has no immediate solution in sight and Joe Biden continues to support genocide.
This week there was a massive demonstration in Sana’a, the capital of Yemen, in New York, in Bogota, in several cities in Brazil, and Canada. In addition, there have been other expressions of support for Palestine. In Germany, during the European Football Championship, hundreds of fans of the Turkish team gathered to shout “Free Palestine”. Meanwhile, the artist Dua Lipa publicly expressed her support for Palestine.
Global mobilisation hits out at Biden and imperialism
The mobilisations unleashed in the heart of imperialism are hitting the Biden government. Polls show war approval decreasing from 50 per cent to 36 per cent and war rejection increasing from 45 per cent to 55 per cent.
Six months before the general elections in November, Biden’s failure of Netanyahu’s policy of extermination is forcing him to distance himself from Israel. While maintaining his unconditional support for Israel, Biden was forced to withhold arms deliveries and to present a ceasefire proposal to the UN Security Council, which was approved with 14 votes in favour and Russia abstaining. Despite growing isolation, Netanyahu rejects the US-proposed ceasefire, ready to fight alone.
Further adding fuel to the crisis in Israel and the US government is the intensification of clashes with Hezbollah on Israel’s northern border with Lebanon. Israel has stated that it is preparing to develop a large-scale military offensive against Hezbollah. US imperialism sent Anthony Blinken, Secretary of State, on a tour of the entire region. Blinken seeks to reach a definitive agreement on the resolution passed by the UN to prevent the conflict from spreading to Lebanon; because of their weakening and their crisis of domination, they are not in a position to confront it and they seek to prevent it.
Zionism’s crisis weakens Netanyahu
Netanyahu’s government is facing an internal crisis because of pressure from mobilisations in Israel and failure to achieve its objectives in Gaza.
On the same day, Netanyahu celebrated rescuing 4 hostages, retired IDF generals Gantz and Eisenkot resigned from the war cabinet, calling for a ceasefire and hostage handover agreement with Hamas. On 16 June, around 150,000 people gathered at the Israeli parliament to demand elections, Netanyahu’s departure, and the release of Hamas hostages.
Zionist opposition sectors, seeking a pause in the current standoff, are distancing themselves from Netanyahu in the same way that Biden is doing. The opposition to Netanyahu wants to reposition itself and negotiate based on the failed two-state policy. The “Not in our Name” campaign reveals the global Jewish community’s rejection of the invasion and support for Palestine.
Netanyahu seeks political and military control of all Palestinian territory and does not support the “two states” proposed by imperialism, capitalist diplomacy, and sections of the Zionist opposition. Netanyahu clings to power knowing that negotiating an agreement with the Palestinian resistance would mean his downfall and his political death.
Global mobilisation must continue
The International Workers’ Unity Fourth International (IWU-FI) calls to sustain and develop the mobilisation until a ceasefire and the immediate withdrawal of all Zionist troops from the historic territory of Palestine. We call on the left parties and the various organisations and solidarity committees with Palestine to hold a World Day of Agitation during the first half of July to support the Palestinian people and against the Zionist genocide.
The IWU-FI demands the governments of the world to break diplomatic, political, economic, military, and cultural relations with Israel: No more financing genocide! No more deaths from hunger and disease! Open the borders now for the entry of humanitarian aid! Not to the invasion of Rafah! Israel out of Gaza and all of Palestine! For a single, secular, democratic and non-racist Palestine! Long live Palestine free from the river to the sea!
International Workers’ Unity – Fourth International (IWU-FI)
