Since early morning on Tuesday, March 18, Israel has been carrying out deadly airstrikes across Gaza that are reported to have killed at least 506 people. Of those, at least 200 were children. At least 600 more have been wounded. Many of the strikes took place in heavily populated areas with homes and makeshift schools.
On January 19 of this year, a three-phase ceasefire deal was implemented. In reality, the pretensions of this “ceasefire” deal were always a fiction. A fiction that didn’t even last two months. Since Tuesday morning, the act of pretending to carry out the fiction has been thrown out the window as bombs shower down on Gaza, already coping with more than one year of humanitarian catastrophe.
The deadly airstrikes and the open violation of the ceasefire were justified by the Israeli claim that “fruitless negotiations” were going nowhere with Hamas. White House National Security Council spokesperson Brian Hughes supported this view, announcing that “Hamas could have released hostages to extend the ceasefire but instead chose refusal and war.”
But this is false.
While 33 Israeli and five Thai captives held by Hamas were exchanged for the release of over 1,700 Palestinian captives held in Israeli prisons, return of all of the hostages was never part of phase one of the ceasefire agreement. Israel has also accused Hamas of preparing for new attacks without providing evidence. In fact, even as Hamas was releasing hostages, Israel still carried out attacks in Gaza that took the lives of over 150 people, including aid workers and journalists. At the same time it inhibited humanitarian aid from reaching those that need it. Israel was also required to withdraw its military from Gaza by the end of the first phase, particularly the Philadelphi corridor between Gaza and Egypt, but never did.
Rather than actually carrying out the terms of phase one of the ceasefire that were originally agreed to, Netanyahu reverted back to a maximalist position that not only demanded release of all of the hostages, but also the total eradication of Hamas and the Palestinians. He knew full well that this would be a nonstarter and prevent any movement for negotiations toward phase two.
Unsurprisingly, all of Israel’s actions have gotten the full support of the United States.
When asked about the airstrikes on Gaza, White House spokesperson Karoline Leavitt said, “The Trump administration and the White House were consulted by the Israelis on their attacks on Gaza tonight.” In other words, the Trump administration is more than fine with Israel breaking the ceasefire that only one month ago they touted as a historic agreement.
In addition, the U.S. also threatens to provoke a greater regional conflict by carrying out airstrikes in Yemen over the weekend that killed 53 people including 5 children. These airstrikes are in response to the Houthi forces resuming attacks on Israeli-linked ships passing through the Bab al-Mandeb Strait that connects the Red Sea to the Suez Canal. The Houthis had been carrying out these maritime attacks during Israel’s genocidal assault on Gaza but stopped them when the ceasefire was implemented on January 19. When it was clear that Israel did not have any intention of honoring the terms of the ceasefire by further limiting humanitarian aid in order to starve the population of Gaza, the Houthis resumed their attacks in early March. The U.S. government intends its airstrikes on Yemen to send a strong message of intimidation to everyone in the region, especially the Iranian regime.
Israeli society has faced a deepening crisis over the recent period. Across Israel, thousands of protesters have demonstrated against the escalation of the war. One group of demonstrators chanted, “If there’s no deal, we will burn the country down.” The main family representing the hostages has accused the Israeli regime of sabotaging the ceasefire and any potential for bringing home the remaining hostages. Even if limited, they are beginning to speak out.
We must do the same! Not to simply rewind the clock to the world before October 7, 2023, but to fight for a free Palestine that is secular and democratic.
Throughout this nearly year-and-a-half of carnage in Gaza, it has been Israel and the United States that have been the real obstacles to peace. They are willing to not only carry out genocide against the Palestinians, but they are also more than fine to risk plunging the world into a wider, even more catastrophic conflict.
Working people in the U.S., Israeli working people, and Palestinian working people all face a common enemy. The enemy that is funding the genocide in Gaza is the same enemy that in the U.S. is demonizing and incarcerating immigrants, throwing federal employees out of work and threatening to cut Social Security and Medicaid. They are one and the same. We must remove them from power if we want to stop the carnage.
End The Genocide!
Free Palestine!
