THE Hamas Movement has called on the world’s free people and the Arab and Islamic nations to actively participate in massive and angry rallies on Friday, Saturday and Sunday (August 22, 23 and 24) in protest at the ongoing war of genocide and starvation in Gaza.
Hamas called for holding more sit-ins and protests outside the embassies of Israel and its allies until the aggression and siege against the Palestinians in Gaza comes to an end.
However, the Israeli war Minister Yisrael Katz has vowed to destroy Gaza City in the same way his occupation forces devastated Beit Hanoun.
His call came during a meeting he held with a delegation of senior rabbis and rabbis of settlements in the northern occupied West Bank. The meeting was held at the Army Ministry headquarters with the participation of the official in charge of the so-called ‘Hilltop Youth’.
During the meeting, the rabbis praised Katz’s stance calling for the continuation of Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza and urged him to ‘do whatever it takes to settle the battle’. Katz responded by affirming his commitment to completing the military operation, telling them: ‘Gaza City will look like Beit Hanoun.’
The Israeli army minister added that ‘the army’s operations will be carried out to the maximum extent possible, with the goal of recovering all the hostages (Israeli captives) and achieving a strategic decision that will harm Hamas’. Katz’s meeting with the rabbis came a day after thousands of ultra-Orthodox Jews (Haredim) protested on Wednesday evening, simultaneously blocking major roads in central and northern Israel in response to the arrest of draft evaders from their community, according to Israeli media.
The Haredim have continued their protests against military service following a June 25, 2024 ruling by the Israeli Supreme Court obligating them to enlist and barring financial aid to religious institutions whose students refuse military service.
Katz’s remarks coincided with an announcement by the prime minister’s office on Wednesday that Netanyahu had instructed the acceleration of the occupation of Gaza City, while mediators had been waiting for more than 48 hours for Tel Aviv’s response to the truce proposal approved by Hamas.
Israeli army spokesperson Effi Defrin said that the military had already occupied the outskirts of Gaza City, but it remains unclear when the full-scale ground assault will begin.
Hamas had announced its acceptance of the proposal put forward by Egypt and Qatar, which lays out a path toward a comprehensive agreement to end the war. The proposal includes a temporary suspension of military operations for 60 days and the exchange of Palestinian prisoners for the release of half of the Israeli captives in Gaza.
With US support, Israel has been committing genocide in Gaza since October 7, 2023, through killing, starvation, destruction, and forced displacement, ignoring all international appeals and orders by the International Court of Justice to stop. The Israeli genocide has so far left 62,122 martyrs, 156,760 wounded, more than 9,000 missing, hundreds of thousands displaced, and a famine that has claimed the lives of 263 people, including 112 children.
Hamas has said that the Israeli occupation regime’s plan to take over Gaza City, for which the government recalled 60,000 reservists, demonstrates its ‘flagrant disregard’ for ceasefire mediation efforts.
In a statement on Wednesday, Hamas added that while it had agreed to the latest proposal put forward by mediators, the Israeli occupation government ‘insists on continuing its barbaric war against defenceless civilians’.
In fact, while Netanyahu was said to be ‘examining’ this plan it was announced that he had met earlier on Monday with the Israeli Occupation Force (IOF) leaders to discuss the plans for the military to takeover Gaza City ‘and the completion of our mission’.
The mission of the Zionist regime is to destroy Gaza City, drive out or kill the one million Palestinians who live there and take complete military control of the largest city in Gaza, as a prelude for the plan to ethnically cleanse the entire Gaza Strip of over two million Palestinians.
However, Israel has feet of clay. Over 100,000 Israelis have reportedly stopped showing up for reserve duty.
On April 11th, the +972 magazine confirmed: ‘The Israeli army is facing its biggest refusal crisis in decades.’ The UK, EU and US working class must now call general strikes in the US, UK and Europe to bring down the governments that enable the Zionist genocide and go forward to workers governments and socialism.
This is the way forward. There is not a moment to lose!