THE Palestinian government has condemned the Saturday night-Sunday morning Israeli air raids on the Gaza Strip which killed two Palestinian youth and injured many others. Palestinian eyewitnesses said the two were killed east of the city of Rafah in southern Gaza after Israel launched a series of airstrikes and mortar attacks on Hamas positions. Israeli battle tanks and warplanes have also struck other areas in the besieged Strip.
The Hamas movement based in Gaza has said it ‘holds Israel responsible for any escalation in the Gaza Strip.’ Meanwhile, the Ezzedeen al-Qassam Brigades, the Hamas military wing, said in a statement that its anti-aircraft defences had been used against the Israeli strikes. The Brigades correctly insisted on their right to respond to Israel’s ongoing aggression against Palestinian citizens in Gaza. A spokesman for the Islamic Jihad resistance movement also pledged: ‘The land of Gaza will not serve as a picnic for the forces of the enemy. The sons of Gaza will respond with rage to the Israeli aggression and the continuation of the siege.’
The Gaza Strip has been under an Israeli siege since June 2007. The blockade has caused a catastrophic decline in living standards as well as unprecedented unemployment and poverty.
Israel has waged three wars on Gaza since 2008, including the 2014 offensive, which left more than 2,200 Palestinians dead and Gaza in ruins. It is now poised for another greater war! The Israeli state and settler oppression of Palestinians is being escalated to absolutely unbearable levels both in the Gaza Strip and the occupied West Bank.
Israeli forces yesterday detained seven Palestinians after multiple overnight raids across the West Bank and occupied East Jerusalem, the Palestinian Prisoner’s Society (PPS) reported. The Israeli army detained two Palestinians, including a 13-year-old child identified as Mohammad Judeh, after raiding and ransacking their family homes in Hizma village, to the north east of Jerusalem.
Israeli forces also detained two Palestinians after storming their homes in Nablus, in the northern West Bank, in addition to another one in Jericho governorate. In the meantime, Israeli police raided the neighbourhood of al-Issawyia in Jerusalem, where they detained two Palestinians and handed another a notice to appear before the Israeli intelligence for questioning.
Israeli settlers yesterday assaulted a Palestinian bus driver who works for the Israeli transportation company Egged, near Hebron in the southern West Bank. The driver, identified as Salah Abu Jamal from occupied East Jerusalem, was severely beaten by fanatical settlers near the illegal Kiryat Arba settlement to the east of Hebron. He was transferred to hospital for medical treatment.
Now Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu, speaking at the Munich Security Conference of the Western powers, has given notice that his regime could ‘act’ directly against Iran. Netanyahu brandished a rectangular chunk of dark green metal, which he called ‘a piece of that Iranian drone, or what’s left of it, after we shot it down’. Earlier this month, Tel Aviv claimed that it had responded to the infiltration of an Iranian drone into Israeli airspace. In fact Israeli planes were attacking Syrian targets when to their horror at least one F-16 fighter was shot down by Syrian anti-aircraft missile defences.
Netanyahu pledged in Munich: ‘We will act if necessary not just against Iran’s proxies but against Iran itself.’ He would not have made this pledge without the support of the USA. The reality is that Israel has been given the green light to murder and oppress Palestinians and Syrians following Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. Now the US’ ongoing efforts to establish itself permanently in northern Syria has given Israel the green light to threaten war with Iran. ‘Do not test Israel’s resolve,’ Netanyahu said yesterday.
With ISIS defeated, and with Syria on the brink of complete liberation, the imperialist powers and their Israeli puppet are now having to enter the struggle much more directly, dangerously and provocatively. The workers of the UK, the EU and the USA must also now enter this struggle to support the Palestinian and Arab masses, and prevent a new war throughout the Middle East. The UK trade unions must demand that the UK government apologise for the Balfour Declaration, and recognise the State of Palestine, with Jerusalem as its capital, and recognise Assad as the leader of the legitimate Syrian government.
It must warn May that in the event of any US-UK-Israel attack on Syria or Iran the trade unions will bring down her government and bring in a workers government and socialism.
