THE invasion of the West Bank city of Jenin by 2,000 Israeli troops backed up by drone and air strikes has so far killed 10 Palestinians with over 100 wounded, including 20 in a critical condition.
Along with the indiscriminate bombings and shootings by Israeli forces in a crowded civilian area, the Israeli army on Monday night forced hundreds of families to evacuate their homes in Jenin refugee camp and move elsewhere in the city while their houses were destroyed.
The refugee camp in Jenin is currently home to about 14,000 people who represent the generation of Palestinians driven from their homes and land by the Zionist terror squads during the imperialist-backed drive to create the Zionist State of Israel in 1948-49.
From Monday, entire families, including the elderly and children, were forced out of their homes and moved elsewhere, with residents reporting that in some instances soldiers threw tear gas grenades at fleeing civilians, terrorising young children.
Mustafa Barghouti, a member of the Palestinian Legislative Council, told the BBC that Israeli forces had attacked Jenin’s main hospitals with tear gas saying: ‘They’ve been bombarding houses, bombarding civilian areas with their Apache helicopters, with rockets. They have military armoured vehicles attacking the place.’
The murderous attack on the densely populated Jenin camp has caused alarm in United Nations agencies.
Vanessa Huguenin, a spokesperson for the UN Humanitarian Office, said: ‘We are alarmed at the scale of air and ground operations that are taking place in Jenin in the occupied West Bank, and air strikes hitting a densely populated refugee camp.’
This alarm is not shared by the US government, which has come out in unequivocal support and encouragement for this latest murderous attack on Palestinians and, according to reports in Israeli newspapers, was informed of the invasion in advance with Biden giving the green light for it to proceed.
On Monday, the White House National Security Council issued a statement saying: ‘We support Israel’s security and right to defend its people against Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and other terrorist groups,’ – so it is full support for the apartheid Zionist state and the green light for a racist campaign to drive Palestinians from their homes and land through a mass campaign of terror and murder.
As bombs rained down on civilians in Jenin on Monday night, the Tory party, with the support of Labour leader Keir Starmer demonstrated their support for Zionist terror when a bill to make it illegal for any public body to boycott Israeli goods and services passed its second reading in the Commons, with Starmer instructing Labour MPs to abstain.
The invasion of Jenin follows a constant stream of daily attacks on Palestinians by Israeli Defence Force troops and right-wing settlers – protected by the army.
170 people were killed in 2022 including 30 children, while in the first quarter of 2023 alone 95 Palestinians were killed in the occupied West Bank by Israel – a figure that will only grow, as the Israeli military boasts that the Jenin invasion is not a ‘one-off campaign’.
This murderous campaign to drive Palestinians out of their homes and country is being led by the coalition government of Benjamin Netanyahu, with known fascists in the leadership who openly call for the relentless expansion of illegal settlements to drive out every Palestinian from the country.
This reign of terror by the Zionist state has only stiffened and united the resistance of the Palestinian people – especially the youth – who have shown their determination to fight the occupier for an independent state of Palestine.
The time has come for the working class of the world to act in solidarity with the heroic struggle of the Palestinians.
All the trade unions in the UK who have passed motions of support for the Palestinians must now put these words and motions into practice by forcing the TUC to call a general strike in support of Palestine to ban all Israeli imports and block all trade and arms supplies to Israel.
A general strike will pose the immediate issue of bringing down the Tory government and bringing in a workers’ government.
A workers’ government will provide all the material support to the Palestinian people in the fight to establish a secular state of Palestine with Jerusalem as its
capital.
