Israel/Gaza:
Palestinians Massacred and Starved

Apr 28, 2025

This article is translated from the April 25 issue #2960 of Lutte Ouvrière (Workers Struggle), the paper of the revolutionary workers group of that name active in France.

The Israeli army on April 20 announced the results of its internal investigation of the deaths of 15 Palestinian medics. Unsurprisingly, the army denied having deliberately assassinated some of them. Instead the army acknowledged an “error” and claimed an officer would be suspended.

But everything clearly indicates this was a deliberate execution. The Palestinian rescue workers were killed while riding their ambulances on March 23 near Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip. The ambulances were obviously identifiable, as proven by a video recovered from the cell phone of one of the victims. This contradicts an initial Israeli account. And the rescue workers’ bodies were found several days after the shooting. They were buried in the sand in what the United Nations Office for Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) described as a “mass grave.”

This episode, like many before, serves to illustrate the reality of the massacre that the Israeli army has been cynically carrying out for 18 months in the Gaza Strip, which has killed more than 50,000 Gazans. After the ceasefire ended on March 18, Israel increased its bombings. Day and night the army targets the few homes that have not yet been destroyed, as well as refugee camps, schools hosting refugees, and so on.

Israeli authorities have begun establishing “buffer zones” along the Gaza border, expelling the residents. An estimated 250,000 Palestinians have been forced to evacuate Rafah and its surrounding areas since the resumption of the war. The army spokesperson announced on April 21 that a buffer zone three miles deep in southern Gaza would be emptied of all its inhabitants, from the Egyptian border to the outskirts of Khan Younis and including Rafah.

Israel has blocked humanitarian aid from entering Gaza since March 2. Famine is worsening. Humanitarian aid is “threatened with total collapse,” according to a joint statement from twelve NGOs. Despite this atrocious situation, the Israeli government just got support from the newly appointed U.S. ambassador to Jerusalem, Mike Huckabee. “We call upon Hamas to sign an agreement so that humanitarian aid can flow into Gaza to the people who desperately need it,” he mouthed.

With U.S. support, Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu is showing his determination to continue the war now more than ever “until Hamas is destroyed.” Some Israelis accuse him of sacrificing the hostages: 58 are still being held in Gaza by Hamas, 35 of whom are believed to have died. Netanyahu desperately needs the support of the far right for him to stay in office. His government partner and finance minister Bezalel Smotrich even announces, “The return of the hostages is not the most important objective,” and repeats his call for the total re-occupation of Gaza.

Faced with this clique of jingoists of war and colonization, thousands of Israelis continue to make their voices heard by demonstrating every Saturday. Military reservists now publicly declare their refusal to continue a war with no end in sight. Some also denounce the massacre of innocent Palestinians. This is where hope lies. It will not be possible to end the current impasse without challenging the policies that led to it. After all, Netanyahu simply continues and magnifies the policies pursued by his forerunners who have led Israel since 1948, based on the total denial of Palestinian rights and their nonstop oppression.