Gaza:
With Bombs and Hunger, the Massacre Continues

May 26, 2025

This article is translated from the May 23 issue, #2964 of Lutte Ouvrière (Workers Struggle), the paper of the revolutionary workers group of that name active in France.

Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu on May 18 decreed the resumption of basic humanitarian aid. This is for “diplomatic reasons,” he declared, alluding to pressure from Trump, who aims to strengthen his ties with Arab states in the region.

His measure was approved at a meeting of Israel’s security cabinet. Ministers did not take a vote, because many of them stated that aid should not resume. This opposition came mainly from the far right, which includes several ministers in the government. Their support is essential for the current administration coalition to remain in power. One of them, finance minister Bezalel Smotrich, even declared last month that he would quit his post if any humanitarian aid enters Gaza and “reaches Hamas.” For now he has chosen to remain in office. But the far right is mobilizing. The Tzav 9 group created in January 2024 has blocked aid trucks headed to Gaza and now calls on its activists to block aid trucks again.

However, the aid in question is only “a drop in the ocean,” as a United Nations official said. Only nine trucks were allowed to enter Gaza on May 19. According to a spokesperson for a U.N. agency, Israel will allow 100 aid trucks per day, far below the 600 per day during the ceasefire from January 19 and March 18. This was already outrageously insufficient. The situation of the population has gotten much worse after 11 weeks of blockade completely depriving them of food, medicine, electricity, and fuel. Since March 18, in addition to these deprivations, Gazans have suffered increasingly deadly bombings targeting hospitals, tent camps, and so on. More than 3,300 Palestinians have been killed since the war restarted, and more than 9,300 injured, many of them children. No fewer than nearly 62,000 Palestinians have died since October 2023.

Netanyahu and the far right say their goal is to restart the war in order to completely occupy Gaza and “annihilate Hamas.” But the conquest and occupation of Gaza cannot guarantee the security of the Israeli population. Quite the contrary!

Fortunately, active-duty troops have expressed opposition to Netanyahu’s policy of all-out war for months. Demonstrations take place every week in Tel Aviv and other Israeli cities, often bringing together thousands of people. Many say Netanyahu doesn’t mind sacrificing the hostages. But among these demonstrators, a growing minority also express outrage at the fate of the Palestinians. For several weeks, hundreds of people have gathered silently in front of the entrance to army headquarters in Tel Aviv, holding candles and photos of Palestinian children killed since March 18.

Through his cynicism, brutality, and open disregard for the lives of Palestinians and Israelis themselves, Netanyahu is beginning to spark protests among his own country’s people. The current impasse can only be broken by challenging the policies that led to it, and the officials who imposed these policies. Wars and divisions between peoples are the work of local ruling classes and imperialist powers, who use them to assert their domination over the people.