the Voice of
The Communist League of Revolutionary Workers–Internationalist
“The emancipation of the working class will only be achieved by the working class itself.”
— Karl Marx
the Voice of
The Communist League of Revolutionary Workers–Internationalist
“The emancipation of the working class will only be achieved by the working class itself.”
— Karl Marx
Oct 27, 2025
This article is translated from the October 24 issue, #2986 of Lutte Ouvrière (Workers Struggle), the paper of the Trotskyist group of that name active in France.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu prepared on October 18 to announce that he will run for re-election. He also prepared to bomb Gaza again.
More than 45 Gazans died the next day under 153 tons of bombs, as Netanyahu cynically claimed. Meanwhile two Israeli soldiers were killed.
Ceasefire along the lines of Trump’s so-called peace plan went into effect on October 10. But it gave displaced Gazans little time to return to the ruins of their homes. Once the surviving hostages were returned to Israel, the thorny issue of returning the remains of the dead hostages became a sword hanging over Palestinian heads. Fifteen bodies were returned to Israeli families by October 21. It is obviously difficult to find bodies and remove them from the ruins that Gaza became under Israeli bombardment and bulldozing. Hamas seems concerned with respecting the terms of the agreement and not providing any further pretext for war to resume.
But the threat of renewed war is a key tactic for Netanyahu’s government. Bombs were dropped on Gaza’s central and southern areas, under the pretext that Hamas troops crossed territorial lines guarded by the Israeli army.
It seems the Trump administration wanted to ensure its plan was implemented by sending heavyweights to monitor Netanyahu. On October 20, Trump’s billionaire son-in-law Jared Kushner and his special envoy and billionaire Steve Witkoff landed on Israeli soil. The following day it was U.S. Vice President J.D. Vance’s turn to land in Tel Aviv.
“We made a deal with Hamas that they’re going to be very good, they’re going to behave, they’re going to be nice. And if they’re not, we’re going to go and we’re going to eradicate them, if we have to,” Trump blared on October 20. This was his way to assert yet again that nothing may be resolved in the region without the approval of the leading imperialist power.
“Phase Two” of his plan is supposed to mean the demilitarization of Hamas. But clearly some Gazans see Hamas as the only organized force capable of regulating life amidst the ruins, and particularly of confronting gangs armed by Israel which plunder the meager resources reaching the population. Indeed, despite the war the Israeli army waged, Hamas’ forces have not disappeared.
The demilitarization being discussed is obviously one-sided. Who talks about disarming the over-equipped Israeli armed forces, or at least the far-right settlers who attack Palestinian villages in the West Bank daily, supported by police and the army? As recently as October 19, Israeli troops entered the Al-Ain refugee camp west of Nablus. Infantry units preceded by bulldozers conducted an operation in the town of Tubas, arresting people and destroying homes and infrastructure.
Israeli leaders have already shown that, for them, ceasefires are mostly about making their enemies stop fighting, for example in Lebanon. Now they are far along the road of putting this concept into practice after the ceasefire agreed to under Trump’s watch.