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
Feb 3, 2025
The following is excerpted and translated from the January 29, 2025 issue, #2948 of Lutte Ouvrière (Workers Struggle), the paper of the Trotskyist group of that name active in France.
On Monday, January 27, after the Israeli army once again authorized the crossing of the Netzarim corridor, located south of Gaza City, tens of thousands of Palestinians began moving up toward the north of the territory, showing their determination to return home.
An endless stream of Gazans, men, women and children, found themselves on the road along the coast, walking, loaded with luggage, pushing carts or in cars. According to the Civil Defense, 300,000 Palestinians had already returned to northern Gaza.
During 15 months of destructive warfare, 90% of Gazans have been forced to move, often several times, to escape bombardments or to obey evacuation orders from the Israeli army.
As soon as the ceasefire came into effect on January 19, many Palestinians tried to return to their homes, even though they knew they had most likely been destroyed. A few days later, on January 25, the Israeli authorities closed the crossing points of the Netzarim corridor, claiming that Hamas had not respected its commitments. Thousands of Palestinians had to spend the night on the ground in the bitter cold, waiting for the crossings to reopen 24 hours later.
This episode illustrates the fragility of the truce while, seeking to keep the support of the far right, Netanyahu asserts at every opportunity that he can resume the war at any moment.
While the ceasefire has enabled Gazans to resume a semblance of life, and at least no longer fear Israeli bombardments, it has not put an end to their almost total destitution. The Gaza Strip has been transformed into a field of ruins, deprived of running water and electricity, where no hospital is able to function.
More than two million Palestinians are condemned to survive, sometimes without tents or tarpaulins to protect them from the rain and cold. To feed themselves, they can only rely on humanitarian aid, the delivery of which is still restricted by the Israeli authorities. What’s more, its distribution is likely to be made even more difficult by the entry into force, at the end of the month, of the law passed by the Israeli parliament banning the activities of UNRWA, the U.N. agency providing aid to the Palestinians.
“We declare to Trump and to the whole world: we will not leave Palestine or Gaza, no matter what happens”, said one of these Palestinians on the road home, responding to a journalist who asked him about his motivations.
It is this same determination that the Palestinian people have been opposing for 75 years to the Israeli rulers’ policy of despoilment and colonization, a policy supported by the leaders of the imperialist powers that condemn the populations of the region, Jewish and Arab alike, to a state of endless war.