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The Weekly paper of the New Communist Party of Britain

Stop Israeli aggression now!

by our Arab Affairs correspondent

Fierce partisan resistance has forced Israel to withdraw thousands of troops from the Gaza Strip – but Israeli commandos are still operating in Gaza and carpet bombing continues as the UN’s top humanitarian official warns that the relentless assault has left the beleaguered Palestinian enclave uninhabitable. US foreign minister Anthony Blinken tours the Middle East once again full of false promises of an independent Palestinian state to try and keep America’s feudal Arab allies on side while the Zionists step up their attacks on southern Lebanon and kill a senior member of the Lebanese Hezbollah resistance in a targeted drone strike. And despite imperialist threats the Houthi government in northern Yemen is defiantly maintaining its blockade of all Israeli shipping in the Red Sea while South Africa accuses Israel of genocide and war-crimes at the International Court of Justice in The Hague.

This week South Africa accused Israel of subjecting Palestinians to genocidal acts at the opening of hearings in a case brought to the International Court of Justice. A call endorsed by former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn in London.

“Twenty-two thousand people have already been killed, 1.9 million displaced, thousands dying in the rubble, thousands of children dying because of lack of medical care and food, people dying of starvation and thirst and hunger in the Gaza Strip at the present time,” Corbyn said. “Cannot the government understand the anger around the world when they watch this in real time happening and why so many people are very pleased that the government of South Africa has taken an initiative in going to the International Court in order to hold Israel to account for the deaths of so many wholly innocent people in Gaza? Can’t the government understand that and at least support the South African process?”

Meanwhile the UN health agency has deplored the lack of access to Gaza for the delivery of much-needed humanitarian assistance, amid intense bombardment in the southern part of the besieged Palestinian enclave. “Delivering aid to Gaza continues to face near insurmountable challenges,” the World Health Organisation Director-General Tedros Ghebreyesus said during a news conference in Geneva last week.

“We have the supplies, the teams and the plans in place. What we don’t have is access,” he said, stressing that the UN and its partners remained “completely ready” to deliver assistance to Gaza Palestinians. Israeli authorities have repeatedly refused to allow UN aid teams to deliver desperately needed humanitarian relief inside Gaza, effectively cutting off hospitals and residents from lifesaving medical supplies. “We call on Israel to approve requests from WHO and its partners to deliver humanitarian aid,” Ghebreyesus said.

Three hospitals located near evacuation zones – European Gaza Hospital, Nasser Medical Complex and Al-Aqsa – are providing a lifeline to about two million people. On Wednesday, Al Jazeera correspondents reported explosions in front of the Al Aqsa Hospital in central Gaza. The area around the compound has come under intense fire in recent days.

Sean Casey, WHO emergency medical teams co-ordinator in Gaza, warned on Tuesday that Gaza cannot afford to lose more medical infrastructure. “We cannot lose these health facilities. They absolutely must be protected. This is the last line of secondary and tertiary healthcare that Gaza has – from the north to the south, it’s been dropping, hospital after hospital,” he said.

At least 23,357 people have been killed and more than 59,410 wounded in Israeli attacks on Gaza since 7th October, according to the Palestinian authorities. Significant damage has been inflicted upon critical infrastructure, including water purification systems.

Maria Van Kerkhove, WHO’s infectious disease epidemiologist expert, said the organisation detected a number of indicators – including respiratory illnesses and diarrhoea – that point to the spread of infectious diseases in Gaza.

“These are a manifestation of multiple diseases, but we can’t get to the bottom of it because we don’t have access to testing,” Van Kerkhove said. “By the time we identify the disease, it will be at a late stage,” she added.