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The Weekly paper of the New Communist Party of Britain

Palestinians fight on as talks continue in Paris

by our Arab Affairs correspondent

Fierce fighting is continuing throughout the Gaza Strip. The resistance battles in the streets of the Palestinian enclave to stave off the Israeli invaders who now are trying to starve the Palestinians of the Strip into submission. A senior Chinese official told the International Court of Justice that the Palestinians have the right to engage in armed struggle because they live under an illegal Israeli occupation. And Zionist Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says his government has no intention of relinquishing control of the Gaza Strip after “victory” while his masters, the Americans, say progress has been made in the indirect talks with Hamas in Paris.

General Yoav Gallant, the Israeli defence minister, admitted this week that the Israeli army had failed to achieve any of its goals of recovering its prisoners by force or eliminating the resistance, despite their best efforts. “We are paying a very high price in our ranks...The costs we incur in terms of the numbers of deaths and injuries are very high” he said. “We have not witnessed such a war in 75 years, and this calls on us to approve amendments to the conscription law”. Meanwhile the UK-registered Rubymar cargo ship that was hit by a Houthi Yemeni missile last week has been abandoned by its crew and left to sink in the Red Sea.

UN officials say Israel is “systematically” blocking aid from reaching desperate Palestinians in Gaza, warning that at least one-quarter of the beleaguered population is just a step away from famine without urgent action. The warnings came as footage from northern Gaza showed Israeli forces again opening fire on Palestinians gathering to collect food in the area.

The Israeli invasion, now in its fifth month, has killed around 30,000 Palestinians, most of them women and children, and wounded many, many more. The daily air raids and the closing of all but one crossing point into the territory has laid much of the Palestinian enclave to waste and triggered a worsening humanitarian crisis.

This week the chief American war-lord, Joe Biden, said he hoped to have a ceasefire in place by next Monday. But this was down-played by Hamas officials who say the central issue is not about providing aid, but stopping the fighting and lifting the siege. While a deal for a prisoner exchange and stopping the war before Ramadan is possible the Netanyahu government still dreams of total victory with an assault on the refugee-packed city of Rafah still on the cards. If this happens the Palestinian response will be to launch a prolonged war of attrition to drive them out.

Senior Hamas official Basem Naim says there is “space for flexibility’ but there was still a long way to go. Ha- mas wants guarantee of a total ceasefire and the withdrawal of Israeli troops. The Biden administration’s optimistic posture was not “related to the reality on the ground” and has more to do with domestic political considerations in a US election year.

“If the Americans want to be really optimistic, they have to end their game of double standards,” he said. “They talk on one hand about stopping the aggression or achieving a ceasefire and avoiding broadening the conflict in the region. But at the same time they are using their veto in the UN Security Council,” Naim said. “They are approving $14bn for Israel. They are securing Israel with more ammunition”.

This week the United Nations special rapporteur on the right to food has accused Isra- el of committing war crimes by intentionally depriving food to Gaza. Michael Fakhri, told the Guardian “Israel has announced its intention to destroy the Palestinian people, in whole or in part, simply for being Palestinian. In my view as a UN human rights expert, this is now a situation of genocide.”

This comes as the United Nations is warning that a quarter of all Palestinians in Gaza are one step away from famine. Ramesh Rajasingham, co-ordination director of the UN’s humanitarian office, said “And here we are at the end of February with at least 576,000 people in Gaza, one-quarter of the population, one step away from famine, with one in six children under two years of age in northern Gaza suffering from acute malnutrition”.