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The Weekly paper of the New Communist Party of Britain

China calls for Gaza peace as talks break down in Cairo

by our Arab Affairs correspondent

Palestinian commandos strike deadly blows against the Israeli invaders in Gaza as cease-fire talks break down in Cairo. People’s China repeats its demand for an immediate end to the fighting and the forces of the Houthi Yemeni government have sunk an American-owned freighter off the coast of Aden.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi denounced Israeli aggression and renewed Beijing’s calls for an immediate cease-fire last week. Speaking to journalists at the second session of the 14th National People’s Congress of China Wang said this “humanitarian catastrophe” was “a tragedy for humanity and a disgrace to civilisation”.

He continued “the disaster in Gaza once again reminded the world of the fact that it is no longer possible to ignore that the Palestinian territories have been occupied for a long time”. Expressing China’s support for the full membership of the State of Palestine at the United Nations Wang said “the long-awaited desire of the Palestinian people to establish an independent state can no longer be avoided, and the historical injustice suffered by the Palestinian people cannot continue for generations without being corrected”.

The Israelis have killed more than 30,000 Palestinian Arabs in the Gaza Strip since the war began in October. The Gaza Health Ministry say most were women and children. Some 85 per cent of the besieged enclave’s residents are starving, according to the United Nations.

Stephane Dujarric, the spokesman for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterre, says “countries with the greatest influence on Israel should use it to obtain a ceasefire and the introduction of aid...what we are seeing is the result of the ongoing Israeli military operation in Gaza. We need a humanitarian ceasefire, we need the release of all hostages. Without a ceasefire, we cannot perform our humanitarian work in the required way, we cannot meet the needs of people on the ground. Now, we are doing humanitarian work whenever we have the opportunity to do so, we are trying to reach the needy as much as possible,” he said.

Meanwhile a Hamas delegation has left Cairo after Israel rejected the Palestinian conditions for an end to the fighting. The Zionists, with Joe Biden’s blessing, had offered a six-week temporary “pause” in the fighting to exchange prisoners and allow much needed medical aid and food supplies into the beleaguered Palestinian enclave. They were backed by their master in Washington who claimed both sides were close to agreeing a pause in the fighting over Ramadan, the Muslim month of fasting that starts this weekend. Though the White House implied this could lead to a proper truce no Palestinian can trust the words of an American – while the Israelis maintain that they will not give up until Hamas is crushed. And while the Americans bleat on about a “two-state” solution the only “solution” the current Israeli government wants is their permanent occupation of the Gaza Strip supported by a local “autonomous” administration run by any Arab quislings they can find to do their bidding.

Unsurprisingly the Palestinians are insisting on a complete cease-fire and a complete withdrawal of all Israeli forces from the Strip before a prisoner exchange can happen. A Hamas leader, Osama Hamdan, told the media in Beirut that no prisoner exchange can go forward until its demands – including the withdrawal of all Israeli forces from the Palestinian enclave – are met. “We have affirmed our conditions for a ceasefire: complete withdrawal from the sector, the return of displaced persons to the areas they left, especially in the north, and the provision of sufficient aid, relief, and reconstruction,” Osama Hamdan said.

An American-owned cargo ship, the True Confidence, has sunk following a Houthi missile attack that set the ship on fire in the Gulf of Aden. “The targeting operation came after the ship’s crew rejected warning messages from the Yemeni naval forces,” a Houthi spokesman said. When the current round of fighting broke out in October the Houthi Yemeni government imposed a blockade on all Israeli vessels entering the Red Sea. This has now been extended to British and American shipping following Anglo-American reprisal attacks against the Yemenis. This is the second ship the Houthis have sunk – though many others have been hit in a blockade that the Yemenis say will continue until the war in Gaza ends. Their campaign has closed the port of Eilat – Israel’s only Red Sea outlet – and reduced traffic through the Suez Canal by 45 per cent.