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The Weekly paper of the New Communist Party of Britain

Battles rage as hopes fade for new Gaza truce

by our Arab Affairs correspondent

Hopes for a new cease-fire deal are fading as Israeli jets and helicopter gunships pound Rafah as Palestinian commandos battle to stave off Israeli troops in the streets of the southern city in the Gaza Strip.

Over 270 Palestinian civilians were killed and hundreds more wounded when the Israelis raided the Nuseirat refugee camp to rescue four prisoners held by the resistance in central Gaza. But the tunnel systems have not been destroyed and the resistance fighters have survived some of the toughest onslaughts the Israelis are capable of mustering to keep up the fight throughout the beleaguered Palestinian enclave.

The Americans had, only a few days before, been trumpeting the passing of their draft ceasefire resolution at the United Nations.

On Monday, the UN Security Council passed an Americansponsored resolution calling for a three-phased ceasefire “without delay and without condition”. The Council approved the US-backed resolution with 14 votes in favour and Russia abstaining. The Russian ambassador to the UN, Vasily Nebenzya, said that the Council remained in the dark about what actually had been agreed between America and Israel and had “essentially voted for a cat in the bag”.

“We have a whole host of questions about the American draft resolution, whereby the Council welcomes some deal – the ultimate outlines of which are not known to anyone perhaps except the mediators” the Russian diplomat said. Although the resolution calls on Hamas to accept the “so-called deal” there is no clarity on the official agreement of Israel “as it is written in the resolution”. Noting the public statements of Israeli leaders indicating that the war would continue until Hamas is completely defeated, the Russian representative asked “what specifically has Israel agreed to?”. But Nebenzya said Russia ultimately decided to abstain, rather than veto the proposal, because the resolution had widespread Arab support.

Though the proposals, which the Americans called the “Israeli plan”, were accepted by Hamas, their supposed authors have ignored them and the imperialists are now blaming the Palestinian resistance for stalling and prolonging the bloodshed.

But Hamas say the Americans are to blame. Hamas media adviser, Taher Al-Nunu, has accused US Secretary of State Antony Blinken of bias, saying that the American foreign minister has been acting like he is Israel’s foreign minister since the start of the war.

“He lacks neutrality. He lacks even-handedness. He operates with double standards. He is trying to portray the resistance as if it is the party obstructing the deal,” Al-Nunu said. Hamas accepted the proposal originally presented on 6th May as it is, and it was Israel that added amendments to it. Hamas’s response on Tuesday was counter-revisions to some of the Israeli changes, Al-Nunu said.

Back in Tel Aviv, Benny Gantz, a retired general who leads the centre-right National Unity bloc in the Israeli parliament, has resigned from the Netanyahu war cabinet in protest at Netanyahu’s failure to plan for a future settlement when and if the guns fall silent.

“Netanyahu prevents us from moving forward to a real victory,” Gantz said in a televised statement in which he described leaving the government as a “complex and painful” decision. “That is why we are leaving the emergency government today with a heavy heart, but with a whole heart.”

Highlighting Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s role in obstructing “a genuine victory”, Gantz said “there will be no quick and easy victory” and warned that “the war will continue for years”.

“ The situation in the country and in the decision-making room has changed” Gantz said, accusing Netanyahu of putting his own personal political considerations ahead of a post-war strategy for the Gaza Strip, claiming that “fateful strategic decisions are met with hesitancy and procrastination due to political considerations”.

Gantz said the Israeli government should “do whatever it takes” to bring the Israeli prisoners back and called on Netanyahu to step down and hold fresh elections.