Source: Fourth International

Israel starves Gaza to death as a strategy for the “final offensive”. Humanitarian and workers’ movements around the world must mobilize to stop the genocide!

The barbarity perpetrated by the Zionist state of Israel against the Palestinian people knows no bounds. Aside from the 120,000 wounded and 52,000 civilians killed (according to official figures), including thousands of children and women, the 1.9 million internally displaced people (80% of Gaza’s inhabitants), the attacks on solidarity convoys, the execution of doctors and journalists, in recent weeks the genocide that has been going on for 19 months has taken on even more terrifying contours.

Since the end of the ceasefire in March, Netanyahu, his far-right cabinet and military hawks, with the direct support of the United States and indirect support from European countries, have been torturing the people of Gaza with hunger and a lack of medical care – due to the siege of the territory and the ban on the entry of any humanitarian aid, airstrikes on hospital and food infrastructure.

The UN, Oxfam, Amnesty International, and other human rights observers report that hunger in Gaza is “worse than before the ceasefire”. The infrastructure in the territory is close to total collapse, with 93% of the population facing acute food insecurity, at the level of starvation extermination. There are widespread deaths from acute malnutrition, dehydration, disease, and untreated wounds, while fuel, water, electricity, and medical supplies are lacking.

The ongoing collective torture is a deliberate instrument of the government that today leads the global far right: Israeli Minister of National Security Itamar Ben-Gvir has bluntly announced that, as in the last two months, Israel will continue to prevent all food, water, medicine, and fuel from entering Gaza. He also defended the bombing of food warehouses and electricity generators. And the collective torture of the Gazans is just an expedient in preparation for a “final” offensive to “liberate Gaza from Hamas”, as Netanyahu announced at the beginning of May.

As a Palestinian activist noted in a major British newspaper, the genocidaires use cheap, silent, and brutal means of mass murder.

Breaking the silence that kills

The imperialist governments and the complicit corporate media try to silence the voices of protest, either by erasing information or by repression. The strategy in this case is to make the barbarism that is taking place in Palestine seem “natural” and acceptable.

We urgently need to break this wall of silence and inaction!

The Fourth International joins the call made by La Via Campesina and 17 other social organizations for the mobilization of states and international agencies, which have a binding legal obligation to intervene when there is obstruction to humanitarian aid in a way that contributes to genocide, war crimes, or crimes against humanity. (See https://viacam…)

It is necessary and urgent to step up the pressure on governments, mainly left-wing, centre-left, and democratic ones, so that they are willing to collaborate with the formation of humanitarian corridors and the establishment of protection forces for the civilians of Gaza, as proposed by La Via Campesina. Social movements and left-wing parties have a fundamental role in this effort, through rallies, petitions, protests, telephone campaigns, and coordinated global days of action. Parliamentarians and mass leaders around the world are being called upon to launch a concentrated offensive to denounce this new phase of genocide.

On this terrible anniversary of the Nakba, the Fourth International calls for a massive, long-term international mobilization in solidarity with the Palestinian people. We must demand that complicit governments sever all economic, diplomatic, and academic ties with the genocidal state. Let us take to the streets, universities, and schools! Let us fight to prevent ships carrying the instruments of death from reaching Israel. Let us confront the repression against the voices and organizations defending Palestine.

• End the siege and the murderous humanitarian blockade imposed by Israel, with the complicit silence of right-wing and extreme right-wing governments!

• On the streets and in parliaments, let’s pressure governments and official international agencies for immediate statements and actions against the blockade of Gaza.

• All support for the Flotilla for Freedom Coalition, which has been trying to reach the shores of Gaza with aid!

• For a broad coalition of national and global social and humanitarian organizations to coordinate global anti-genocide initiatives!