“Since Israel’s hostages are no longer in Gaza, targets that the air force avoided during the war are now being bombed”
Editorial in this week’s Offensiv, paper of Socialistiskt Alternativ (ISA in Sweden)
Ten days after Trump celebrated his ‘peace plan,’ Israeli fighter jets carried out at least 20 attacks in various parts of Gaza. On Sunday, the already limited transport of supplies was halted. In total, at least 139 Palestinians have been killed and 230 injured by Israeli attacks since the first phase of the agreement.
At the same time, Trump is still in control of the process. Both the Israeli government and the Arab regimes in the region maintain that the peace plan is continuing. So too do the occupation and suffering in the completely destroyed Gaza. Those who, understandably, hope for peace continue to live in famine, without medicine or housing, and at risk of escalating attacks.
The first phase of the plan involves the Israeli military withdrawing to the ‘yellow line’, which means they control just over 50 percent of Gaza. Hamas has handed over the last surviving hostages and begun the same process with the bodies of the deceased. 1,968 Palestinian prisoners have been released from Israeli prisons, 1,700 of whom were arrested in Gaza over the past two years and never brought to trial.
The worst ministers in Netanyahu’s far-right government are dissatisfied with Trump’s plan and want to continue the genocidal war. Security Minister Ben-Gvir, who is also responsible for deaths, torture and increasingly horrific conditions in Israeli prisons, demanded this weekend that the onslaught be resumed in full force. This came after two Israeli soldiers were killed. Netanyahu promised a ‘strong response’ and ordered bombings in Rafah in the south, in northern Gaza, and against a refugee camp. “Since Israel’s hostages are no longer in Gaza, targets that the air force avoided during the war are now being bombed”, correspondent Nathan Shachar noted in Dagens Nyheter (a Swedish newspaper).
Netanyahu and the government will exploit incidents and construct pretexts to maintain attacks, just as they carry out daily attacks on Lebanon despite the formal ceasefire. It is a way of demonstrating power, even though there are strong factors holding them back from total war, including public opinion in Israel. The pressure from Trump is caused by US imperialism’s concern about escalating protests and revolts in solidarity with Gaza, especially in the Middle East, but also by strikes in Europe. Trump wants to reassure the regimes in the region, especially Saudi Arabia, in order to reach new economic and political agreements to strengthen both Israel and US imperialism.
The peace plan also means that Hamas can operate visibly again. According to their own information, they now have 7,000 men on the streets of Gaza to regain control. The media reports that they have been challenged by two clans, at least one of which has received weapons from Israel. In interviews, Trump has accepted Hamas’s attempts to assert control, saying, “We gave [Hamas] approval for a certain period of time.”
The second phase of the peace plan, which is now being negotiated in Cairo, is still very vague. Hamas is supposed to disarm, but what will follow? There is speculation that Egypt, Jordan and perhaps even Iraq will contribute soldiers to a ‘stabilisation force’. At the same time, Israel, as the overwhelmingly strongest force, will retain its military at the yellow line with the ability to intervene when it wishes. A new occupation government will be led by Trump’s chosen representative, Tony Blair, who is notorious in the Middle East, with ‘technocratic’ Palestinian ministers as his subordinates. These will be accompanied by multinational construction companies with large profits in sight.
The peace plan was created to ease the growing pressure from below, and it has no chance of creating real peace, let alone advancing the Palestinian liberation struggle. The occupation and oppression continue, as a result of capitalism and imperialism. It is the working masses in the Middle East and internationally, through mass struggle for socialist change, that can show the way forward.
