Israel is unleashing horror after horror in Gaza in the wake of its ruthless bombing of Iran.
Israeli soldiers have admitted that the army is intentionally shooting Palestinians lining up at aid distribution sites.
The “commanders ordered troops to shoot at crowds to drive them away or disperse them, even though it was clear they posed no threat”, Haaretz reported.
At least 583 Palestinians had been killed at Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) aid sites since late May as Solidarity went to press, often with more than 50 killed in a single day. “It’s a killing field”, one soldier said.
Ahmed Halawa, a Palestinian in Gaza who spoke to Al Jazeera, described how Israeli tanks and drones fired on aid seekers “even as we were fleeing”.
The GHF is a joint Israeli-US project that is now the main source of the inadequate amount of food let in for Gaza’s starving population.
The level of devastation and starvation in Gaza is apocalyptic.
Israel’s denial of aid since March has put all of Gaza’s 2.1 million people at risk of famine, with over three quarters at “catastrophic” or “emergency” levels of food deprivation according to the World Health Organisation. Israel has killed well over 55,000 Palestinians since October 2023.
Another two infants have died as a direct result of Israel’s refusal to allow baby formula into Gaza, with hundreds more at imminent risk of death.
The United Nations human rights office has denounced the weaponisation of aid as a war crime, while UNRWA has condemned the GHF as an “abomination that humiliates and degrades desperate people”.
Netanyahu is forcibly starving Palestinians as a way of pressuring the population to move south, as Israel extends its military occupation.
There is just one GHF distribution site near the centre of Gaza near the Netzarim corridor that bisects the strip—known to Palestinians as a corridor of death—and three GHF sites in the south in Rafah. Previously the UN ran around 400 separate distribution centres.
Netanyahu has openly declared his support for Trump’s plan to ethnically cleanse and take complete control of Gaza.
There is again talk of a ceasefire in Gaza, but Netanyahu is refusing to guarantee a permanent end to the war and the withdrawal of Israeli troops, demanding that Hamas lay down its arms and its leadership leave the strip. Hamas has refused to accept such extreme demands, making an agreement unlikely.
Twenty Israeli soldiers were killed in June by Hamas and other resistance fighters, the deadliest month for the IDF since the genocide began in October 2023.
Even in the face of mass starvation and bombardment, Israel has been unable to completely eradicate the resistance.
Growing movement
The movement for Palestine continues to escalate internationally, with massive demonstrations across Europe in response to the worsening genocide and the Israeli and US war on Iran.
In June, 350,000 marched in London, 150,000 at The Hague, and over 100,000 in Brussels. Another 150,000 marched in Paris after French MP Rima Hassan was detained by Israel aboard the Maldeen ship trying to deliver aid for Gaza.
Thousands of protesters from over 32 countries, many from trade unions and Palestine solidarity groups, joined the Global March for Gaza, planning to set out from Arish in Egypt to try to deliver aid to Rafah. Instead Egypt’s dictator Abdel Fattah el-Sisi sent in riot police to detain and deport hundreds, preventing them from reaching the border.
French and Italian dockworkers have refused to load shipments of weapons for Israel, and Italian trade unions held a general strike with many marching under the banner “lower the weapons, raise the wages.”
Pressure is also growing on Anthony Albanese to act against Israel, after he was forced to impose individual sanctions on two far right Israeli Ministers, Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben-Gvir.
We need to keep fighting to demand sanctions that put real pressure on Israel to end its genocide, through banning weapons exports and trade. Mass protests and union action can help force an end to the horror.
By Luke Ottavi
