Israel’s genocide is entering a brutal new phase, as it continues to bomb hospitals and assassinate journalists with impunity.
On 25 August, Israel killed 20 civilians, including five journalists and several medical staff, in a double-tap air strike on Nasser Hospital. The initial attack killed one person but was deliberately followed by another nine minutes later, designed to kill rescue workers and media as they gathered to respond.
This followed the deliberate targeting of Al Jazeera’s entire Gaza City bureau two weeks before, killing another five journalists.
In another massive escalation, Israel has now begun an effort to occupy and depopulate Gaza City. The operation will “raze Gaza city” to the ground, Israel’s Ha’aretz newspaper reports, and could take more than a year. Already over 1000 buildings have been destroyed as the Israeli army sets out to demolish everything in its path.
It has called up 130,000 reservists for the operation, 60,000 of them set to deploy on 2 September. Israel has begun raining down bombs over the southern suburbs of Gaza City in preparation.
Thousands of Palestinians, many of whom have already been displaced multiple times, are being forced to flee to the south. Others, starving and exhausted, are unable to leave.
The plans for ethnic cleansing in Gaza are the latest example of Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu’s ambition to expand the Israeli apartheid regime far beyond its borders. During a recent interview on Israeli TV, Netanyahu announced that he felt connected with the idea of a “Greater Israel” encompassing not just Palestine, but also parts of Egypt, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon.
Famine
Starvation is part of Israel’s effort to “encourage” Palestinians to flee Gaza City. On 22 August the UN-backed hunger monitor confirmed famine conditions in Gaza City, affecting over 500,000 Palestinians. In a damning report, the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) made clear that Israel was directly responsible for this “entirely man-made” catastrophe.
The Israeli government has taken no meaningful action to relieve the famine beyond shameless publicity stunts. It has allowed a small increase in aid deliveries and airdrops of food aid over Gaza since late July in response to international condemnation. But these provide far less than the trucks Israel has blocked from entering the strip could. Not only do they fail to relieve hunger, they kill people, when stray airdrops hit civilians.
Control of aid by the US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation continues to produce daily slaughter. Over 2000 Palestinians have been shot dead by Israeli soldiers and US mercenaries while lining up for food at GHF sites since late May.
Protests in Israel
The new offensive on Gaza City has sparked intense political controversy within the Israeli ruling class.
When the chiefs of the Israeli military expressed concern about such a massive operation given low troop morale, far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir claimed that the army had been overrun by the “far-left”. While these debates are full of sound and fury, both sides are united by a common hatred of Palestinians.
The escalation has also triggered the biggest protests in Israel since 7 October. Over one million Israelis have rallied against Netanyahu, demanding a ceasefire and a prisoner exchange instead of a new military offensive.
However, demonstrators are “not speaking directly on the suffering in Gaza, on the killings… on the starvation” or opposing the genocide but instead focused on the survival of Israeli hostages, journalist for Israeli’s +972 Magazine Oren Ziv said.
Israel is a fundamentally racist state, and the overwhelming majority of Israelis support its genocidal actions against the Palestinians. A recent poll revealed that 76 per cent of Israeli Jews believe that there are “no innocents” in the Gaza Strip.
The force to free Palestine lies outside the borders of Israel, in the working class of the neighbouring Arab states and the global solidarity movement.
Despite these horrors, Albanese continues to supply Israel with weapons parts. We need to build the pressure on the Australian government to cut all ties with Israel.
By Jacob Starling
