Statement of the ISL, the section of the RCIT in Israel/Occupied Palestine, 10.07.2023
For revolutionary Marxists the question is not who began the war but what is the class nature of the fighting side. On Saturday morning 7 of October 2023 according to the Zionist army: Around 2,200 rockets were launched on Israel from the Gaza Strip on Saturday, and that Palestinian fighters infiltrated by “the sea, the air and the land.” Tens of thousands of Israeli army reserve personnel will be mobilized due to the security situation the Zionist army announced. [1]
This is a war between the oppressed nation fighting for national liberation against the apartheid imperialist Israel: “The new resistance operation, titled the Al-Aqsa Flood by Mohammed Deif, commander in chief of the Izz el-Din al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas, comes on the 50th anniversary of the 1973 war in which Egypt reclaimed the occupied Sinai from Zionist occupation, and is set to alter the direction of the struggle in occupied Palestine, moving from resistance toward revolution and liberation” [2]
“In his statement announcing the operation, Deif said: “Starting from today, security coordination ends. Today, the people reclaim their revolution, correct their path, and return to the march of return.” He called upon all to participate in the resistance, and specifically to all the forces of resistance in the region, in Lebanon, Syria, Iran and Yemen, and all of the Arab peoples from the Gulf to the ocean, to join in this battle, which is their battle for freedom, dignity and liberation, declaring, “it is time for the forces of Arab resistance to unite.” [3]
So far in the first part of the first day of the war 20 Israelis died and hundreds of Israelis injured in Hamas rocket assault from Beersheba to Jerusalem.
The Zionist army says dozens of Palestinian militants infiltrated Israel from Gaza by land, sea and air. Some 2,500 rockets fired from the Gaza Strip. Over 200 Israelis reportedly wounded. Palestinian fighters hold Israeli civilians hostage in their homes. In the morning the southern Bedouin city of Rahat was one of the centers under fire. The Bedouins serve in the Zionist army, or at least the older ones did. From around the time of the Prawer Plan(a plan to displace them), the army stopped publishing statistics of how many Bedouins go to the army, and it is a lot fewer enlist.
“There are maybe ten shelters here in all of Rahat, in an area of 45,000 dunams,” Mayor Ata Abu Mediam told The Marker. “I asked for fifty protective shields in the previous round of rockets- they brought me two.” he added.
“After this round, I am not sending the children back to school. Five residents of Rahat were hit by arms fire while working in agriculture in fields around the Gaza Strip.
“One woman working in agriculture was seriously injured in the neck. I have no verification whether the weapons were fired by Gazans or security forces,” he added. A shooting attack on the Albat neighborhood has been reported, resulting in an unspecified number of deaths and injuries” [4]
“At 11 in the morning rocket volleys launched toward Jerusalem, Zionist and warplanes attacked targets in Gaza. A Tel Aviv resident, told Haaretz that she spoke on the phone with her sister in the southern Kibbutz of Nir Oz, who told her militants from Gaza had been inside the family’s house.
“She told me that she and my brother and father were hiding in the shelter. She said the [militants] walked out after a few minutes, but I haven’t been able to reach my family since.” Gaia added that her brother had written her that there are many casualties in the kibbutz but no police or Israeli army forces have been seen” [5]
“Rocket lands in the southern Israeli city of Ashkelon. In a video taken inside Israel while gunfire is heard around him, a Palestinian journalist reported that Hamas members have “infiltrated two of the most important kibbutzim” in southern Israel: Nir Oz and Nir Am. He said that they try to kidnap Israeli civilians and soldiers into the Gaza Strip. He further stated that the fighters entered the Gaza Border communities after “walking for about an hour.”
So far, “Four Palestinians were killed this morning and many others were injured, some seriously, in an Israeli shelling of the Gaza Strip following an exchange of gunfire between factions in the Gaza Strip and Israeli occupation forces as life came to a standstill in the besieged sea enclave. Two Palestinians were killed in a shelling east of Bureij refugee camp, in the central Gaza Strip, and two others were killed in the north of the Gaza Strip, according to medical sources.”
The Zionist police estimate 60 fighters within Israel in 14 locations. Anyone with eyes in his head could predict that a war between Hamas and the Zionists is only a question of time.
“The Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs Commission monitored more than 135,000 arrests of Palestinians by the Israeli authorities since the outbreak of the Al-Aqsa Intifada in 2000.The commission said that these arrests affected all sectors of Palestinian society; including children, women, and the elderly The occupation authorities are still detaining around 5,200 Palestinian prisoners in their prisons and detention centers, including 38 females, around 170 children, over 1,250 administrative detainees, and 700 sick prisoners suffering from various health issues, including 24 cases suffering from cancer, said the commission” [6]
“A Palestinian journalist was killed today in an Israeli attack on the Gaza Strip, reported WAFA correspondent” [7]
“He said Mohammad Salhi was killed by an Israeli army bullet while covering the events at the border east of al-Bureij, in the central Gaza Strip” [8]
“Soldiers assaulted protesters in the center of Hebron, shooting live and rubber-coated metal bullets and tear gas canisters at them, injuring two, including a journalist, who were hit by shrapnel, and causing many to suffer suffocation” [9]
“In Masafer Yatta to the south of Hebron, soldiers attacked protesters that included solidarity activists in the village of Twani after confronting settlers who attacked the homes of the Palestinians, according to the head of the Twani village council Mohammad Ribee”
In the West Bank Town Howrah on Thursday night the settlers protected by the Zionist army attacked the village and carried out a pogrom. The Zionist army said settlers caused property damage, with the Palestinian Red Crescent adding that 51 Palestinians were wounded out of which 42 received treatment after inhaling tear gas. One Israeli was also lightly wounded.
During the Jewish high holidays 5300 extremist religious Jews entered the Al Aqsa courtyard to pray as part of the movement that plans to destroy Al Aqsa and build the third temple.
We follow with anguish the news coming from Israel”, said the hypocrite High Representative of the EU for Foreign Affairs Josep Borrell in a statement on Twitter. “We unequivocally condemn the attacks by Hamas. This horrific violence must stop immediately. Terrorism and violence solve nothing. The EU expresses its solidarity with Israel in these difficult moments.” [10]
On the other side Hezbollah issued a statement on Saturday saying they were closely following the situation in Gaza and are in “direct contact with the leadership of the Palestinian resistance“.
Following events involving Gaza militants who fired a barrage of rockets into Israel, the statement added that it was a “decisive response to Israel’s continued occupation and a message to those seeking normalization with Israel.” [11]
As could be expected, Judicial reform protests were canceled.
“In times like these, there is no opposition and coalition in Israel,” opposition leaders said in a statement” [12]
For military defeat for the Zionist apartheid state!
For victory to Gaza!
Break the siege on Gaza!
Release all Palestinian political prisoners!
Down with the apartheid state for a red democratic Palestine from the river to the sea!
Endnotes:
[1] https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2023-10-07/ty-article-live/israel-under-attack-terrorists-infiltrate-from-gaza-amid-massive-rocket-barrages/0000018b-088b-dae9-adcb-abbff50f0000
[2] Samidoun Palestinian prisoners solidarity network.
[3] Ibid
[4] Ibid
[5] Ibid
[6] https://english.wafa.ps/Pages/Details/137819
[7] https://english.wafa.ps/Pages/Details/137963
[8] https://english.wafa.ps/Pages/Details/137966
[9] https://english.wafa.ps/Pages/Details/137966
[10] https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/defense-news/2023-10-07/live-updates-762053
[11] Ibid
[12] https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/article-762050