By Yossi Schwartz, Internationalist Socialist League (RCIT Section in Israel / Occupied Palestine), 13.11.2018, http://www.the-isleague.com
On Sunday Israeli undercover forces entered the Gaza Strip in a civilian car for reasons Israel refuses to explain and were discovered. Hamas forces exchanged fire with the Israeli soldiers near the city of Khan Younis. A pursuit ensued and Israeli aircraft fired dozens of missiles into the area to provide cover for the commandos to escape.
The Israeli commandos killed seven Palestinians – including Nour Baraka, a prominent commander of the al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas.
An Israeli lieutenant colonel was killed and another officer wounded in the incursion on Sunday night in Gaza, the first proven ground invasion there by Israeli forces since the last war in 2014. Most likely there were more such incursions.
The rising tensions came as thousands of people in the enclave took part in rallies against Israel incursion and missiles shootings
In the immediate aftermath of the raid, more than 10 rockets were fired from Gaza as the Israeli forces carried out air raids that killed six more Palestinians. In response Hamas and other resistance forces fired at least 400 rockets and damaged a building in Ashkelon and an empty bus. One man was killed, two Jewish women were injured and another Israeli soldier was injured.
The armed wing of Hamas says it will step up attacks and fire rockets at the Israeli towns of Ashdod and Beersheba if Israel continues to carry out air raids on civilian buildings in Gaza.
Ali Abunimah, co-founder of the award-winning online publication “The Electronic Intifada” and author of “One Country” said and rightly so that Israel has a long history of “sabotaging” ceasefire agreements, adding the deadly commando raid was ordered to stoke the flames of conflict.” You would think that after Israel violated numerous ceasefires with similar results they would learn the lesson, but it seems the Israeli leaders are pyromaniacs. They cannot tolerate calm. They cannot tolerate that the people in Gaza live in anything like peace. Israel is incapable of living in peace and calm with the Palestinians.
The Israeli propaganda is that Hamas is the one that does not respect cease fire agreements. In a study on violations of the cease fires between 2012 to 2014 Israel violated the cease fire 191 times while the Palestinians violated the cease fire 75 times. Out of Israel’s 191 violations, 10 percent resulted in death and 42 percent in injuries or detentions; while out of the 75 Palestinian violations, just four percent resulted in injuries and none in death.
At the moment Israel government is holding a meeting to decide whether to begin a new full scale war.
The Internationalist Socialist League (RCIT Section in Israel / Occupied Palestine) is for a real cease fire that will remove completely the siege on Gaza. We accuse and blame the Israeli state for the killing of the Palestinians and the suffering of the Israelis. In a case of a war the interest of the working class will be the military defeat of Israel.
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We refer reader for more information on the ISL’s and the RCIT’s stand in solidarity with the Palestinian people to our websites http://www.the-isleague.com and https://www.thecommunists.net/worldwide/africa-and-middle-east/.
The ISL’s program can be read here: http://www.the-isleague.com/our-platform/ andhttps://www.thecommunists.net/theory/summary-of-isl-program/
See also Yossi Schwartz: Israel’s War of 1948 and the Degeneration of the Fourth International, http://the-isleague.com/1948-war-5-2013/ and https://www.thecommunists.net/worldwide/africa-and-middle-east/israel-s-war-of-1948/
Michael Pröbsting: On some Questions of the Zionist Oppression and the Permanent Revolution in Palestine,http://the-isleague.com/zionist-oppression-and-permanent-revolution/ and https://www.thecommunists.net/theory/permanent-revolution-in-palestine/