Wednesday, August 28, 2024

US ‘ceasefire’ plans are a trick to gift Israel Palestinian land

United States and Britain continue to aid Israel's genocide


United States secretary of state Antony Blinken is a con-artist 
(Picture: Chad J. McNeeley)

Tuesday 27 August 2024
 SOCIALIST WORKER

A gigantic fraud is taking place over the collapse of a supposed ceasefire deal in Gaza. Israel and its Western backers blame Hamas, but the real reason is that Israel made a deal impossible.

Key sticking points in the talks included Israel demanding that it would keep troops in the Philadelphi Corridor. The Corridor is a nine-mile stretch of land along Gaza’s southern border with Egypt.

The idea that Israel would remain in the Corridor is an explicit violation of a 2005 agreement governing the area. It forbids Israeli deployment there.

Hamas insisted that any agreement should include the freedom of return for Gaza residents to their homes.

It also wants relief and reconstruction for Gaza—and a captive-prisoner exchange deal.

During talks in Cairo, Hamas’s delegation demanded that Israel be bound by what was agreed at earlier talks on 2 July.

That plan had been laid out by United States president Joe Biden and backed by a United Nations Security Council resolution.

Francesca Albanese, a UN official for the Occupied Palestinian Territories, said, “History repeats itself. “Israel is using negotiations to eat up other portions of what remains of Palestine.

“Under the guise of ‘ ceasefire negotiations’ Israel is trying to create the conditions for permanent occupation and more land grabs.

“Those familiar with Palestine’s history recognise in what is happening to the Palestinians under Israel’s unlawful occupation, the pattern of settler colonialism.”

Israel has now confined 1.7 million displaced Palestinians into a mere tenth of Gaza’s area, according to Gaza’s government.

This drastic reduction in living space comes amid new evacuation orders from the Israeli military, further restricting the areas deemed “safe” for civilians.

In a statement released last week, the Gaza authority condemned the Israeli military’s actions as “some of the most heinous crimes against civilians in Gaza”.
Hamas says Britain has ‘contributed’ to genocide

In the first statement of its kind, the Palestinian resistance group Hamas has zeroed-in on Britain’s secret role in supporting Israel’s genocidal assault in Gaza.

Hamas said that British intelligence operations have directly contributed to the deaths of thousands of women and children in Gaza, according to the Quds News Network.

In December last year, the British Ministry of Defence announced that it would conduct surveillance flights over Israel and Gaza.

It said they would “provide intelligence to Tel Aviv as part of hostage rescue efforts”.

The ministry claimed that these surveillance aircraft were unarmed, did not have a combat role and were solely tasked with locating Israeli prisoners.

Two months ago, a senior Israeli official disclosed that a British spy team had been deployed to Israel since the beginning of its bombing campaign last October.

This revelation, highlighted in a New York Times newspaper report, also noted that both British and US spies have been operating in Israel throughout the genocide.

The Israeli official stated that the intelligence provided by Britain had given Israeli forces a significant advantage.
British medics in Gaza with message for Starmer

Dozens of British‑based doctors, nurses and medical professionals who worked in Gaza have called on Keir Starmer to halt arms sales to Israel.

In an open letter coordinated by the rights group International Centre of Justice for Palestinians, the health workers warned the prime minister and foreign secretary David Lammy that continuing arms sales could put them in violation of international law.

They said ending the sales is “morally as well as legally right”.

“It is difficult for many of us to recount the scenes we witnessed in Gaza, not least of all in the knowledge that many of the injuries we treated may have resulted from the use of weapons systems and components supplied from Britain,” the letter read.

The letter also noted that “with only marginal exceptions, everyone in Gaza is sick, injured or both”.

Citing domestic British law, international humanitarian law and Britain’s own Strategic Export Licensing Criteria, the signatories stressed that it was imperative to halt the sales.
Israeli bombs targeting more schools

Israeli bombs slammed into the al-Ezz Bin Abdul Salam school on Monday, the latest school‑turned‑shelter it has attacked.

Gaza’s civil defence agency said on Wednesday last week that Israeli bombs killed at least four people and wounded 18 at the Salah al-Din school.

It had been sheltering displaced Palestinians. Palestinian journalist Hossam Shabat noted bitterly, “Another school massacre in northern Gaza. This is being done on purpose to empty out the remaining population.

“For the past ten months, Israeli occupation forces have been trying to ethnically cleanse northern Gaza.

“They have bombed us, starved us and are now targeting the most populated areas. These people are not interested in a ceasefire they are only interested in killing Palestinians.”

Israel has repeatedly attacked Gaza’s schools, hospitals and universities. Injuring Within a ten-day period in August, Israeli forces struck five schools in Gaza City, killing more than 179 people and injuring scores more.

Israel killed at least 15 people at the Dalal al-Mughrabi school on 1 August. Two days later, Israeli strikes on Hamama and al-Huda schools killed 17 people and injured more than 60.

On 4 August, Israeli missiles murdered at least 30 people in the Nassr and Hassan Salameh schools in the Nassr neighbourhood in Gaza City.

Israel bombed Abdel Fattah Hamouda and az‑Zahra schools, killing 17 people on 8 August. On 10 August, Israel hit Gaza City’s al-Tabin school, killing more than 100 displaced Palestinians.

Palestine protest diary

Sat 31 Aug Divest for Palestine day of action at councils. Details at tinyurl.com/Divest3108

Sat 7 Sept, 12 noon central London—national demonstration

Sat 21 Sept, 12 noon Liverpool—protest at Labour Party conference

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