While the focus of world attention has turned away from Gaza to the attack by Israel on Iran and Iran’s determined and powerful response, there is still no let-up in Israel’s war on Gaza or in the Palestinian resistance.
Israel continues to perpetrate barbarities
Between January and May 2025, the World Health Organisation documented 76 attacks on healthcare facilities in Gaza, reflecting severe threats to medical infrastructure. The number of functional hospitals decreased from 20 to 17 between May 24 and June 11, with some, including Al-Awda, Jabalia and Haifa hospitals, becoming non-operational owing to intensified fighting and insecurity. Community-level medical points (GP polyclinics, essentially) also declined from 144 to 126, and all hospitals and primary care centres in the devastated areas of North Gaza were out of service. Health services continued only through one partially functioning medical point and an ICRC field hospital in Rafah.
In addition, this month there have been murderous attacks targeting civilians trying to access food aid distribution sites in Gaza. On June 16 and 17, more than 30 people were killed by Israeli gunfire while attempting to reach these sites. Specifically, one person was killed near the Netzarim corridor [an area in central Gaza under Israeli occupation cutting off the north of Gaza from the south] and 33 near an aid distribution centre in Rafah in southern Gaza. An additional four people were found dead near the Netzarim corridor from an attack the previous day.
The United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) has condemned these deadly attacks highlighting the unconscionable nature, not to mention the total breach of the Geneva Conventions, specifically the additional protocol 54, prohibiting violence against civilians trying to access very limited food aid in Gaza.
Article 54. of the additional protocol to the Geneva conventions relates to “PROTECTION OF OBJECTS INDISPENSABLE TO THE SURVIVAL OF THE CIVILIAN POPULATION” and states that:
1. Starvation of civilians as a method of warfare is prohibited.
2. It is prohibited to attack, destroy, remove or render useless objects indispensable to the survival of the civilian population, such as foodstuffs, agricultural areas for the production of foodstuffs, crops, livestock, drinking water installations and supplies and irrigation works, for the specific purpose of denying them for their sustenance value to the civilian population or to the adverse Party, whatever the motive, whether in order to starve out civilians, to cause them to move away, or for any other motive.
The bombing of infrastructure also continues unabated. Satellite imagery and footage verified by Amnesty International showed extensive destruction in Khuza’a during May 2025, with large sections completely razed due to Israeli military operations starting mid-May, contributing to the overall humanitarian crisis.
Particularly shocking to the world has been Israel’s attempt to starve the population of Gaza into submission, a blatant war crime UN Secretary General, Antonio Guterrez, has condemned, saying that the amount of aid Israel has authorised to enter Gaza amounts to “a teaspoon”, when a flood of humanitarian assistance is needed. “The image of Siwar Ashour [pictured on this page], a five-month-old Gazan baby with withered limbs and protuberant eyes, has become a defining portrait of Palestinian hunger. Deprived of baby formula, she weighed just 2kg — a third of the weight of a healthy child her age” and “There are more and more pictures now of emaciated children coming out of Gaza,” Philippe Lazzarini, the head of UNRWA, told The Times. “I think that history will judge this with severity, as it should, and rightly so”. Even personnel employed by the misnamed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), an American private company that Israel has supposedly tasked with distributing aid to Palestinian civilians in Gaza, have resigned in horror and disgust: “Former workers for the GHF have claimed it is effectively acting on behalf of Israel. Jake Wood, the ex-US Marine originally in charge of the GHF, resigned with a blistering attack on the organisation’s independence, accusing it of lacking ‘humanity, neutrality, impartiality’” (George Grylls, ‘Who are the US military contractors delivering aid to starving Gazans?’, The Times, 1 June 2025).
But resistance intensifies
Throughout all this barbarity, Israel has continued to encounter significant and enhanced military resistance from various armed groups in Gaza. Palestinian militant groups, including Hamas and Islamic Jihad, have intensified rocket fire targeting Israeli cities. Signals indicated that over 5,000 rockets may have been fired towards Israel in May 2025 alone.
Besides, there continue to be numerous instances of elaborate underground tunnel networks being used strategically by the resistance for surprise assaults on the IDF as well as for enabling the resistance to move its troops and hide munitions. In mid-May 2025, Israeli ground forces launched a significant ground offensive into Gaza to destroy these tunnels and diminish capabilities of the resistance forces. Fighting was particularly fierce in urban civilian areas, where militants used densely populated settings to their advantage. Zionist soldiers of the ‘IDF’ were countered by urban warfare, including ambushes, snipers, and improvised explosive device attacks from established militant positions, leading to casualties among IDF personnel. The resistance employed various tactics, including drone strikes and advanced weapons systems, escalating their effectiveness. Reports indicated that they had introduced new short-range and long-range missile technology capable of reaching deeper into Israeli territory. Anti-tank guided missiles (ATGMs) were used to great effect against IDF armoured vehicles.
The resistance is continuing to show flexibility in its tactics, shifting between direct confrontations and guerrilla actions, utilising hit-and-run strategies, and then retreating into civilian areas to evade capture.
A surprising development
Mysteriously, the last few weeks have witnessed an apparent change of heart in British government circles and the tone of bourgeois media reportage, that are suddenly finding room to denounce Israeli war crimes, where previously they had been labelling as ‘anti-semitic’ and persecuting anybody who did just that. The above-quoted article from The Times is one example. Who would have thought that the British government would impose sanctions on Israeli government ministers Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich, despicable genocidal monsters though they are, or that David Lammy would put his name to a joint statement pointing out that these men had “incited extremist violence and serious abuses of Palestinian human rights”?
Nevertheless, in the very same statement delivered to the House of Commons on 20 May 2025, Lammy did say: “I want a strong friendship with Israel based on shared values [!], with flourishing ties between our peoples and societies. We are unwavering in our commitment to your security and your future; to countering the very real threat from Iran; the scourge of terrorism; and the evils of antisemitism…”
So. The very opposite of any policy that can bring pace to the Middle East or hold Israel in any way accountable for genocide. Because of course Labour are servants of the British imperialist ruling class. And it is their genocide. In that sense, Lammy and Starmer share the exact same values as Benjamin Netanyahu, Bezalel Smotrich and Ben Gvir.
This statement (in total), gives the semblance of a ‘light scolding’ for Israel (while carefully preserving the policy of using Israel as the genocidal base for subjugating and looting the Middle East). It is nevertheless an interesting climb-down.
Its true significance lies in the recognition that Israel was on the brink of collapse, and that the British and EU ruling class, and our ‘Labour’ government are scrambling to distance themselves from the charges of genocide they should surely face.
Who would have thought that the BBC would allow Jeremy Bowen to publish an investigative report exposing the fact that Israel is committing war crimes and genocide in Gaza? Mr Bowen (who does not, however, recognise the Palestinians’ right to fight against the Israeli occupation of their land) does remind us “Even wars have rules. They don’t stop soldiers killing each other but they’re intended to make sure that civilians caught up in the fighting are treated humanely and protected from as much danger as possible. The rules apply equally to all sides…
“That, at least, is the theory behind the Geneva Conventions. The latest version, the fourth, was formulated and adopted after World War Two to stop such slaughter and cruelty to civilians from ever happening again.” He is quite clear that in the killing of tens of thousands of civilians, including so many little children, and in using famine as a weapon of war, Israel is in flagrant breach of the Geneva convention (see Jeremy Bowen, ‘Israel is accused of the gravest war crimes – how governments respond could haunt them for years to come’, BBC, 8 June 2025).
The Financial Times has also weighed in with an article by Martin Sandbu: “Europe’s patience with Benjamin Netanyahu’s war in Gaza and Israeli settlers’ aggression in the occupied West Bank may finally be running out.
“In the past few weeks, EU foreign ministers have triggered a review of Israel’s association agreement with the bloc, Britain has halted trade talks, Norway’s sovereign wealth fund blacklisted an Israeli company (singular!) for facilitating energy deliveries to West Bank settlements, and the leaders of France, the UK and Canada threatened (!) to put sanctions on the country. Even Germany, Israel’s most stalwart backer in Europe, is criticising the country’s conduct…
“Indeed, the UN has found overwhelming evidence of Israeli war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza and in connection with the increasingly brutal occupation of the West Bank”. Bowen’s conclusion is that Britain ought “in its own interests” to limit trade and travel and freeze foreign reserves in order to show that the EU is willing to act independently of the US! (‘It’s in Europe’s interest to put sanctions on Israel’, 2 June 2025).
It would seem that the British bourgeoisie are donning sheep’s clothing, but the wolf underneath is still clearly visible. Civil servants, for instance, have been told by Lammy’s senior foreign office civil servants (the permanent under-secretary, Oliver Robbins, and Nick Dyer, the second most senior civil servant in the Foreign Office) that if they disagree with Britain’s policy of supporting Israel, they should resign. “After more than 300 civil servants wrote to the foreign secretary to question UK arms sales to Israel, officials urged dissenters to do the ‘honourable’ thing”, i.e., resign! (see Oliver Wright and Alli Mitib, ‘Foreign Office staff told to resign if they don’t like Gaza stance’, The Times, 20 June 2025).
Britain continues to arm genocide
Needless to say, Britain is continuing to send arms to Israel notwithstanding its supposed ‘condemnation’ of war crimes! There have been a few token cancellations, but Britain has definitely not stopped sending arms to Israel. While the UK government suspended just 30 specific arms export licenses to Israel in September 2024 owing to “concerns that those military exports might be used in violations of international humanitarian law during the Gaza conflict” (!), this suspension covered only a small portion of the total licenses issued. About 350 arms export licenses exist, and the suspension targeted roughly 30 that are too obviously intended for military operations in Gaza. Despite this partial suspension, many other licenses remain active, such as aircraft used for training and naval equipment. Reports indicate that UK-made military components, including parts for F-35 fighter jets — key to Israel’s air operations — continue to be supplied indirectly through legal loopholes and global spares pools. Data from Israeli imports showed thousands of munitions and parts have continued to arrive in Israel even after the suspension announcement. In fact, recent analysis suggests the current ‘Labour’ UK government granted more weapons licenses to Israel in a three-month period last year than the previous Conservative government did over four years. And Palestine Action, a campaign group of British workers dedicated to disrupting the Israeli genocide, which has been damaging arms factories that are supplying weaponry for the commission of war crimes in Gaza, are to be proscribed as a ‘terrorist’ organisation!
One can only surmise that the apparent criticism of Israel on the part of the British bourgeoisie merely represents an attempt by the social-imperialist Labour government to throw out a sop hoping to avoid losing the support of millions of people who are capable of recognising a genocide when they see one and have been horrified by a ‘Labour’ government’s continued support, provisioning and arming of Israel’s genocidal war.
It is high time the British trade union movement intervened decisively to mobilise the British working class against cooperating and conniving with the war crimes of its ruling class. No more transportation of arms; no more loading vessels with arms bound for Israel; no more propaganda justifying war crimes. We must resolutely oppose the imperialist Labour Party, which is complicit in, and the active perpetrator of, the genocide. We must expose and depose those union leaders who act to prevent British workers from doing what is within their power to stop genocide, which is at once their obligation under international law and their moral duty and imperative.
Comments are closed, but trackbacks and pingbacks are open.