Protestors unveil a banner with the names of all those killed in Gaza by Israel since Oct. 7, 2023. Credit: ANSWER Coalition
In full coordination with the Trump administration, Israel has resumed its genocidal war with a terrifying goal: expel all Palestinians from Gaza in a blood-soaked crime of historic proportions. Over 1,000 people have been murdered by the Israeli war machine since this new phase of the massacre began. This aggression is being carried out with a U.S.-supplied arsenal funded by tens of billions of our tax dollars.
Every day, U.S.-made bombs are raining down on families in Gaza. U.S.-supplied planes and drones target civilians in refugee camps while drones patrol the skies and fire on anyone who Israeli soldiers deem to be “suspicious”. What little remains of the civilian infrastructure is routinely targeted, like the surgical wing of Nasser Hospital, which was struck by an Israeli airstrike on March 23 that killed a 16 year-old patient.
And Israeli soldiers are moving in on the ground. One by one, troops are surrounding neighborhoods and towns throughout Gaza, ordering its residents to leave their homes, and then moving in to slaughter those who remain. Rescue workers attempting to save lives amidst these circumstances are top targets. The same day that Israel bombed Nasser Hospital, its soldiers opened fire on a convoy of clearly-marked ambulances and firetrucks. Eight medics, six civil defense first responders, and a United Nations staffer were killed. Their bodies were found in a mass grave a week later, still wearing their uniforms.
This is all taking place under conditions of a total siege. Gaza has been completely cut off from the outside world, with no aid deliveries from humanitarian organizations allowed. Life-saving medicine, food, electricity, clean water – all of the essentials to sustain human life are being denied to Palestinians. The threat of mass starvation looms.
Trump and Netanyahu set ethnic cleansing plot in motion
The war resumed because of a calculated decision by the Israeli regime and the new far-right government in the United States. Trump and Netanyahu are lying when they say that the Palestinian resistance walked away from ceasefire negotiations. The reality is the opposite – despite repeated efforts to secure a lasting ceasefire, Israel consistently failed to live up to its commitments or negotiate in good faith.
The agreement reached on January 15 established a temporary ceasefire to be followed by three phases of negotiations that each last six weeks. The first phase involved weekly prisoner swaps between Israel and the resistance as the Israeli military gradually withdrew from Gaza and allowed more humanitarian aid to enter. The Palestinian resistance fulfilled its end of the deal, but Israel allowed in only a fraction of the truckloads of food, medicine, fuel and other essential supplies necessary to alleviate the horrible suffering the people of Gaza have been subjected to. It also refused to leave certain strategic positions inside of Gaza.
Phase two of the negotiations were supposed to focus on a political settlement about the future governance of Gaza and lead to a definitive end to the fighting. The Israeli government refused to accept the beginning of phase 2, and the so-called “mediators” from the Trump administration instead focused on coming up with an arrangement for the extension of phase 1. Even though this constituted a clear violation of the January 15 agreement, the resistance still actively engaged in talks that would extend the ceasefire and resume the prisoner swaps. These negotiations were still underway when Israel decided to resume the assault on Gaza.
Trump has openly and repeatedly declared his intent to carry out the ethnic cleansing of Gaza, driving the population from their homes to make room for a luxury real estate development that would be owned by the United States. Netanyahu supports this plan, which is in line with the long-term goal at the foundation of the Israeli regime: remove Palestinians from their homeland to make way for colonial settlers. That’s what the resumption of the war on Gaza is really about: to attempt a new phase of ethnic cleansing required a sabotage of the ceasefire.
And Trump could use the resumption of the massacre to unleash an even wider war across the Middle East. Every day, U.S. warplanes are bombarding Yemen to punish the country for supporting Palestine – and he’s openly saying that Iran is next. Here in the United States and around the world, the need for people of conscience to keep up the fight has never been greater.
