The International Committee of the Workers’ Party of Ireland condemns the current barbaric aggression of the Israeli government against the people of Gaza which has resulted to date in at least 280 Palestinians dead and more than 700 injured. This terrorist act follows a sustained blockade which attempts to starve the people of Gaza into submission.

Earlier this year Palestinians remembered the 60th anniversary of the massacre at the village of Deir Yassin, where the Irgun, a group of Zionist terrorists led by Menachem Begin, murdered some 300 Palestinian villagers, including women and children. This was a deliberate and planned operation designed to terrorise the indigenous Arab population and ethnically cleanse them from their lands. This current aggression involving an attempt at the economic strangulation of Gaza coupled with the physical terrorisation of the Palestinian civilian population has a long historical precedent as a calculated strategy from Deir Yassin, the systematic destruction of Palestinian refugee camps, the terror bombing of Beirut and the massacres at Sabra and Chatila.    

Since 1968 the United Nations has documented repeated violations of human rights in the Occupied territories including occupation, annexation of territory, the illegal building of Jewish settlements, the deportation and expulsion of Palestinians, the confiscation and destruction of property including the demolition of Palestinian homes and agricultural land as collective punishment, the exploitation of Palestinian labour, mass arrests and administrative detention without trial, ill-treatment and torture of persons under detention, censorship, the violent suppression of demonstrations and protests, military attacks on political organisations and the strangulation of the economy of the Occupied territories. 

The wide-scale Israeli military operations against Palestinian civilians continue in violation of international and humanitarian law. The Occupied Territories are under siege. Palestinian civilians, including children, are killed virtually on a daily basis. Civilians are deliberately targeted. All border crossings of the Gaza Strip have been closed and the total siege imposed has had disastrous social, economic and humanitarian consequences. Severe restrictions have been placed on the movement of the civilian population. The entry of food, fuel and raw materials has been restricted. Even access to water is severely restricted and drinking water has become unsafe. The Israeli occupation perpetuates the suffering of the Palestinians who are experiencing a humanitarian crisis.