To stop the war and defeat the Israeli state, mass workers’ action is needed
Per-Åke Westerlund, ISA International Political Committee
(This article was first published on 8 August 2025)
After 20 months of genocidal war, Israel’s war cabinet decided it would enter Gaza city as the first step towards full occupation. Reports now show that life expectancy in Gaza has dropped to 35 years, a level similar to the genocide in Rwanda in 1994.
Governments and politicians globally – Starmer, Macron, the Swedish government and even Trump – now attempt to distance themselves from the verdict of history. They delivered arms to this never ending war of extermination, and continue to do so.
To end the war, the global mass protests must involve the mass of the working class, with massive strikes, blockades of weapon deliveries and even larger demonstrations. Such actions, especially in the Middle East, can have a decisive effect.
The new steps by Netanyahu’s extreme right-wing government will push the Palestinians in Gaza further towards what Dante’s Inferno called the ninth and last circle of hell, a place much more suitable for those committing the monstrous war crimes.
The plan is ethnic cleansing
The aim of Netanyahu’s government is to force the Palestinians to leave Gaza. This plan, encouraged by Trump, is being implemented by the full blocking of food and aid since 5 March and the violation of the two-month ceasefire two weeks later.
The 2.1 million population in Gaza has been forced to evacuate – many of them two, three or more times – to extremely crammed tent areas covering 12.7% of Gaza according to The Economist. The stepped-up plan to conquer the entire strip starts with troops entering Gaza City, forcing people to leave. Netanyhau has made clear this is the first step towards “full control”.
This means any end of the genocidal war is postponed yet again. The many ceasefire predictions were a shambles. The horrific bombings and shootings will continue alongside mass starvation, developing into famine.
Since March, Israel’s government has planned mass ‘evacuations’. The notorious Boston Consulting Group “developed the model for a group of Israeli businesspeople” showing how “hundreds of thousands of Gazans opting for relocation (sic) could be moved”. “the US and Israeli governments had sounded out countries in east Africa (…) US officials had held preliminary conversations with the breakaway province of Somaliland about a wider deal that would also include establishing a US military base in the territory in return for recognition of its statehood”. (Financial Times 8 August)
The monarchy in Jordan and dictatorship in Egypt, first proposed as destinations by Trump, have both strongly opposed any resettlement in their countries. As other regimes in the region, they fear being connected to the genocide and to another Nakba. However, their close links to US imperialism mean that most of those regimes already fear inevitable mass protests, despite increased state repression. And in Gaza, despite the hellish conditions, there is still strong fear of a second Nakba.
During 20 months of genocidal war, the Netanyahu government has never had a concrete plan for the future of Gaza. Even now, proposing an unlimited take over of Gaza, Netanyahu vaguely talks about some “Arab force” later being in charge. He has completely ruled out any involvement of the Palestinian Authority, despite its role as a de facto Israeli sub-contractor on the West Bank. The worst extreme-right ministers in Israel are planning for new settlements in Gaza and the full annexation of the West Bank.
How far the ethnic cleansing will go depends on the fear of revolts and resistance in the region as well as opposition in Israel itself. The new war plans have been met with the strongest opposition so far, including objections from the military leadership who fear the consequences of full occupation. The 20 months of war so far has severely weakened but not yet crushed Hamas. Experience from Afghanistan and Iraq shows the limits of military “solutions”.
Other capitalist proposals offer no way forward. Trying to engage, Muslim and Arab governments last week, in a UN meeting in New York, called for Hamas to disarm and for a two state solution, with the Palestinian Authority in charge of Gaza. They of course know this will not be accepted by Israel, or by the US, but their position reflects pressure in their countries.
“Orchestrated killing” and complete destruction
The stepped up bombings and land occupation have been supplemented with mass starvation since March. The whole world can see children who die weighing less than when they were born. Other children are shot in their heads while attempting to reach places with water or food (BBC has reported about 93 children shot in the head).
“This is not aid. This is orchestrated killing”, is the title of a new report from Médecins Sans Frontières / Doctors Without Borders (MSF). This refers to four stations of the “Gaza Humanitarian Foundation”, where a week ago 1,347 Palestinians queuing for food were shot dead by Israeli troops. The four GHF stations, replacing hundreds of stations run by the UN, are under military control by the Israeli army and private US contractors. MSF calls the set up “a laboratory of cruelty” and continues ““In MSF’s nearly 54 years of operations, rarely have we seen such levels of systematic violence against unarmed civilians.” Another report says “The World Food Program estimates that a third of Gazans do not eat for days at a time amid alarming reports of mounting deaths from starvation” (US think-tank Center for Strategic and International Studies).
Because of global outrage, since a few weeks ago Israel allows a maximum of 100 trucks with aid per day instead of the thousands needed. During the ceasefire in January-February it was 600 per day.
The numbers of killed and wounded most often reported are underestimations. Over 75,000 were killed in Gaza by January this year, according to an independent study by the University of London. “4-5% of the territory’s pre-war population has now been killed (…) estimated life expectancy has fallen by more than 35 years, to roughly half the pre-war figure similar to the one in the Rwanda genocide” (The Economist).
Over 90% of hospitals are not functioning. Israel has bombed both the World Health Organization’s (WHO) accommodation and warehouse in Deir al-Balah and the aid agency Red Crescent in Khan Younis. The bombings have “destroyed Gaza’s healthcare infrastructure in a manner that is both calculated and systematic”, Physicians for Human Rights Israel concluded in a report that, “Israel’s deliberate policy of targeting and eliminating Palestinians as a group”. Statistics in the report are devastating: ”93% of households faced water insecurity as of June 2025, croplands have been razed, 80% of trees are destroyed, and 95% of livestock have been killed”. Alongside this, Israel has also banned fishing.
It is this completely destroyed Gaza that Netanyahu now enters with more troops and bombings, forced evacuations, starvation and famine.
Capitalism and its representatives are responsible
After 20 months of uncritical support, including direct US participation in the war on Iran, governments around the world are now attempting to distance themselves from Netanyahu’s regime. Macron and Starmer talk about recognising a Palestinian state. The Swedish government has politely asked the EU to freeze its trade deal with Israel. Even Germany’s government has recently threatened to suspend some of its military exports to Israel. Yet none of this has any effect on the genocidal war. They all continue to send arms or parts for arms to Israel. The Swedish government has also, like Trump, cut all aid to the UNRWA and refuses medical treatment to Gaza victims. Sweden’s trade with Israel increased by 50 percent in 2024.
Immediately, from 7 October 2023 when Hamas conducted its surprise attack and Israel launched its war, International Socialist Alternative stressed the roots of the conflict – the decades-long occupation, blockade and oppression against the Palestinian people. This is based in the global capitalist and imperialist system, with the Israeli state representing US and Western imperialism, while also pursuing its own national capitalist interest.
Under capitalism, there is no real justice. All improvements and steps forward are a result of struggles from below, above all from the working class.
Systems such as the UN, international courts etc, are harmless and paralysed by different national capitalist interests. US imperialism, especially under Trump, will not even pretend to follow any of their decisions; neither will Chinese imperialism, itself a brutal dictatorship. Both the main imperialist powers are ridden by crisis while courting dictatorships and regimes in the Middle East for economic gain and more global power. For Trump, a deal between Israel and Saudi Arabia is a special strategic target.
Governments and regimes supporting Israel have done so to stay in line with US imperialism and as part of the general militarisation and turn to the right of the ruling classes. When they attempt to take limited steps back it is a reflection of the mood in society. They can no longer justify Israel’s war on the basis of a “democratic right to self defence”. Politicians, aware there is general discontent and anger in society, know this can express itself in resistance to the ongoing genocide while reinforcing opposition to capitalist governments and their system more broadly. This dynamic is similar to how the protests against the Vietnam war coincided with other mass protests of workers and youth. Of course the times are different now, with a weakened left and labour movement, but the ruling classes still have reasons for their fear, which is expressed in repression against those protesting in solidarity with the Palestinians, labeling them as “anti-Semites”, “extremists”, or even (in the case of the UK) “terrorists”.
To stop the war and defeat the Israeli state, mass workers’ action is needed. Palestinian trade unions have called for strike actions and last Sunday saw major demonstrations in the West Bank, demanding an end of the war and the release of Palestinians held in Israeli prisons. In Israel, socialists have demanded “all for all”, the release of all Palestinian prisoners as well as the hostages in Gaza.
The struggle for liberation and against war must be democratically organised and aiming to develop allies across borders. There can be no trust in interventions or measures from foreign governments, or from Iran and its allies in the region and globally. The struggle against national oppression and war is linked to the struggle against the capitalist system.
We say:
- Escalate the global mass movement against Israel’s genocide. Build for new rounds of strikes, demonstrations and mass meetings.
- The trade union movement internationally should step up to lead the fightback against this war, including by organising workers, wherever possible, to halt the manufacture and transport of arms and arms components set for delivery to Israel. Spread the blockades of dock workers.
- Stop the famine and end the genocidal war. Immediate ceasefire now. For mass struggle to force the Israeli and Egyptian governments to end the ongoing siege and blockade on Gaza, allowing all the humanitarian aid needed to enter the strip as fast as possible.
- For real justice for the Palestinians. Israel’s war, occupation, settlements and siege must end. Build mass democratic organisations of workers and the poor in Palestine and across the Middle East including Israel, to lead a mass struggle to demand fundamental, socialist change.
- For mass struggle against all governments complicit in Israel’s war. Full support for the struggle of workers and the oppressed across the Middle East and globally. For a democratic socialist society, based on public ownership, democratic economic planning, internationalism and solidarity.
