On 16 September, a report by the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory concluded that the Israeli state was committing genocide in Gaza. It highlighted ‘mass killings’ across the territory and established that, through daily massacres and deliberate starvation, Zionism was intent on the physical destruction of ‘Palestinians in Gaza as a group’. These atrocities are backed to the hilt by US, European and British imperialism. Gaza City is now the focal point of this confrontation as Zionism steps up its campaign of ethnic cleansing. Meanwhile the British Labour government rolls out the red carpet for Israeli war criminals. But, on the scorched and bloodied land of Gaza, the masses have risen up. From Jabaliya to Khan Younis, this onslaught is being met by determined Palestinian resistance. The defining anti-imperialist struggle of our age, Palestine demands principled solidarity and action.
Evidence of genocide
The UN report provided detailed evidence to show the Zionist intent to wipe out the Palestinian people, showing not only that ‘extended families of Palestinians in Gaza [had been] wiped out, across several generations and life expectancy reduced dramatically from 75.5 years to 40.5 years’, but that even Gaza’s only fertility clinic had been attacked, with Zionist forces smashing the nitrogen tanks in which more than 1,500 embryos were stored.
In early September, Herzi Halevi, the general who headed the occupation military for the first year and a half of the genocide, boasted that over 200,000 Palestinians had been killed or wounded in Gaza since October 2023, or around 10% of the population. On 11 September, Gaza health authorities put the toll at 64,718 killed and 163,859 injured by the Zionist aggression. In the preceding month, the Ministry of Health recorded over 2,100 people killed in massacres by Zionist forces across Gaza; this is separate from the partial statistics on those killed through starvation as a result of a near-total blockade on aid. The World Health Organisation concluded on 22 August that ‘More than half a million people in Gaza are trapped in famine, marked by widespread starvation, destitution and preventable deaths’.
By the end of September in northern Gaza 43,000 children under five years old were suffering from malnutrition, along with 55,000 pregnant and breastfeeding women; 67% of pregnant women suffered from anaemia, caused by starvation. Steadily rising numbers of those arriving at hospitals have been shot at food distribution points, largely run by racist US mercenaries.
‘Gideon’s Chariots’ roll into Gaza City
In early August, the occupation wound down an onslaught launched in May, designed to ‘defeat Hamas’ and release Israeli captives. Zionist defence minister Israel Katz had claimed that operation ‘Gideon’s Chariots’ would ‘conquer’ Gaza. The Times of Israel lamented on 4 August that ‘None of these goals and objectives have been achieved… Hamas, while heavily weakened after 22 months of fighting, is still a capable force’. The article noted further that, despite the openly acknowledged blueprint to force all of Gaza’s population into a concentration camp on the razed land of Rafah, ‘the Palestinian population has largely not been moved to the south of Gaza’, with over a million remaining in northern Gaza City and around 350,000 in central Deir al-Balah. On 31 August, official military documents were published by Israeli media, admitting bluntly that ‘We failed’.
Zionist forces have proved incapable of liquidating a mobile and creative resistance, which is based amongst the oppressed and involves coordinated action between different liberation organisations. Hamas pointed out on 8 August that ‘The [Israeli] slogans of “crushing defeat” and “complete eradication” of Hamas have fallen at the doorstep of explosive tunnels and complex resistance ambushes. The illusion of “recovering captives by force” has been shattered by successive blows.’
The ‘chariots’ invading Beit Hanoun and Khan Younis ‘have been burned, and those inside have been killed.’ Releasing footage of its role in hitting Zionism’s southern settlements, Saraya al-Quds, the military wing of Islamic Jihad, could state that its rockets had hit the occupation before, during and after the Zionist operation. Gaza remains undefeated.
By September, a new onslaught was underway. Operation ‘Gideon’s Chariots II was meant to be a concerted offensive upon Gaza City involving 130,000 occupation troops – similar to the total number of US troops invading Iraq in 2003 – with the stated aim of forcing the entire population southwards, therefore controlling and defeating ‘Hamas strongholds’.
In the days to follow, Zionist forces reverted to the same savagery used earlier in Jabaliya, Nuseirat and other refugee camps, blitzing residential buildings in Shati’ camp and other areas of Gaza City. Residential high-rise buildings were falsely labelled ‘terror towers.’ By 13 September, the occupation had completely demolished 70 residential towers and buildings, severely damaging 120, and destroying more than 3,500 tents. According to UNRWA head Philippe Lazzarini, 10 of the agency’s buildings were bombed in Gaza City from 10-14 September alone, including seven schools and two clinics sheltering thousands of displaced Palestinians.
On 9 September, thousands of Gaza City residents took to the streets in protest against the invasion, with banners reading: ‘Steadfast until death in Gaza’ and ‘We will not leave! End the genocide!’ Displaced father Abu Zain told FRFI, ‘I will leave Gaza in my coffin rather than under their orders.’ Journeys out of Gaza City are treacherous, with Israeli bombings including the burning of tent cities further south. The road to Khan Younis is a 10-hour ride costing over £750, before even higher amounts are paid for scarce tents and pitches. Despite the dramatic escalation of Zionist airstrikes on 15 September, where fascistic Israeli Defence Minister Isaac Katz crowed that ‘Gaza is burning’, barely a third of the city’s residents followed warnings to leave.
As Zionist forces launched a ground invasion of Gaza City on 16 September, Zionist Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu appeared bullishly on a platform in occupied Jerusalem. Admitting responsibility for the 9 September Qatar airstrikes which failed to assassinate Hamas negotiators, he claimed that international isolation would eventually turn Israel into a self-reliant ‘Super-Sparta’. This was a tacit recognition that the demands of the international solidarity movement to isolate the Zionist state are beginning to bear fruit, as imperialist governments particularly in Europe are forced to make limited concessions, such as recognising a Palestinian state and seeking some kind of accommodation with the Palestinian Authority. Responding to those ‘statehood’ declarations, the Zionist regime announced it would now seek to totally annex the occupied West Bank – a move currently stymied only by US vacillation on the issue.
Labour imperialists complicit
Issuing a ‘last warning’ to Hamas a week before the ground invasion, Trump made it clear that US imperialism would agree to no proposal that did not disarm the resistance. Britain’s current Labour war criminals are no different, despite Europe’s more conciliatory approach to finding an imperialist-led settlement in Gaza. Starmer warmly welcomed Zionist president Isaac Herzog to London on 10 September even as entire apartment blocks were being flattened in Gaza City with their residents inside and millions of Palestinians were instructed to evacuate their homes. While the government was forced to block an Israeli government delegation from the DSEI arms trade show in London at the same time, this was little more than a token gesture to protesters: it made little difference to the 51 Israeli companies who did take part, alongside British companies, US companies and others enabling the genocide. British companies continue to provide 15% of the overall value of F-35 jets, including £572m in components since 2016.
Under Labour, Britain is militarily engaged in the slaughter, with RAF flights and intelligence supporting Zionist airstrikes and allowing refuelling in British airbases in Cyprus, while supplying parts for F-35 bombers. Annual trade in goods and services between Britain and Israel amount to £5.8bn. Weasel words from a government that welcomes Zionist genocidists into Downing Street, even as former Labour foreign minister David Lammy stressed that Britain – unlike the UN – has ‘not concluded’ that a genocide is taking place in Gaza, are meaningless unless followed up by action.
Meanwhile Lammy’s successor at the Foreign Office, Yvette Cooper, saved any real condemnation not for Zionist genocide but rather for the Palestinians. At the UN on 23 September, she referred to ‘Hamas terrorists’ as ‘barbaric’ but did not even name the Zionist culprits when referencing ‘continued bloodshed’ and ‘man-made famine.’ Labour Friends of Israel leader Jon Pearce, who lobbied for Palestine Action to be proscribed under the Terrorism Act, was promoted to parliamentary private secretary to the prime minister in September.
Labour is irrevocably guilty of genocide and war crimes in Gaza. We must step up action to bring these war criminals to account, force them to impose sanctions on the occupation and fight for a victory for the forces of Palestinian liberation.
Louis Brehony
FRFI 308 October/November 2025
