By Fabio Bosco
In the early hours of March 18, the Israeli army carried out more than 100 bombings against the Gaza Strip, killing more than 400 people, the vast majority of them women and children. The Israeli army reoccupied the Netzarim corridor, which divides the Gaza Strip in two. The Hamas-affiliated Al-Qassam militias were not affected.
The resumption of genocidal attacks in the Gaza Strip is linked to the goal of promoting ethnic cleansing and the expulsion of Palestinians from the Gaza Strip. To this end, Israeli representatives are looking for African countries that are willing to collaborate in this plan by hosting the Palestinian population expelled from their homes.
The President of the United States, Donald Trump, was informed and gave the green light to the attacks on the Palestinians in Gaza, breaking the ceasefire agreement negotiated by his envoy. This green light also means distancing itself for the time being from the plan for the reconstruction of Gaza—without ethnic cleansing but without self-determination for the Palestinians—presented by the Arab League on March 4.
Israeli political analysts attribute the resumption of the genocide at this time to internal factors.
On March 18, Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu was scheduled to testify in court on three corruption charges against him. The “interim budget” is scheduled for a vote on March 19 and must be voted on before the end of the month or the Knesset (the Israeli parliament) will be dissolved and new elections will be called. With the resumption of the genocide in Gaza, Netanyahu has been able to justify the cancellation of the judicial hearing and at the same time has obtained the support of the far right-wing religious MK Itamar Ben-Gvir and his “Jewish Force” party to vote on the “preliminary budget”.
In addition, Netanyahu promoted changes in the leadership of the armed forces and the Shin Bet secret service, by placing people he trusts in positions of power in these organizations. These changes are opposed by a large part of the Israeli population that opposes Netanyahu, but the military offensive tends to limit possible protests.
Nevertheless, Netanyahu will face increasing difficulties at home. In addition to the strangulation of large sectors of the economy that depend on a certain “stability” for their businesses, there is the issue of military recruitment and Israeli prisoners in Gaza.
Compulsory military service is rejected by the Haredim, the 1.3 million ultra-Orthodox Israelis whose exemption from conscription was revoked by the Supreme Court in mid-2024. Since then, some 10,000 draft orders have been issued, but only 300 have been submitted. Haredi opposition fuels the lack of military participation in other sectors of Israeli society.
The families of Israeli prisoners in Gaza also oppose the resumption of the genocide because it puts them in danger. They want the ceasefire agreement to be honored so that Israeli prisoners can be exchanged for Palestinian prisoners.
Expanding international solidarity
The Palestinian resistance alone is not capable of defeating Israel and its imperialist allies at this moment. The only way to permanently stop the genocide and move towards the liberation of all of Palestine, from the river to the sea, is to expand the resistance inside and outside occupied Palestine, by combining the workers’ and peoples’ struggles inside Palestine (new intifadas), in the Arab countries (a new wave of revolutions to overthrow the collaborationist Arab regimes) and throughout the world to force countries to break economic and military relations with Israel, especially U.S. and European military aid and Chinese and Russian exports.
In this sense, the IWL and its sections reject the resumption of the Israeli aggression and will continue their participation in united activities in defense of the Palestinian people.
