Despite the unstable ceasefires in Gaza and Lebanon the key questions — Israel’s dismantling of Hamas so it cannot carry out more bloody pogroms against Jews, as well as Israel preventing Tehran from getting nuclear weapons — remain unresolved. This ensures that further conflicts to defend Israel’s existence as a refuge for Jews lie ahead.
The dismantling of Hamas would create better conditions for workers of all nationalities and religions to be able to come together to defend their own class interests and to advance the class struggle.
A battered Hamas is using the ceasefire to try to recover from the big blows it suffered, reimpose its brutal dictatorship over the people of Gaza, reconstruct its army of death squads and prepare more pogroms against Jews in Israel. They say they will attack Jews “over and over again” until they are all either dead or gone.
Senior Hamas official Osama Hamdan told Al Jazeera Feb. 16 that the Oct. 7, 2023, slaughter of 1,200 people in Israel and the taking of more than 250 hostages was a “historic success” that shows “that Israel’s defeat is possible.” This is the reactionary group’s central goal, no matter how many thousands of Gazan civilians get killed as a result of Hamas’ strategy of using them as human shields.
The Washington Post reported that the Israeli military is putting together plans to strike nuclear weapons development sites in Iran. In response, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said, Feb. 13, “If you hit a hundred [sites], our experts will build a thousand.”
Pezeshkian’s response reaffirmed the determination of the regime in Iran to acquire the means to annihilate Israel and the Jews.
Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Brig. Gen. Ali Fadavi threatened Feb. 17 that Iran will carry out new missile strikes against Israel at the “appropriate time.”
All this is why Israel needs to target the Iranian regime’s facilities used to develop and deploy nuclear weapons.
More hostages to be released
Hamas announced Feb. 18 that it would release six more hostages from Israel — including two held for years before 2023 — along with the corpses of four others by the weekend. That would complete 10 days early the releases of living hostages agreed to in the first phase of the ceasefire, which began Jan. 19. Hamas says that eight of the hostages originally on the list to be released in the first phase are dead.
With each hostage release, more facts are coming out about their torture and deliberate starvation by Hamas.
In exchange Israel will release 47 Palestinians accused of terrorist acts along with all Gazan women and minors under 19 years old detained since Oct. 8, 2023, who were not combatants. In addition, Israel will allow the entry of mobile homes and heavy construction equipment into Gaza.
As much as 70% of the residential buildings in Gaza have been destroyed, including some 245,000 homes, because Hamas set up its military bases and storage facilities in or next to them to launch attacks on Israel. While the construction machinery will be used to clear rubble, Hamas will be sure to also use it to rebuild their underground fortifications.
At the same time, negotiations between Israel and Hamas over the second phase of the ceasefire are beginning. Hamas is insisting that as part of releasing the remaining some 60 hostages — of which at least 35 are believed dead — Israeli troops completely withdraw from the territory.
Israel: Hamas must be dismantled
A central question in the negotiations will be ending Hamas’ rule in Gaza. Hamas claims it’s willing to concede political “control” to the Palestinian Authority, but will maintain its structures and armed groups.
But Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says none of this is going to happen. Replacing Hamas with the Palestinian Authority would simply ensure that Hamas will rebuild and massacre Jews again.
Spurred by President Donald Trump’s plan for Gaza, for the governments of Egypt and Jordan to take in all the residents of Gaza and then let U.S. companies “rebuild” the strip, some capitalist governments in the region are scrambling to come up with an alternative. Trump’s plan underscores the fact that Washington puts its own economic and political interests first and foremost.
The Egyptian regime has a counterproposal, discussed with the rulers in Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, to relocate Gazans to “secure areas” inside Gaza while Egyptian and other foreign construction companies rebuild the territory.
Cairo envisions a new Palestinian administration without Hamas or the Fatah-led Palestinian Authority. But it would still rely on former Palestinian Authority police helped by cops trained by Egypt and others.
Ceasefire in Lebanon
Israeli troops completed their withdrawal from southern Lebanon Feb. 18, leaving five garrisons on high ground along the Israel-Lebanon border. Israel also tripled the number of troops it plans to station along the border.
Hezbollah agreed to the ceasefire after Israeli strikes destroyed 80% of its missile stock, wounded thousands of Hezbollah fighters and killed its central leader, Hassan Nasrallah. But Israeli officials say that Hezbollah has still not carried out the terms of the accord, which requires it to withdraw all its forces north of the Litani River.
Years before the current conflict, Hezbollah systematically violated an agreement to withdraw from the same area after pledging to do so in 2006.
