Nearly two years after Hamas carried out the worst anti-Jewish pogrom since World War II, both it and its backers in Tehran insist they’re determined to destroy Israel and eliminate all the Jews there. Hamas continues to use Palestinian civilians in Gaza as human shields, and takes advantage of their inevitable deaths to try to win support from capitalist governments around the world.
Hamas boasts it will repeat Oct. 7, 2023 — the murder of 1,200 people, mostly Jews, and the taking of 251 hostages, the destruction of farm communities, and the rape and mutilation of dozens of women — “again and again.”
Among those Hamas slaughtered were some two dozen Arab citizens of Israel and more than 50 immigrant workers from other countries, reinforcing Hamas’ message that it will never accept “coexistence” with Jews.
Hamas could never have carried out a pogrom on the scale of Oct. 7 without the financing, weapons and training provided by the counterrevolutionary regime in Tehran.
Israel’s blows to Hamas since then have weakened it enough that growing numbers of Palestinians in Gaza — and in the West Bank — feel they can speak out against the reactionary group and the disaster it has subjected them to.
In March, April and May thousands of Palestinians marched in Khan Younis, Beit Lahiya, Gaza City and other parts of Gaza demanding “Hamas, Out! Out!” Among their demands were calls for Hamas to end its war and return the hostages.
Before Oct. 7 “there used to be some opposition to Hamas,” Moumen al-Natour, a lawyer who helped organize some of the demonstrations in Gaza City, told Fox News. Since Oct. 7 “more and more people in Gaza despise them. The suffering caused by Hamas’ actions has turned the tide.”
Hamas has been beating, torturing and murdering some of those who speak out, often posting videos of their actions. “I’m moving from place to place, hiding because I don’t want to be killed,” al-Natour said.
International propaganda campaign
The Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry claims that more than 62,000 people have been killed in Gaza since the start of Israel’s defensive war, likely an exaggeration. And it never says how many of those are combatants. Israeli officials say nearly 20,000 Hamas combatants have been killed and most of its battalions destroyed.
Hamas’ claims that Israel is causing a famine and committing genocide are promoted by the bourgeois media, institutions like the United Nations and capitalist governments around the world. This encourages the Nazi-like group to continue on its course, refusing to end its war, disarm and release the remaining hostages, while keeping its boot on the neck of Palestinians in Gaza.
One indication that the mass famine charge is a fake is that almost every photo of an allegedly malnourished child has turned out to be someone with an underlying chronic condition, like Youssef Matar, who has cerebral palsy.
There are food shortages in Gaza, but they are primarily caused by Hamas’ refusal to end the war, its looting of food trucks and its constant disruption of Israeli attempts to organize the distribution of food.
But facts don’t matter to those who try to paint the Nazi-like Hamas as a legitimate political force. The U.N.’s World Food Program claimed Aug. 20 that malnutrition in Gaza “is rising fast.” But that’s a straight-up lie. Over the last several weeks Israel has facilitated a large increase in food going to Gaza. On Aug. 19 alone, the U.N. and other international organizations distributed over 350 truckloads of aid.
This is on top of other aid, including large amounts distributed through the Israeli-facilitated Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, which is expanding its operations.
Hostages deliberately starved
There are a group of people in Gaza who are being deliberately starved — and tortured. That’s some 20 living hostages still being held by Hamas. The thug group has also kept hold of the bodies of 30 more.
Hamas has filmed and released videos of grossly emaciated hostages who — on Hamas’ orders — describe going days at a time without any food and little water.
But truth is not important to Hamas apologists, the liberal bourgeois news media that repeats its slanders, or the imperialist powers, including Washington. The U.S. rulers see Israel’s war to defeat Hamas as an obstacle to advancing their efforts to plunder the Middle East and dominate the region.
Instead of demanding that Hamas surrender, disarm and immediately and unconditionally free the hostages, these forces turn reality on its head and demand Israel stop its war, saving Hamas from defeat.
Hamas’ ‘ceasefire’ bid
Meanwhile, the Israel Defense Forces have begun preparing to launch a new offensive to take control of the remaining 25% or so of Gaza still under Hamas’ murderous grip. It is calling up an additional 60,000 reservists, bringing that total to 130,000, in addition to the current volunteer and draftee soldiers.
The offensive is set to start in Gaza City, the strongest of Hamas’ last two remaining strongholds in Gaza. Thousands of civilians there have begun heeding the IDF’s call to evacuate in advance of the offensive.
Israel is allowing thousands of more tents to be delivered to Gaza and planning additional food distribution and medical centers to tend to the civilian population in advance of the offensive.
Fearing the coming offensive, Hamas announced Aug. 18 that it had agreed to terms for a 60-day ceasefire it had rejected a few weeks earlier. Backed by the regimes in Egypt and Qatar, Hamas hopes to give the impression it is for “peace” while the government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu wants to continue the war.
But Hamas’ proposal would only release 10 living hostages by the end of the 60 days and would require Israel to pull back from the largest sections of Gaza, giving up most of the gains it has made over the last several months. Negotiations would continue on a longer ceasefire that Hamas says would be “permanent,” despite the fact that it has no intention of renouncing its goal of destroying Israel.
The proposals would leave Hamas intact, to rebuild and carry out what its Oct. 7 pogrom announced — another Holocaust.