2023-11-22 23:49:57
After a month and a half of a genocidal military offensive, the governments of Israel and Hamas, with the mediation of Qatar, the United States and Egypt, reached an agreement to, basically, exchange 50 Israeli prisoners in Gaza for the handover of 150 Palestinian prisoners in hands of the Zionists. In both cases, they would be women and minors.
By Daniel Sugasti
The fact is the product of a contradictory combination between the strong pressure of the massive protests that reject the genocide of the Palestinian people, in different parts of the world, and a policy of the Biden government, pressured by the previous phenomenon in the domestic sphere and concerned with an escalation of instability in the region.
In any case, the fact is that such a pact was not in the plans of Netanyahu and his neo-Nazi ministers.
The agreement would also guarantee four days of ceasefire and the entry of more trucks with food, medicine and fuel into Gaza, subject to a ground invasion and total siege by Israel.
The hostage exchange will be implemented in phases: each day up to 13 Israelis will be exchanged for about 40 Palestinian prisoners. When the deadline ends, “the release of 10 additional hostages will result in an additional day of pause,” according to Netanyahu’s cabinet, which has also made clear that this will not mean the end of hostilities, since, after the truce, “ “We will continue the war to return all hostages home, complete the elimination of Hamas and ensure that there will be no new threats to the State of Israel from Gaza.”
The same can be said for Hamas and other Palestinian militias, which will likely use that time to regroup and better reposition themselves in the theater of operations.
It should be noted, however, that before the siege and land invasion that began in October, Israel imprisoned 5,300 Palestinians, including at least 200 minors. Many of the Palestinian prisoners have absurd sentences, up to 20 years, for “throwing stones.”
In just over a month, according to the Palestinian National Authority (PNA), that number rose to more than 8,000 Arabs kidnapped and imprisoned, without any respect for legal norms or human rights.
To understand the reason and timing of this agreement, one must consider that, despite a brutal and unprecedented offensive by Israel, the Palestinian people are not defeated. Urban warfare, inch by inch in a terrain reduced to rubble, poses serious military difficulties for the invaders. In the spectacular Hamas attack on October 7, 391 soldiers were killed. So far in the ground offensive, Israeli sources admit 69 casualties, although that number is surely higher.
In just a few weeks, the Zionist occupation forces have dropped as many bombs on Gaza as the United States dropped on Afghanistan in the first year of that conflict. Israel has killed more than 14,000 Palestinians, 70% of whom were minors. Save the Children reports that a child dies every ten minutes in the Strip.
In the first 30 days, there were 11,000 Israeli airstrikes. That is nine times more than what Russia carried out in the first month of the invasion of Ukraine and 18 times more than the monthly average of US attacks in Afghanistan in 2019. At the beginning of November, 45% of the buildings in Gaza were destroyed or seriously damaged, a mark that even surpassed the destruction of Mariupol, the Ukrainian city severely punished by Russian artillery that disabled 32% of the buildings in 2022. Entire Gazan neighborhoods have been erased from the map, including refugee camps, hospitals , schools, markets, etc. But the Palestinian people, subjected to a thousand hardships, do not give up.
To this context of destruction and resistance in Gaza, we must add the growing pressure of numerous mobilizations around the world that show solidarity with Palestine and demand a ceasefire or an end to military financing to Israel. Despite Zionist propaganda and reprisals, in London, Germany, Paris, Barcelona, Turkey, São Paulo, Buenos Aires and, of course, in Arab countries, hundreds of thousands of protesters protest against the televised genocide occurring in Gaza . Added to this process are important protests, events, manifestos from organizations and prominent figures of non-Zionist Jews with the slogan “not in our name.”
This pressure, from different directions and with different intensity, is the factor that forced Washington to insist on the so-called “humanitarian pauses” to its Zionist partners. In Democratic ranks, rejection of Israel’s attacks is growing. Last week, more than 500 Biden administration officials signed a letter rejecting the massacre in Gaza and criticizing US support. In the midst of an electoral race, the White House is forced to cynically demonstrate “humanitarian concern.” But no one can be confused because, at the same time, Biden supports atrocities such as the invasion of Al-Shifa hospital by Israeli soldiers.
Within Israel, the element that was probably destabilizing for the negotiation was the pressure from the families of those held by Hamas. That sector of the occupying population accuses Netanyahu of inaction and insensitivity towards the Israelis in the hands of the Palestinian militia party.
Thousands of Israelis marched for several days to reach the prime minister’s office. “If you have to stop to get them out, let them stop. If we have to return the thousands of Palestinian prisoners that we have here (in Israel), let them be returned. But they should do everything possible to bring all the hostages, all of them.”said one protester. As the government debated final approval of the agreement with Hamas, a protest in front of the Armed Forces headquarters in Tel Aviv displayed banners demanding “Deal now!” o “What is the price of my son?”. Let us remember that, before the offensive, the prime minister was facing a strong internal crisis. In this context, Netanyahu finally had to give in and declared about the agreement: “It’s a difficult decision, but it’s the right one.”. There was, however, a wing of ministers who opposed it at all times and voted against, a fact that shows that the fissures in the intestines of the Zionist State can hardly be hidden in the midst of war.
The ceasefire, reluctantly accepted by Israel, is a relief for the Palestinians. However, it remains to be seen if it is respected. On the other hand, it cannot be said that the beginning of the end of the Zionist offensive, which seeks to regain direct control of Gaza, as part of a plan to exterminate the Palestinians, branded as “human animals.”
Ethnic cleansing, closer to being a “final solution”, will continue. For this reason, it is essential not to let up in the campaign and mobilizations against the genocide in Gaza. We must propose the departure of a single, secular, democratic and non-racist Palestine, a flag that, in turn, presupposes the destruction, the complete dismantling, of the Zionist State of Israel.
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