On 1 April, seven aid workers, including three British nationals, were killed in Gaza when their jeep was bombarded by the Israeli military.
The Israeli government has deployed every excuse to avoid responsibility for this attack: from calling the strikes ‘unintentional’; to claiming that the aid convoy was accompanied by an armed Hamas militant. This is all, of course, blatantly false.
The vehicle was clearly labelled ‘World Central Kitchen’ (WCK). It was travelling in a non-combat zone, and had shared its coordinates with the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF).
Far from being the result of a ‘miscommunication’, one IDF source revealed to Haaretz that “the General Staff know exactly why WCK were bombed – because in the Strip, everyone does whatever they like.” In other words, entire IDF units are targeting civilians with impunity.
Let us be clear: this was cold-blooded murder – part of a deliberate strategy by the Zionists to starve Gaza, by making it impossible for food aid agencies to continue their operations there.
As the head of WCK commented in an official statement: “This is an attack on humanitarian organisations showing up in the most dire of situations, where food is being used as a weapon of war.”
“I want to be very clear—the strike was not carried out with the intention of harming WCK aid workers. It was a mistake that followed a misidentification—at night during a war in very complex conditions. It shouldn’t have happened.”
Watch the full statement by IDF Chief of the… pic.twitter.com/JnvoJOTVg9
— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) April 2, 2024
Far from being the ‘sorrowful accident’ portrayed in the capitalist press, this attack was in fact a great success in the eyes of the Israeli ruling class, despite the negative press.
Ships carrying 300 million tonnes of food and supplies have been turned back to Cyprus. Several aid agencies have ceased working in Gaza.
This will have catastrophic consequences for civilians in the Gaza strip, who are already suffering widespread malnutrition, starvation, and disease. The massacring of aid workers therefore sends a clear message to the world: we intend for thousands more to starve.
Blood on their hands
Now that British citizens have been killed, however, the UK government finds itself in an embarrassing position.
Rishi Sunak and ‘Lord’ David Cameron are cringing and complaining about the need for an ‘independent investigation’, and have decried the ‘humanitarian crisis’ in Gaza.
‘Sir’ Keir Starmer, meanwhile, one of Israel’s biggest cheerleaders, has denounced the strike as “outrageous and unacceptable”, and has called for those responsible to be “held to account” in line with “international law”.
But we aren’t fooled by these crocodile tears. The Tory government – with the full backing of Starmer’s so-called ‘opposition’ – has actively supported the slaughter in Gaza every step of the way.
They’ve sent millions of pounds worth of weapons to the Israeli occupation forces. They’ve justified atrocities like the massacres at the Al-Shifa and Al-Aqsa hospitals. They’ve turned a blind eye to genocide.
And now they feign shock and horror when British citizens are caught in the crossfire. What foul, stinking hypocrisy!
These mealy-mouthed statements won’t wash the blood from their hands.
Down with imperialism!
The truth is that the western leaders – Sunak, Biden, Scholz, Macron, and the rest of this warmongering cabal – did everything short of ordering the strike themselves.
They provided the political cover, alongside the financial and military means, and have promised the Zionist government that they will have its back, no matter what.
No amount of independent investigations, or toothless denunciations from the United Nations and the International Court of Justice, will stop the Israeli imperialists from committing war crimes against civilians, aid workers, and healthcare workers.
While our ruling class scrambles to conceal its open barbarism, we, the communists, will continue to wage a tireless struggle to bring down this entire blood-soaked imperialist system.
- No trust in Sunak or Starmer!
- Down with the Tories! Down with imperialism!
- Intifada until victory! For a Socialist Federation of the Middle East!
