Israel is a country that, with the backing of major imperialist powers, was founded as a racist, Jewish supremacist state, 75 years ago, on the basis of horrific ethnic cleansing—with mass killing, rape, and destruction of whole villages of the Palestinians, driving masses of Palestinians off of their lands and incorporating that land into the expanding territory into what became the state of Israel (which had never existed before World War 2). And now Israel, with the full backing of the U.S. imperialists, is openly carrying out genocide against the Palestinians.

This is the truth. It describes the essential reality of this situation and its history. This truth is not “anti-Semitic”—it is just the truth.

—Bob Avakian, Some Basic Truths About the U.S.-Supported Israeli War Against Palestine

Last week, it didn’t seem possible that Israel’s murderous war on the Palestinian people in Gaza could get more blatantly criminal and genocidal. But this past week it did. Here’s how:

Two Hiroshimas of Explosives, Tank Warfare in Gaza City—Made in the USA 

Israeli tanks and troops have cut Gaza in half. They surrounded its largest urban area—Gaza City in the north—and then launched ground attacks on it. 

As this was taking place, Israel continued its massive air, missile, and artillery barrages. Since October 7, Israel has carried out more than 14,000 air strikes and fired more than 23,000 munitions. The Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor reports that Israel has dropped more than 25,000 tons of explosives—equivalent to two Hiroshima-sized nuclear bombs.

The planes that fly these missions, the bombs they drop and the missiles they fire are overwhelmingly made in the USA. This is all part of the $3 billion-plus in mainly military aid the U.S. gives Israel every year.

Israel has mainly used 2,000-pound bombs on Gaza. They destroy everything in a 115-foot radius and create impact craters 50 feet across and 16 feet deep.¹ These aren’t “surgical” weapons for targeting “Hamas leaders” as Israel claims. These are weapons designed for large-scale devastation. Satellite imagery shows whole neighborhoods levelled and many civilian facilities destroyed or damaged, including half of Gaza’s homes (222,000 damaged with more than 40,000 completely destroyed); 278 educational facilities; and 69 places of worship.² 

A “Trail of Tears” from Gaza City South—a New “Nakba”

As this was unfolding, Israel warned Gaza City’s 900,000 inhabitants that they should evacuate to the south or be caught in Israel’s murderous barrage—calling this deadly threat and war crime of forced displacement a “humanitarian” gesture. The UN said the numbers of Gazans fleeing soared, from about 5,000 people on Monday, November 6, to 15,000 on Tuesday, to 50,000 on Wednesday.³ 

These refugees in their own land flooded the roads going south—people mainly on foot as far as the eye could see, with only what they could carry, which was often a child in their arms. Many were unsure they would ever find shelter and safety. It brought to mind other genocides—America’s infamous “Trail of Tears,” when 15,000 Cherokees and 2,000 Black slaves that they owned were forcibly removed from Cherokee lands in the area that is now Georgia and force-marched to what is now Oklahoma, and the first Nakba in 1948 when 700,000 Palestinians were violently driven from their homes by Zionist settlers, never to return. Today many Palestinians fear they’ll never be allowed to return to their homes again. So far some 1.5 million Gazans have been displaced.

Some aid workers estimate that roughly 350,000 to 400,000 Palestinian civilians—men, women and children—remain in Gaza City. Many are afraid of being killed on the road or when they reach the south. Others refuse to once again give up their homes. 

One said her family heeded Israeli directives to go south but soon came under bombardment. They returned north on foot, walking between bloodied bodies sprawled along the road. “It was a horror situation,” she said. “I’m in total shock.”⁴

“Life” in Gaza: Hunger, Disease, Terror, Mass Death—“A Graveyard for Children”

“I have never watched a horror movie like this one.” 

Supermarket shelves are empty because of Israel’s blockade. Israeli has even destroyed a dozen bakeries in Gaza, depriving Palestinians of even bread. There’s no clean drinking water. Gaza’s wastewater treatment plants have been forced to shut down due to lack of fuel. This has forced them to release huge quantities of untreated sewage every day. 

The World Health Organization warns that diarrhea, chickenpox, scabies and upper respiratory infections are rampant, with younger children and immunocompromised people at the greatest risk. The head of the United Nations says Gaza has been turned into a “graveyard for children.”

The toll has been staggering: 11,000 Palestinians, overwhelmingly civilians, have been killed. Over 4,400 have been children. Some 3,000 women. Another 27,000 have been injured. Over 1,350 children are missing and presumed buried under the rubble from Israel’s bombs. Biden has monstrously raised doubts about the truthfulness of Gaza’s health officials and the scale of Palestinian suffering. This week, one U.S. official admitted the toll could be much higher than reported. 

“I have watched a lot of horror movies, but I have never watched a horror movie like this one,” one Gazan said. “I am certain that what you see on the TV is not even 5 percent of what we are experiencing.”⁵