Palestine: The Al-Ahli hospital massacre

Featured image: The Al-Ahli massacre

Last Tuesday, October 17, the massacre at the Al-Ahli hospital, in northern of the Gaza Strip, was reported. An aerial attack caused a great explosion followed by a fire. The building and the surroundings not only served to take care of the sick and wounded, but also as one of the few places where people could “take refuge” in the area. In the surroundings, thousands of people gathered where they thought they would be more protected from Israelis attacks, a hospital already crowded by the injured, which exceed 9,000 throughout Gaza. The result of this new attack is about 500 people murdered, becoming the most deadly attack against the Palestinian people since the counteroffensive began on October 7.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zjtnm6dazy4

Paramedic after the explosion describing the genocide, he has witnessed. Source: TRT World

Soon after the new war crime committed by the State of Israel it was denounced as such. We have previously reported on war crimes as a frequent tactic, showing that the multiple international agreements are empty words for US lackeys. Other facts that experts denounce as war crimes are that “Israel has ordered to the Palestinian civilians “to evacuate” to the south, due to the imminent land offensive, actions that the UN and right groups have set as could constitute a war crime of forced displacement.”

However, Israel, in a new attempt to hide their actions and white-wash their hands in the international panorama, has not only denied that they are the perpetrators and wanted to avoid the guilt, but also “proofs” that who is behind this attack is the Palestine Islamic Jihad (PIJ). It is clear that, in addition to wanting to divert attention to them, they seek to try to change the image of the fighters of the Palestinian national resistance, when they are trying to show them as the perpetrators of the greatest massacre that happened so far.

First, Israel denied to be the one who has perpetrated the attack since “we do not attack hospitals”, when just in the last 12 days there have been 3,785 dead in the Gaza Strip due to the bombings and eleven hospitals attacked. All of this without counting the ambulances and health personnel attacked by the IDF. Some media highlights the following: “In total, 22 hospitals in Gaza have received the indication from the Israeli military to evacuate, and this, according to the HWO, could constitute a violation of the international law”.

On the other hand, they allegedly have two “proofs” to try to show their innocence: the first one is that, due to the seize of the hole that left the explosion, they assure the ammunition launched was a rocket. And although they admit having been carrying out military actions in the area of the explosion, they say they have “other type of ammunition that does not fit”. Therefore, they ensure that since there have been no major damage similar to that its missiles usually produces, it is, according to Israel, a rocket of lower capacity of the PIJ.

This theory was soon “confirmed” by the Israeli Defense Forces in its own “investigation”, which would clearly confirm what its State already affirmed. At the moment, because of the complete blockade of water, food, electricity, fuel and medicines, even organizations for the so-called “human rights” point out that it is very difficult to prove Israel’s guilt in front of the bourgeois justice. However, this only shows that no large missiles were used against the hospital.

The other “proof” is an audio recording between two alleged militants of the Palestinian national resistance. The IDF published this “secretly recorded conversation between two Hamas militants” where they talk about a launch from Islamic Jihad that hit the hospital. In the call, it is mentioned that the firing came directly from the cemetery behind the hospital. But it seems that the Zionists have no control over their own propaganda, as they simultaneously release information claiming that this launch came from somewhere much further away, as Danish “Socialist Revolution” has revealed.

It is also reported that Israeli Hananya Naftali wrote on “X” that Israel’s air forces have hit a “Hamas terrorist base in a hospital in Gaza.” After a while Hananya deleted his original post and put up a new one, where he pretends that the explosion is mysterious and hints that it is a failed rocket from Hamas or a “false flag” operation. Likewise Israel posted videos as “proof” that they are not behind the bombing. But they are quickly disproved as either old videos from 2022, or completely fake. So they were deleted or edited.

There are a lot of things we could mention, but we should not remove the focus of the main point: although the State of Israel wants to wash their hands and blame the massacre to the PIJ, and even if this explosion was due to a misled or intercepted missile of the Palestinian national resistance – what is obviously not the case! –, the guilty one is still Israel. It is the one that has attacked during more than seven decades the Palestinian people, carrying out a systematic genocide on it, killing tens of thousands of people, forcefully displacing millions and turning Gaza into the world largest concentration camp.

The counteroffensive begun because there was a direct attack by Israel and the only path that the people have in front of this systematic genocide is armed resistance and open war against who started this war. Therefore, each of the dead and the ones that will be, are due to the bloody hands of the Israeli State.

Another fact that can happens soon, is the ground invasion by Israel. Even the bourgeois experts and intellectuals are highlighting that this could unleash a big risk for the Israeli army: “The invasion of Gaza means to run some risks at different levels, according to Moussa Bourebka, main researcher of CIDOB, and expert in global geopolitics and security. With him agrees Jesús Núñez, expert in international relations and co-leader of the Institute of Studies on Conflicts and Humanitarian Action (Instituto de Estudios sobre Conflictos y Acción Humanitaria – IECAH)). Both mention the short-range combat against the different Palestinian militias, which are operating with the ground in favor; the high probability of causing more civilian victims in a reduced area, strongly punished and very populated; and the possible execution of about 200 civilian and military hostages”. All of this could be a severe blow which could increase the defeat already suffered by the State of Israel with the Palestinian counteroffensive.

The Al-Ahli hospital massacre for which Israel is responsible – all their lies will tremble and fall – is, in regards to the planned invasion of Gaza by ground forces, a severe military, political and moral defeat Israel had suffered. After the massacre, there were many demonstrations in favor of the national resistance struggle of the Palestinian people.

There have been demonstrations throughout the Middle East, including the West Bank, where the people rose against the treacherous Fatah leadership. PA troopers shot at the protest killing at least two, one of them a little girl.

Today it has been reported that the Israeli army has killed seven Palestinians there, among them two teenagers, during raids in different refugee camps. Some media highlight that also has been a successful strike-action in the occupied West Bank: “The strike extended to several territories of the occupied West Bank, today Wednesday, to dennounce the ongoing Israeli aggression”, said the official news agency from Palestine, Wafa. This happened after there were the mentioned demonstrations and clashes against the police from the National Authority in West Bank. Since the beginning of the counteroffensive, there have been a total of 73 murdered people in the occupied West Bank due to raids of the Israeli army.

There have also been demonstrations in Iran, Jordan, Tunisia and Lebanon. In the latter, the demonstration occurred in front of the United States Embassy in Beirut, where tear gas were fired and water cannons were used against protesters who’d tried to storm the embassy.

Also a big demonstration was held in Iran.

Also in Egypt there have been great demonstrations in solidarity with the Palestinians.

In Iraq there was an attack with drone against a Yankee military base in Harir, in Kurdistan. The attack was claimed by a group as an action in “support to the Palestinian factions which are currently at war against Israel.”

In Norway there have also been new demonstrations during this week. On October 15 Kamp Komiteen reports arrests in a counter-demonstration made in Oslo. At least three people were arrested due to be demonstrating in favor of Palestine and against a Pro-Israel demonstration. On October 18, another demonstration in Bergen also took place, a city where there was another demonstration on which we already reported previously.

While its people take the streets to resist the genocide in Palestine, Norway’s imperialist State denies the apartheid that is committed, claiming that this term was created for what happened in South Africa and therefore “adds nothing.” Tjen Folket adds in their article: “Therefore, Norwegian imperialism has clearly declared itself before the entire world as an enemy of the Palestinian people, and therefore also as an enemy of the masses everywhere in the world and the world revolution and, therefore, it has as little right to exist, as the Israeli occupation.”

In south-east Asia there have been demonstrations, but we especially highlight the demonstrations that occurred in the Philippines, where according to Ang Bayan, on October 16 about 10,000 protesters met in South Cotabato to demand to stop immediately Israel’s bombings on Gaza. There were also great demonstrations on Wednesday, October 18, where the US was also pointed out behind Israel’s impunity.

Protests in Turkey were held in front of Israel’s General Consulate in Istanbul on October 17, ended with five detained people and one dead.

Large-scale demonstrations were also held in Athens, Greece, to show solidarity with the Palestinian resistance. The action took place especially after the attack on the hospital in Gaza. Many people participated in the protest and chanted “Freedom for Palestine” slogans frequently. The action, in which TKP/ML militants participated together with KKE(ML), continued from the front of the parliament building to the Israeli Consulate.

In the capital of Austria, Vienna, ATİGF and PARTİZAN participated in a protest action.

Following a call made by the Antifa, ATİGF and the Palestina Initiative Tirol, a march was held in Innsbruck, Austria, on October 17, following a moment of silence and speeches. The march was very enthusiastic, and resisted harassment by the police after a sinister campaign of smears and provocations on social media.

Wednesday protests took place in Nuremberg, Germany. As a result of the German imperialist State’s stance on the side of the Israeli State, solidarity actions with Palestine are banned in many cities. Avrupa Haber noticed: “It is a necessity to organize more effective public opinion and opposition against these reactionary and oppressive policies of the German government, which practically ban freedom of thought.”

In Brazil, the Revolutionary Popular Student Movement has released a statement in support of the Palestinian struggle and relating the tactics that are carried out in the middle east country with which they are carried out in some favelas of Rio de Janeiro. “As the reactionary armies and their fascist police forces do in the marginal neighborhoods and fields of our country, many of them trained in Israel. The people who live in the favelas of Rio de Janeiro will have to deal with the federal intervention and the incursions of the army in their neighborhoods, homes, schools, etc. This Tuesday, 150 National Force agents completed 3 days of operation at the Complexo da Maré. The schools are closed, residents are registered upon entering and exiting and can die at any time because of the bullets of Israeli weapons and be portrayed as “drug traffickers.”

And it continues: “It is the duty of every young man to defend the heroic Palestinian resistance and its brave combatants. This struggle is a standard for all oppressed peoples in the world. The brave history of the Palestinian people cannot be tarnished by the fascist lies of those who have not slept during the last week because they fear the uprising in their backyard. We must see as an example what these young Palestinians who know nothing other than Israeli colonial domination and decide to give their lives in the struggle for freedom. This is the struggle of all young fighters!”

“The crisis of imperialism as a general decomposition crisis will generate more uprisings like this. Yankee imperialism through the White House had to deny its own president, who declared that there were babies beheaded by the Palestinian resistance. Demoralized and defeated, they know that if they invade the territory of Palestine they will suffer the same as in Vietnam. Israel’s colonial fury forced the Palestinian people to live underground and imperialism will be defeated in the underground tunnels of freedom. This law of war is still valid: there is no combat on the enemy’s inner line. Imperialism has learned the lesson, but it will be dragged to more and more battles until its total defeat, within 50 to 100 years, as President Mao says. Afghanistan says it.”

Even inside sole hegemonic super-power, the United States, contradictions sharpen and the people stand to defend the Palestinian people in great protests. Jewish protesters have occupied the Capitol in a protest demanding an immediate stop of the attacks against Gaza. It has been reported that some of the protesters were arrested during the protest.

https://cdn.jwplayer.com/previews/gcCNyt6r

Video of the occupation of the Capitol in the midst of protests. Source: Americanve