{"id":272,"date":"2025-10-10T22:27:00","date_gmt":"2025-10-10T19:27:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/socialiststruggle.org\/en\/?p=272"},"modified":"2026-03-24T14:51:40","modified_gmt":"2026-03-24T12:51:40","slug":"ceasefire","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/socialiststruggle.org\/en\/2025\/10\/ceasefire\/","title":{"rendered":"Struggle for the Complete End of the War of Extermination and the Overthrow of the Netanyahu Government"},"content":{"rendered":"

More than half a year since Netanyahu\u2019s ultra-right government collapsed the previous ceasefire, a new ceasefire came into effect on Friday 10 October. It sparked a wave of relief and cautious hope that the two-year-long war of extermination may be nearing its end, accompanied by an agreement for the release of hostages and prisoners. Tens of thousands of surviving residents in Gaza began marching northwards from the makeshift displacement camps in the south, with\u00a0cries of joy<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Socialist Struggle Movement stands in solidarity with the Palestinian community that has been enduring an inferno of crimes against humanity in the Gaza Strip, with families from all communities anxiously awaiting the return of their loved ones, and with the masses who have fought globally to halt the war machine. The struggle is not over.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Israeli government has finally approved the agreement signed early Thursday morning in Sharm el-Sheikh regarding \u201cPhase A\u201d of the current ceasefire framework \u2014 for the release of hostages and prisoners, and the end of the war of extermination \u2014 despite opposition from far-right ministers of the two parties Religious Zionism and Otzma Yehudit, who don\u2019t want any\u00a0 disruptions to the ethnic cleansing plan for Gaza promoted by the government with Trump\u2019s backing, as they seek renewed colonisation of the Strip.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Between the announcement of the agreement and its implementation, bombings continued. Gaza\u2019s Health Ministry reported 17 more deaths, bringing the official, conservative death toll past 67,000.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Will the Ceasefire Hold?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The previous ceasefire collapsed within two months, when the occupation government refused to proceed to \u201cPhase B.\u201d The Trump administration now offers \u201cguarantees\u201d that this ceasefire will lead to an end to the war, which Trump typically\u00a0hails<\/a>\u00a0as progress toward \u201cregional peace\u201d and the \u201cend of a 3,000-year catastrophe.\u201d He is expected to deliver messages in this spirit during his upcoming ceremonial visits to Jerusalem and then Sharm el-Sheikh around Monday. Simultaneously, the same administration threatens to back a renewed Israeli offensive in Gaza should Hamas allegedly violate the framework\u2019s terms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to the framework, within three days of the ceasefire\u2019s commencement on Friday at 12:00 noon, living hostages and the bodies of Israelis and others held by militias in Gaza will be released. Simultaneously, around 2,000 Palestinian prisoners will be freed from the occupation regime\u2019s prisons and detention camps. This includes approximately 1,700 residents abducted from Gaza after 7 October 2023, who, as the Israeli regime\u00a0admits<\/a>, were not involved in Hamas\u2019s surprise attack. Additionally, around 200 of the 270 Palestinian life-time prisoners classified as \u201csecurity\u201d inmates are expected to be released. However, Netanyahu has stated that prominent Palestinian leaders such as Marwan Barghouti \u2014 the most popular Palestinian leader today \u2014 will not be freed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In line with the framework, Israeli occupation forces have withdrawn to the \u201cYellow Line\u201d \u2014 the deployment line as of 14 August, the date of the assault on Gaza City. Occupation forces continue to directly control\u00a0over 50% of the Strip<\/a>\u00a0and will maintain the siege policy. The Rafah crossing to Egypt will partially reopen, though it remains unclear when and under what conditions residents who left (or will leave) the Strip will be allowed to return.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although the ceasefire is expected to increase the entry of \u201caid\u201d in the form of essential goods and basic equipment, including materials needed for infrastructure rebuilding, the Israeli military can easily obstruct the transfer of supplies, especially in the vast areas under its direct control.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At an undefined date, the Israeli army is supposed to withdraw to the \u201cRed Line.\u201d This is conditional on replacing the Hamas administration with a \u201ctechnocratic\u201d government under Trump\u2019s direct control \u2014 a \u201ctemporary\u201d colonial administration backed by an \u201cInternational Stabilisation Force\u201d (ISF), a policing and occupation force directed by US imperialism and regional regimes. Further withdrawal is supposedly contingent on \u201cdemilitarisation of the Strip,\u201d with full withdrawal expected after an undefined number of years. The Hamas leadership has already\u00a0clarified<\/a>\u00a0that its movement will not disarm.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This ceasefire is built on a very unstable ground, creating high uncertainty about the coming months.<\/strong>\u00a0Similar to the relative ceasefire conditions in Lebanon, which include a routine of \u201clow-intensity\u201d Israeli military strikes \u2014 even in recent days \u2014 occupation forces remaining in the Strip will continue a degree of military aggression both by their presence and through potential violations and targeted attacks deemed worthwhile by the Israeli government and military command. There is concrete potential for collapse scenarios, as well as, as occurred with the previous ceasefire, military escalation in other arenas \u2014 including an attack on Iran that could ignite another war cycle. The Houthi administration in Sana\u2019a also\u00a0threatens<\/a>\u00a0to resume missile launches toward Israel in response to strikes in Lebanon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Netanyahu\u2019s government has been forced to cooperate with \u201cPhase A\u201d of the framework due to mounting pressure from Washington, which in turn reflected increased pressure from Arab and Muslim regimes in the region, and from governments within the Western imperialist bloc. Israel\u2019s arrogant bombing of Qatar\u2019s capital on 9 September, a US ally, prompted an unprecedented US\u00a0\u00a0declaration of commitment<\/a>\u00a0to defend Qatar and likely triggered the new attempt at a stabilising exit strategy from the Gaza crisis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mass protest strikes in Italy against the genocidal war marked a new level of international working-class intervention and highlighted the radicalisation potential of the prolonged historical crisis, which has shaken mass consciousness worldwide. The mass movements, although not sufficiently developed to directly compel the halting of the war machine, are undoubtedly a significant background factor in the dynamic. This includes the highly contradictory protest movement within Israeli society, where dominant forces have been establishment-aligned and only belatedly adopted a clear demand to end the war, yet objectively exerted pressure that somewhat constrained Netanyahu\u2019s government \u2014 albeit to a much too limited degree.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Western governments were pushed to pay lip service to recognising a Palestinian state \u2014 contrary to the demands of the U.S. and Israeli governments \u2014 and even took limited steps toward arms embargoes, including Germany, Israel\u2019s second-largest arms supplier, due to concerns over the destabilising consequences of the ongoing crisis and in an attempt to distance themselves from responsibility for the horrors of ethnic cleansing and genocide in Gaza.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In response, Netanyahu offered Israel the vision of a \u201cSuper-Sparta\u201d \u2014 deepening the subjugation of Israeli society to the needs of the occupation machine, including further austerity policies, regardless of international isolation. This vision is unpopular among Israelis and even troubles Israeli capitalists, who depend on exports, technology, and foreign investment, and currently prefer a ceasefire. Simultaneously, ruling classes in the West and the region await an opportunity to return to a state that allows \u201cbusiness as usual\u201d with Israeli capitalism, and\u00a0reports have already emerged<\/a>\u00a0that Germany\u2019s arms embargo will be lifted following the ceasefire announcement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yet even if the phase of releasing all living hostages and a layer of Palestinian prisoners is completed, there remains a clear threat that Netanyahu\u2019s government will seek an opportunity to collapse the agreement under the guise of security demagoguery.\u00a0Even after two years of\u00a0 shedding rivers of blood, it lacks a \u201cvictory image\u201d<\/strong> \u2014 it has failed to engineer mass transfer from the Strip and so erase the Palestinian people in Gaza, and has not decisively dismantled Hamas, despite a shift in the regional balance of power with the clear weakening of the \u201cAxis of Resistance\u201d led by Tehran. Within months, it will face elections to the Knesset [Israel\u2019s parliament], and there is significant potential for mass punitive voting against it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a scenario of ceasefire collapse in Gaza, counter-pressure would arise both from broad segments of Israeli society and from Washington, but the pressure would need to be heavy to deter attempts to resume the ethnic cleansing plan for the Strip. The fact that the far-right parties of Ben Gvir and Smotrich have not yet decided to leave Netanyahu\u2019s coalition suggests they are still banking on the possibility of the ceasefire collapsing, or a green light for increased aggression in other arenas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Struggle Is Not Over<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The concentrated aspirations of Netanyahu\u2019s government to erase the existence of the Palestinian people \u2014 currently pursued primarily through efforts to continue the Nakba [the killing and displacement of Palestinians around the creation of the State of Israel in 1948] via more mass displacement from the territories of historic Palestine \u2014 are not going away. In particular, the West Bank, which during the previous ceasefire became a focal point for escalation in destruction, killings, and mass displacement on a scale not seen since 1967, remains in the crosshairs of Netanyahu\u2019s government, which seeks to deepen the colonial settlement enterprise and advance annexation measures.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Netanyahu has not even paid lip service to hypothetical recognition of a Palestinian state, and Trump\u2019s framework will not reach the implementation of \u201cPoint 19,\u201d which suggests that at some unknown future time, conditions might ripen for realising the Palestinian people\u2019s national aspiration for statehood. Trump\u2019s framework is not intended to pave the way for a solution based on freedom and equality for the Palestinian people and all peoples of the region, but rather to re-advance the normalisation of the occupation in the service of US, Arab, and Israeli capital. Such a plan will inevitably lead to further bloodshed and even more extreme deterioration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In August, influenced in part by the refusal of the Histadrut trade union federation leadership under Arnon Bar-David to heed calls to lead a general strike to \u201cshut down the state,\u201d the government openly rejected \u2014 even in the face of hundreds of thousands in the streets \u2014 a ceasefire proposal that the Hamas leadership had agreed to. The strategic failure of the dominant organising forces in the Israeli protest movement, combined with an establishment, pro-capitalist approach and nationalist chauvinism, translated into a distorted campaign of nurturing dangerous illusions in Trump, as if he were the decisive force to end the war crisis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The \u201cHostages and Missing Families Forum,\u201d which did not represent the more militant families\u2019 line but rather a conservative right-wing one, was even among the voices calling to award Trump the Nobel Peace Prize. While the \u201cForum,\u201d alongside Bar-David and other pro-capitalist forces, promoted contradictory messages regarding the government and the war on Gaza throughout, it played into the government\u2019s hands and blunted the pressure exerted by the mass protests. Instead of advancing a horizon for intensifying the struggle and \u201cshutting down the state\u201d in the spirit of the Italian working class, leading to victory over the government by forcing an end to the military campaign, these forces turned to promoting the dangerous idea that only the grace of the right-wing populist emperor from Washington could resolve the crisis. Based on political despair, this notion has found resonance among parts of the Israeli protest movement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That same Trump, whose previous plan included the mass expulsion of Palestinians from Gaza \u2014 a \u201csecond Nakba\u201d \u2014 has provided tailwinds to Netanyahu\u2019s government in recent months, including for the escalation of the assault on the Gaza Strip, and shares responsibility for the mass killing of Palestinians, as well as for the deaths of hostages. His current plan is not a peace plan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now is the time to continue building the cross-community struggle for the complete end of the war of extermination in Gaza and the West Bank, and of the accompanying imperialist aggression in the regional sphere, and for massive investment in rebuilding infrastructure and communities in Gaza and beyond \u2014 at the expense of Israeli and other capitalists who supported the war. In this context, further demonstrations and strikes are needed, both locally and internationally \u2014 as well as intensified organised refusal actions among Israelis [i.e. refusal to participate in military aggression]. But there is also a need for a struggle for an alternative.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Netanyahu\u2019s death government remains the most dangerous force in the regional arena today, and it is urgent to fight for its overthrow.<\/strong>\u00a0But also to pose an alternative to the political parties of occupation and the rule of capital. Without a fundamental, socialist solution that includes ending the occupation and achieving freedom, equality, personal security, and social justice for Palestinians, as well as for Israelis and all peoples of the region, the path is paved for even more catastrophic bloodshed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yes to ending the war of extermination. No to the plans of Trump and Netanyahu. Overthrow the death government. There is no solution without a struggle to end the occupation and for social justice.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

More than half a year since Netanyahu\u2019s ultra-right government collapsed the previous ceasefire, a new ceasefire came into effect on Friday 10 October. It sparked a wave of relief and cautious hope that the two-year-long war of extermination may be nearing its end, accompanied by an agreement for the release of hostages and prisoners. Tens of thousands of surviving residents […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":273,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,31],"tags":[29,32,9,8],"class_list":["post-272","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-imperialism-war","category-gaza","tag-ceasefire","tag-gaza-genocide","tag-netanyahu","tag-trump"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/socialiststruggle.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/272","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/socialiststruggle.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/socialiststruggle.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/socialiststruggle.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/socialiststruggle.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=272"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/socialiststruggle.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/272\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":322,"href":"https:\/\/socialiststruggle.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/272\/revisions\/322"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/socialiststruggle.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/273"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/socialiststruggle.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=272"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/socialiststruggle.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=272"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/socialiststruggle.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=272"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}