by New Worker Arab affairs correspondent

Pictured: Emergency protest in Whitehall

Israel has broken the truce in Gaza. Innocent men, women and children are being slaughtered. Air raids are once again spreading death and destruction across the beleaguered Palestinian enclave this week. Anglo-American air-strikes are targeting Yemen. Hundreds of Palestinian civilians, including women and children, have been killed in the terror raids that followed the breakdown of talks aimed at getting the release of Israeli prisoners held by Hamas in the Gaza Strip. The Palestinian and Yemeni resistance has responded by rocketing Tel Aviv, forcing the temporary closure of Ben Gurion international airport. And the Houthi government in north Yemen has resumed its blockade of Israel with missile attacks on Western freighters and imperialist warships in the Red Sea.

The wave of deadly airstrikes that shattered the fragile ceasefire has so far claimed the lives of at least 970 people across the besieged territory. The health ministry in the Gaza Strip also registered “one death and five severe injuries among foreign staff working for UN institutions”. It said Israel attacked a UN office in Deir el-Balah, in the central Gaza Strip, on Wednesday.

The UN Office for Project Services (UNOPS) confirmed the death of one of its staff by an explosive that was “dropped or fired” on its building in Deir el-Balah, adding that five others were injured. UNOPS Executive Director Jorge Moreira da Silva said he was “shocked and devastated” by the death of a staff member. “This was not an accident” he said, adding that “attacks against humanitarian premises are a breach of international law.”

UN Secretary-General António Guterres says he is “shocked” by the Israeli airstrikes in Gaza and has called for the ceasefire to be respected. Guterres called for humanitarian aid to resume for people in Gaza and for the hostages held by Hamas to be released unconditionally.

The Israelis blame Hamas, the Palestinian Muslim Brotherhood that runs Gaza, for rejecting Israeli and American proposals for another prisoner exchange to prolong the first stage of the truce agreement. But Hamas rightly say that the proposals were unacceptable because it was not what had been agreed upon in the first place – a second stage prisoner swap that would also include the withdrawal of all Israeli forces from the Palestinian territory.

Israel has banned all aid to Gaza and cut off its electricity supplies. Now Zionist troops are pouring into the enclave in a new offensive clearly intended to drive the Palestinians out to clear the land for American property speculation and Zionist settlement.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Donald Trump “fully supports Israel and the IDF [Israeli armed forces] in the actions that they’ve taken in recent days”. But People’s China, Russia, the Arabs and most of the Global South have condemned the Israeli war-crimes.

China reiterated its full support for the legitimate national rights of the Palestinian people, foremost among them the establishment of an independent Palestinian state on the 1967

borders, with East Jerusalem as its capital, Liu Jianchao, head of the International Department of the Communist Party of China, told Arab ambassadors in Beijing that China would remain committed to its positions in support of justice and peace and considers the Palestinian issue to be the core of the Middle East issue. He emphasised China’s unwavering support for the just Palestinian position and its endeavour to achieve a comprehensive, just and lasting solution, He further voiced China’s rejection over using Gaza as a bargaining chip for political gain, considering it an integral part of the occupied Palestinian territory.