The slaughter in Gaza has now reached the grim milestone of 10,000 killed, while more than a million have been displaced with nowhere to go.

When the UAW went on strike, president Shawn Fain put forward a strategy of the “stand-up” strike, which he argued would be this generation’s answer to the sitdown strikes of the 1930s. How did the union leadership’s strategy work out?

The Israeli army, after much prevarication, finally started ground operations in Gaza over the weekend. But it was not a full-scale invasion. The Israeli military leaders are fully aware of the great risk to their own soldiers if they commence street-by-street fighting with troops on the ground. They are also wary of giving Hezbollah the excuse they require to widen the conflict, opening a second front on the northern border with Lebanon. So what are Netanyahu and his generals preparing for?

As Israel prepares its forces for a land invasion of Gaza, all the western imperialist leaders – from Biden to Sunak, Scholz, and Macron – are getting very nervous. They worry about what their world will look like when this is over.

Israel’s war on Gaza has all the potential to escalate into a much bigger conflict, with fronts opening up on the border with Lebanon and on the West Bank, and turmoil spreading throughout the region. Such an escalation would have a huge impact, not only on the whole of the Middle East but on the whole world situation. The ongoing massive bombardment of Gaza is already shaking the world, politically, economically and socially.

Hundreds of people were killed yesterday in the bombing of the Al-Ahli al-Arabi (Baptist) Hospital in the Al-Zeitoun district of Gaza City. The hospital was not only looking after its own patients – many injured in Israeli airstrikes – but was also sheltering thousands looking for safety from the IDF onslaught. As the news spread, tens of thousands of angry protesters immediately took to the streets in Lebanon, Jordan, Turkey, Tunisia and the West Bank, attacking Israeli embassies and the US and French imperialists’ buildings. The Israeli state was quick to deny any responsibility, as always.

In the West, capitalist politicians and the prostitute press declare unwavering support for Israel’s “right to defend itself”, and brand those showing solidarity with Palestine as “terrorist sympathisers”. This is being combined with legal repression of solidarity towards the Palestinian people, which must be boldly countered. The main bourgeois media outlets in Switzerland have launched a witch hunt against the communists of the IMT. We will not be silenced!

Justin Trudeau dropped a bombshell when he told the House of Commons that his government was investigating “credible allegations” that India had committed an assassination on Canadian soil. These explosive revelations poisoned the relationship between the two countries, and led to an exchange of diplomatic reprisals. The repercussions of this international relations scandal represents yet another blow to Western imperialism, against the backdrop of the decline of the  American empire and the rise of China.

The following statement by the International Marxist Tendency declares our solidarity with the Palestinian people. It answers the disgusting hypocrisy of western imperialism and its lackeys, who are rallying behind the reactionary Israeli state as it unleashes bloody vengeance on Gaza, following Hamas’ surprise attack on 7 October. We moreover explain why freedom for Palestine can only be achieved through revolutionary means and the overthrow of capitalism in the whole region.

War poses everything in stark terms and thus puts all tendencies to the test. The war in Ukraine has led to a series of splits within the communist parties in several countries, as well as provoking divisions among them. In order to go forward it is necessary to return to genuine Leninist policies, on this and on all questions.