Hamas decapitated, but Netanyahu vows to keep killing Palestinians anyway

Mourners attend the funeral of Palestinians killed in the Israeli bombardment of the Gaza Strip outside the hospital morgue in Deir al-Balah on Wednesday, Oct. 9, 2024. | Abdel Kareem Hana / AP

Israel has no excuses left for carrying on with its genocide of the Palestinian people.

With the killing of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar in combat—the supposed “mastermind” of Oct. 7—Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his extremist government are left with few justifications to explain why they need to keep murdering Palestinians.

Their body count is already 42,000, not including those lost beneath the ruins of Gaza and never found. Another 100,000 are injured or disabled.

But not enough people have been killed or maimed yet, apparently, because immediately after the announcement of Sinwar’s death, Netanyahu vowed the annihilation of Gaza will proceed as planned.

“This is not the end of the war in Gaza,” he declared Thursday as he ordered anyone in Palestine still resisting the occupation of their homeland to surrender to their fate. “Israel will hunt you down,” Netanyahu said.

What rationale could there be for continuing to execute his war?

Is it the Israeli hostages still believed to be held in Gaza? Surely not. If securing their freedom was the true motivating factor, this war could have ended long ago, as there have been multiple offers of prisoner swaps in exchange for a ceasefire and withdrawal of Israeli soldiers.

Without exception, those proposals have been spurned or sabotaged.

No, as Netanyahu made clear, even the immediate release of hostages wouldn’t end this war. That’s because it’s not about them; it’s not even about Oct. 7, not for him at least.

It’s about the imperial expansion of “Greater Israel” via the absorption of the lands of Palestinians, Lebanese, and others. It’s about the prime minister prolonging his hold on power by delaying criminal investigations into his own corruption. And most of all, it is about making U.S. imperialism Israel’s direct partner in waging a regional war in the Middle East.

Netanyahu’s own words showed as much, with the gaslight history of the current conflict that he peddled Thursday night. Rather than a war of brutal aggression and extermination, Israel’s campaign is being recast as a fight for the liberation of the whole Middle East.

The IDF’s rampage across Gaza and Lebanon, its air strikes in Syria, Yemen, and other countries—these are not evidence of a reign of terror and murder; they’re actually part of a noble battle to free the world of “the axis of terror built by Iran.”

Palestinians, he said, should be upbeat about their future, they should see mass death and displacement “as an opportunity,” a chance to “break free.”

He actually had the gall to ask the other peoples of the Middle East to also celebrate their own oppression under the heel of the Israeli army. “In Gaza, in Beirut, in the streets of the entire area, the darkness is withdrawing and the light is rising,” he said.

The people on the receiving end of Israeli bombs and bullets in all those places might be forgiven if they think otherwise.

Netanyahu was joined in his celebrations by his top ally, President Joe Biden. The U.S. leader proudly took credit for helping kill Sinwar. “With our intelligence help, the IDF relentlessly pursued Hamas’s leaders, flushing them out of their hiding places and forcing them onto the run…. Today proves once again that no terrorists anywhere in the world can escape justice, no matter how long it takes.”

Democratic nominee Vice President Kamala Harris joined the chorus, repeating the endless refrain that “Israel has a right to defend itself.” She called the killing of Sinwar “clear progress toward that goal…. Hamas is decimated, and its leadership is eliminated.”

They both suggested it’s time for Netanyahu to begin planning an off-ramp toward a ceasefire. Neither hinted they’d take any substantive action to force that to happen, though, despite the fact that helping Netanyahu continue the war equates to helping Donald Trump win the U.S. election in November.

The war in Gaza is costing Harris crucial votes in many swing states, and Netanyahu knows it. Jordan’s former foreign minister, Marwan al-Muasher, now based at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, stated the obvious Thursday: “There is no reason for Netanyahu to stop his wars before the American elections. He’s not going to give Harris any credit or gift before the polls.”

If the human carnage in Gaza isn’t enough to make the Democratic leaders rethink their blank-check backing for Israel, one would think that political self-interest might move the needle. But no, the weapons will keep flowing.

It all makes the Biden administration’s recent “30-day warning” to Netanyahu to address the humanitarian crisis in Gaza or risk losing his arms supply look more and more like an election stunt intended for a domestic U.S. voting audience.

In fact, rather than pulling back support, the U.S. role in Israel’s war has already moved beyond that of arms dealer and enabler. The Pentagon has called up thousands of U.S. troops and announced the deployment of 100 soldiers to Israel to operate a U.S. missile system to support Netanyahu in his plan for war against Iran. And on the same day that Sinwar was killed, U.S. nuclear-capable B-2 stealth bombers carried out attacks in Yemen against Houthi rebels as part of the campaign to escalate conflict with Iran.

None of these are steps toward peace.

The response of much of the U.S. corporate media to all these events has been predictable. The Wall Street Journal said late Thursday that Netanyahu has been “vindicated” in his decision to “invade Rafah despite condemnation by the United Nations and human rights experts.” Cheering on the Israeli killing machine, this mouthpiece of the capitalist class and U.S. imperialism encouraged even more “ferocious retribution” by Israel.

According to a report from the Associated Press, that is exactly what’s about to happen. Flying in the face of Biden’s demand for more humanitarian aid for Gaza, Netanyahu is actually finalizing plans to completely seal off northern Gaza from any help whatsoever.

The Israeli leadership is plotting to trap hundreds of thousands of Palestinians in the north, leaving them with no food or water. This is the so-called “Generals’ Plan,” formulated by top IDF commanders. Every person in north Gaza—men, women, children—are to be labeled combatants, allowing the army to kill them all, whether by force, starvation, or any other means.

While the finishing touches are being made for the official policy documents, in reality, the scheme is already being implemented. The World Food Program says no food supplies entered northern Gaza at all in the first half of October. It calculates that 91% of Gazans are facing catastrophic food insecurity, and the International Criminal Court charged Netanyahu with using starvation as a weapon months ago.

On Thursday, after Sinwar’s death, Israel blockaded all further food imports into Gaza. Perhaps the next stage of the mass killing will be via slower means, not like the live incineration that 19-year-old Shaban al-Dalu and others were subjected to by Israel this week.

All of these steps are signs that Netanyahu is making moves to lock in his gains now before the U.S. election—gobbling up as much land as possible, annihilating as many people inside Gaza as possible, and making an open U.S. war with Iran as likely as possible.

Harris, following Biden’s lead, has shown that U.S. threats of cutting off weapons shipments are generally empty, but the Israeli leader still worries about the possibility of greater restraints should the Democrat win. He’s hoping for a Trump victory, which would result in even stronger support for his planned war on Iran, but he’ll take what he can get in the meantime in case a MAGA win doesn’t materialize.

To block the road to a wider war and save Palestine from destruction, there must be an immediate arms embargo on Israel. When Congress returns, the Senate will be voting on Sen. Bernie Sanders’ Joint Resolutions of Disapproval, which would block offensive arms sales to Netanyahu.

Readers should contact their Senators and members of the House to let them know you want them to support the Sanders proposal. Talk about the need for an arms embargo to your fellow election volunteers when you’re out door-knocking and getting out the vote. Tell your co-workers about the need for action to stop this conflict.

Use this moment after Sinwar’s killing—when ceasefire is again being discussed—to make the case that there is no justification for the continued all-out war against the Palestinian people, the Lebanese people, or the Iranian people.

There is no justification for continuing the starvation and mass murder of the children of Gaza. There is no justification for not seeking an immediate ceasefire deal. And there is absolutely no justification for continued U.S. support for Netanyahu’s genocide.

There are no excuses left.

As with all op-eds published by People’s World, this article reflects the views of its author.

We hope you appreciated this article. At People’s World, we believe news and information should be free and accessible to all, but we need your help. Our journalism is free of corporate influence and paywalls because we are totally reader-supported. Only you, our readers and supporters, make this possible. If you enjoy reading People’s World and the stories we bring you, please support our work by donating or becoming a monthly sustainer today. Thank you!

---

CONTRIBUTOR

C.J. Atkins

C.J. Atkins is the managing editor at People's World. He holds a Ph.D. in political science from York University in Toronto and has a research and teaching background in political economy and the politics and ideas of the American left.