Trump Threat to Ethnically Cleanse Gaza Gives Israel the Go-Ahead
February 24, 2025
Permalink: https://revcom.us/en/trump-threat-ethnically-cleanse-gaza-gives-israel-go-ahead
There are increasing signs that Israel’s rulers are preparing for a renewed assault on Gaza with an even greater level of mass atrocity and ethnic cleansing than the past 16 months of slaughter and devastation.
“The Next Assault on Gaza Will Be Worse – Trump’s Call for Mass Ethnic Cleansing Is an Invitation for an Even More Savage War” is an important warning by Jewish Currents editor and CUNY professor Peter Beinart. From the current discourse among Israel’s rulers, Beinart concludes, “…I think we need to face the very real possibility that, in the weeks to come, Israel will renew its military assault on Gaza, that the ceasefire will end, and not just that Israel will renew its military assault, but that that military assault would be more ferocious, more savage than anything we have seen so far.”1 [emphasis added]
This and other reporting from Israel make it clear that Donald Trump’s fascist threats to remove all Palestinians and take ownership of Gaza, as well as his overall backing of Israel and the Netanyahu government, are major driving factors in these plans. Israel’s leaders see Trump’s “plans” as full U.S. backing for escalating their Gaza genocide (and attacks in the West Bank) to a whole other level.2 And prominent Israeli journalist Nadav Eyal points out that Israel is the only force which can possibly carry out the mass expulsion of Palestinians from Gaza that Trump is calling for.
These reports take place against the backdrop of a tension-filled ceasefire between Israel and Hamas.
On October 7, 2023, Hamas, a reactionary Islamic force, attacked inside Israel, killing more than 1,000 Israelis, mainly civilians, and took some 250 as hostages.
Israel seized on this reactionary assault to unleash a depraved, genocidal assault focused not just on Hamas, but mainly on the Palestinian civilian population of Gaza. Israel indiscriminately bombed densely populated areas, killing more than 48,000 people (perhaps double that),3 including some 18,000 children. Homes, schools, hospitals, water and sewage infrastructure, mosques, churches, farms, and shops were deliberately destroyed, leaving a hellscape of rubble and obliteration.
Israel’s onslaught has paused for now. As part of the ceasefire, Hamas has been releasing, in stages, its remaining hostages and the bodies of those who died in captivity.
Over the years Israel has captured and held—often without charges—thousands of Palestinians, including children. Now Israel is releasing hundreds, a mere fraction. (At this writing, Israel has so far delayed—and could refuse—to honor its pledge to release 620 Palestinian prisoners on February 22 as part of the ceasefire agreement.)
Further negotiations are scheduled to take place for a permanent end to Israel’s current assault on Gaza, the withdrawal of its forces, and the release of humanitarian aid into Gaza. But Israel and the U.S. are demanding that Hamas have no further presence in Gaza, a demand Hamas has rejected. So an extended ceasefire agreement—or even more negotiations—may not take place.
In the meantime, Israel’s leaders are seizing on the return of the hostages and glitches in the process to stir further hatred of Hamas and Palestinians, possibly as an excuse to abandon the ceasefire and resume its mass murder in Gaza.4
“If it’s up to Netanyahu and his far-right coalition associates then next week—following the ending of the hostage deal’s first stage [at the end of February] with the return of four more bodies of hostages—the road for renewing the war in Gaza will be set. This time, they promise, without restraints,” writes Haaretz military correspondent Amos Harel. “No United Nations and no court in The Hague will tell us what to do, when President Trump stands behind Israel, allowing it to finish things off as it pleases.”
A Strategy of Total Destruction and Forced Displacement
At this writing it is unclear exactly how events will unfold, but Trump and other U.S. officials continue to viciously threaten the people of Gaza and push for ethnic cleansing.
This past week, when the remains of the Bibas children and their mother were returned to Israel (see endnote 2 below), a Trump envoy threatened Hamas with “total annihilation.” Trump called Hamas’ actions “so barbaric,” and said he’d be fine with whatever Netanyahu decided to do now—whether continue the ceasefire or restart the war.
This is a big, flashing green light to Israel to renew its onslaught on Gaza with much more barbarity and violence than even the mass slaughter and enormous devastation in the months following October 7, 2023. For anyone who has watched the videos over those 15 months of tents on fire, children with their heads blown to pieces, hospitals and homes destroyed, journalists and aid workers targeted, it can be hard to imagine “much worse.” But, courtesy of the U.S. and Israel, this could happen soon.
Now, with complete backing from the Trump regime, high-level Israeli politicians and government officials reportedly feel they have a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to fundamentally change the situation by expelling the Palestinians from Gaza. With the ceasefire in Lebanon, Israel can now deploy many more troops to Gaza, according to Israeli journalist Eyal, and attack in the north, south and center of Gaza simultaneously. They would lay siege to the areas they’re attacking to try and force the population to evacuate (as they have these past months) and not allow any humanitarian aid into these ‘battle zones.’5
“[T]he most significant element of the coming plan is expected to contain considerable destruction, if not total devastation, of the areas in which the IDF [Israeli Defense Forces] will operate,” Harel reports.
Israel is already making preparations for the possibility of such a genocidal assault. Its far right-wing Communications Minister declared this past week that Israel would expel Palestinians from Gaza by force, not so-called voluntary migration.6
On February 20, the Israeli military dropped terroristic leaflets across Gaza. The leaflets, written in Arabic, referred to Trump’s ethnic cleansing plan and threatened to “impose forced displacement upon you whether you accept it or not.”7
People Must Not Give Up—
We Must Step Up, and Take the Struggle Against U.S.-Israeli Genocide to a More Massive and Determined Level
It is hard to imagine anything worse than what the Palestinian people in Gaza have already endured since October 7, 2023.
Yet now they’re facing not only a Nazi-like regime in Israel, but a fully fascist regime in the U.S., and the looming prospect of an even more violent genocide aimed at completely destroying and depopulating Gaza! This as Israel escalates its forced displacement and ethnic cleansing in the Palestinian West Bank.
These towering crimes—and crimes in the making—need to be met by much more mass, determined resistance than ever. But what is so striking now is the near total collapse of the movement against U.S.-Israeli genocide in Palestine!
Yes, the system—and universities, in particular—have refused to listen to the courageous, truth-telling voices of students, faculty, and others. Instead, they have stepped up their draconian repression. And yes, now we face the added monstrosity of Trump/MAGA fascism in power!
What would it look like to bring forward tens of millions of people in massive opposition and resistance on such a level that we create the kind of profound political crisis where Trump literally cannot govern the country and implement his fascist program?
But this calls for more persistence and determination. If you’re one of the many who feel up against it and don’t know what to do, you really need to listen to this clip from Bob Avakian’s recent interview on the RNL—Revolution, Nothing Less! Show on YouTube, The Bob Avakian Interviews, 2025, Part 1, On Fascism, Capitalism, and the Way Out of the Madness.
This is what is urgently called for right now, including to link the struggle against particular outrages to the existentially urgent need to defeat Trump/MAGA fascism overall.
Israel Steps Up Vicious Attacks, Calls for Annexing Palestinian West Bank
Israel’s campaign of repression and murder against Palestinians in the West Bank continues to escalate. Under the banner of “counterterrorism,” Israel is carrying out a violent campaign of terror, forced displacement, and ethnic cleansing.
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FOOTNOTES:
1. Peter Beinart, The Next Assault on Gaza Will Be Worse – Trump’s Call for Mass Ethnic Cleansing Is an Invitation for an Even More Savage War, February 17, 2025. Beinart, a left liberal and Jewish critic of Israel’s assault on Gaza, draws on the right-wing Dan Senor’s interview with Israeli journalist Nadav Eyal for much of his analysis. [back]
2. See Gaza Ceasefire Holds for Now… But Trump Threats Continue … Escalation of U.S.-Israel Genocide Looms, revcom.us, February 17, 2025. [back]
3. US medics who volunteered in Gaza demand arms embargo over ‘unbearable cruelty’ inflicted by Israel, Guardian, July 25, 2024. [back]
4. For instance, on Thursday, February 20, Hamas returned what they said were the remains of four-year-old Ariel and 10-month-old Kfir Bibas, their mother Shiri, and one other hostage who had been seized on October 7, 2023. One of the bodies returned, however, was not that of Shiri Bibas.
Hamas claims the mother and her children were killed in an Israeli bombing and Shiri’s remains had been mixed with other remains taken from the rubble. The next day Hamas did turn over the remains of Ms. Bibas.
Israel also claimed (without making their evidence public) that the Bibas infants were not killed in an Israeli bombing, but had been beaten to death by hand. The U.S. and Israel seized on the situation to condemn Hamas and demand revenge.
Whatever the truth of these various charges, Hamas’ seizure of civilians—including infants—on October 7, 2023 constitutes a war crime, which reflects their reactionary, revenge-filled Islamic fundamentalist outlook and program.
Even so, their crimes don’t hold a candle to those of the U.S. and Israel. Their depraved assault on Gaza has led to the slaughter of more than 18,000 Palestinian children, with uncounted thousands more traumatized, buried under rubble, or left parentless. These are towering war crimes and crimes against humanity, and now the U.S. and Israel are threatening even graver crimes. [back]
5. As Gaza Cease-fire’s First Stage Nears End, Netanyahu Seeks to Resume War, Haaretz, February 21, 2025.. [back]
6. Dan Senor interview with Israeli journalist Nadav Eyal. [back]
7. Israel Drops Leaflets on Gaza Threatening to “Impose Forced Displacement Upon You,” Democracy Now!, February 21, 2025. [back]