By Marx International   12- 24- 2023

The 3rd Palestinian Intifada entered the phase of the open and declared Civil War between the Palestinian militias and the occupying troops of Israel starting on October 7, 2023, when the Palestinian militias began an offensive and inflicted a defeat on the Defense Forces. of Israel (IDF).

The most spectacular facts that characterize this 3rd Palestinian Intifada are the enormous number of casualties in the Israeli army, more than 800 Israeli soldiers in 80 days. This, according to official figures from the Netanhayu government. But these figures could still be much higher, which is added to the destruction of hundreds of vehicles, tanks, excavators, and military material by the IDF, the loss of control of the Red Sea of part of imperialism and NATO, and the enormous mobilization of support for Palestine that travels across the 5 continents and strengthens the 3rd Intifada of the Palestinian people.

After the end of the ceasefire that lasted a week from Thursday, November 23 to December 1, the advance of Israeli troops has slowed down in Gaza, and has begun to suffer enormous casualties as a result of the urban guerrilla war that is taking place. is developing in the city's neighborhoods, to which are added the casualties it is suffering on the fronts in northern Lebanon, the Golan Heights and the West Bank. The enormous global mobilization in favor of Palestine that has been unleashed leaves the Nazi Zionist State in complete political isolation at an international level, which, added to the military coups suffered by the Israeli armed forces, puts the slogan of destruction of the State of Israel, which has become popular worldwide with the phrase "From the river to the sea", as we will explain later.

The ceasefire had already meant a retreat from the criminal government of Netanyahu, who had stated that he was not going to make any agreement with the Palestinian militias. But Netanhayu accepted the Ceasefire as a result of the fact that the forces of the Zionist army had been severely beaten by the Palestinian militias, while the agreement sought to stop the "Global Intifada" , the gigantic mass mobilization that is hitting all the countries hard. capitalist and imperialist governments that lead to the emergence of thousands of activists around the world who embrace the Palestinian cause.

The response to the National Liberation War of the Palestinian people that the Netanhayu government has launched is a criminal and fascist bombing of the civilian population that has cost the lives of more than 20,000 Palestinian civilians, most of them children, the elderly, among the most vulnerable sectors of the Palestinian population of Gaza. The fascist cowards who run the Nazi state of Israel carry out these atrocities to defeat and terrorize the Palestinian Intifada, but they achieve exactly the opposite: A greater global uprising for Palestine, and greater cohesion of the Palestinian people in their fight for the National Liberation.

We had defined the 3rd Palestinian Intifada as a National Liberation War of the Palestinian people that consists of 4 fronts: 1) Gaza, 2) the West Bank, 3) Northern Lebanon, and 4) Golan Heights. But we believe that it is more appropriate to define the existence of a 5th front in the revolution of the Palestinian people: The global mass mobilization that corners imperialism, its governments and strengthens the struggle of the Palestinian people, because it takes place on the 5 continents, and has as the epicenter the imperialist countries and their main cities. Thus, the 3rd Intifada is a global mass mobilization , with its epicenter in Palestine but covering the 5 continents.

First front of the 3rd Intifada: "Rain of ambushes" in Gaza

After the end of the ceasefire, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) continued to enter Gaza and managed to deal heavy blows to the Palestinian militias in areas of northern Gaza such as Beit Lahia, Bait Hanun where hundreds of Palestinian militiamen were killed , the IDF discovered part of the tunnel structure operated by the Palestinian militias, and managed to consolidate their dominance although it was in largely uninhabited areas where the IDF made its advances most quickly. In these areas, the forces of the Palestinian militias and the resistance have suffered a strong degradation of their capabilities.

But the advances were made based on heavy military losses of the IDF, more important than they assumed, which caused the IDF's advances to slow down. The actions of these Palestinian militias have copied the strategy of the Ukrainian partisans against Putin's occupation army. On the one hand, in urban areas, the Israeli army cannot find anyone to fight against because the tactics of the Palestinian militias are not those of combat. face to face, frontal, but rather ambushes, traps, traps, surprise attacks, typical tactics of urban guerrilla warfare.

However, as the IDF moved deeper into the central and southern parts of Gaza, neighborhoods such as Jabalia, Sheikh Radwan , Shejaiya, or Khan Younis began to suffer serious ambushes from Palestinian guerrillas. From there, the IDF's advance into Gaza slowed, while the losses they suffered became increasingly serious. In total, according to the IDF itself, as of December 10, 425 soldiers had died and 1,593 had been wounded since the beginning of the war. Of the 1,593 injured, 255 are in serious condition, 446 in moderate condition and 892 in minor condition.

We know that these figures are false, that the Netanhayu government is lying, and that Israel's losses in soldiers are much greater. On November 28, 2023, Israeli analyst Chris Josh made a video go viral in which he states that deaths in the IDF reached 3,000 dead and 11,000 wounded, figures that may be closer to reality. If this is the case, Israeli casualties would be a total of 60 per day, 6 times higher than those claimed by the Israeli army. Let's first look at the IDF's situation analysis taking the fake data from the Netanhayu government.

The analysis of the battle of Gaza taking these false figures given by the Netanhayu government would be the following:

The average casualties the IDF is suffering is far higher than all the wars Israel has faced in its history. Adding the numbers of seriously injured, that is to say on the verge of death, amputated or disabled to the recognized casualties results in a total of 800 casualties in 80 days at an average of 10 casualties per day, which means a historical average of casualties for the Zionist army. Before the ceasefire the average casualties were 5 per day, which means that the number of IDF casualties in the last 10 days has jumped, and has multiplied by two. Just to get an idea by making a comparison of the 3rd Intifada, it is important to know that the average daily casualties suffered by NATO in the Iraq War was 6 daily casualties, while the average daily casualties suffered by the United States in the Vietnam War It was 15 daily casualties.

If we analyze the growth of casualties in the Israeli army in recent days we will see that the average daily casualties are skyrocketing from an average similar to that of the defeat of imperialism in Iraq to an average similar to the defeat of imperialism in Vietnam. Even the figures are worse if we analyze the deaths of officers. By December 10, it had recognized the casualties of 5 colonels, 8 lieutenant colonels, 43 majors, 41 captains, and 11 lieutenants, most of them elite officers, which totals almost 27% of official casualties, a figure that expresses the hard blow that the Israeli army is suffering in the chain of command.

But taking the figures given by Israeli analyst Chris Josh, the analysis of the Battle of Gaza is as follows:

In this case, Israeli casualties would be a total of 60 per day, at an average of almost 2.5 casualties per hour, averages that far exceed the death rates of the occupation armies of Iraq and Vietnam. Even Chris Josh suggests that the brutal mortality rates are generating great discontent among the population when they see boxes of bodies arriving every day in Israel. If we compare these losses to the 2008 Gaza battle where Israel lost 11 soldiers in a month, or the 2006 South Lebanon battle where Israel lost 43 soldiers in 30 days, the 3rd Palestinian Intifada is possibly on track to be the worst. military catastrophe for Israel. With these figures in hand we can affirm without a doubt that Gaza is a Vietnam for Israel, with all the political and social consequences that this implies for the entire world.

Analyst Chris Josh reports the true numbers of Israeli deaths in the Gaza battle. Beyond the differences with the political considerations Josh makes in the video, the importance of his testimony lies in the fact that it contradicts the official casualty figures of the Israeli government, and provides shocking figures that speak of a brutal blow to the IDF and the State of Israel.

But after the end of the ceasefire, the ambushes multiplied; on December 7, a brutal ambush against a camp south of Gaza cost the lives of 60 Israeli soldiers, who were filmed by Palestinian fighters before being executed. This is what causes the more the IDF advances into Gaza, the more casualties they suffer. In the battle of Shejaiya, the Golani Brigade, one of the most important elite mercenary forces of the IDF, and its commanders were destroyed on December 13, 2023, and their commanders then announced their withdrawal from Gaza, in what is probably the most serious blow hard that the IDF has suffered.

In Sheikh Radwan the troops ambushed the occupying patrols, in Khan Younis the ambushes occurred at the Al-Amoudi crossing using machine guns, grenades, explosive devices and anti-tank weapons that caused heavy losses to vehicles and personnel. In Beit Hanoun the occupying troops had already suffered serious losses, the same as east of Al-Mahatta

It is false that the armed insurrection in the Gaza Strip is only Hamas's, as imperialism presents it . The ambushes are the result of the combined attack of 6 Palestinian militia groups that act in coordination, on the one hand the Al-Qassam Brigades that respond to Hamas, the Al-Quds Brigades that respond to the Islamic Jihad, and the Al-Nasse Salah Brigades These three militia groups with an Islamic fundamentalist orientation respond to the Popular Resistance Committees. On the other hand, there is the activity of three other secularly oriented militia groups, which are the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades that respond to Fatah, the Ali Mustafa Brigades that respond to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) that They are secular with Marxist influence, and are promoting the formation of popular committees, and a unified Palestinian emergency command to face military operations. There are also the National Resistance Brigades that respond to the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (FDLP) with Marxist influence.

In turn, the Israeli army is suffering the destruction of hundreds of vehicles, tanks, excavators, as well as much of its logistics and military material. The direct antecedent that we find for the strategy of urban guerrilla warfare in the 21st century is the National Liberation War of Iraq where NATO was defeated, along with other Wars of National Liberation such as that of the Kurds in Rojava that defeated the troops of ISIS in the battle of Kobane, or in Syria where the militia forces seeking to overthrow the dictatorship of Bashar Al Assad were defeated due to the actions of Putin's or Iran's mercenaries. But currently the Palestinian partisans and militiamen massively possess two types of weapons that the guerrillas or militiamen of Iraq did not have massively available 20 years ago.

On the one hand, the Palestinian militiamen or guerrillas massively use missile launchers, or shoulder-mounted rockets, causing enormous destruction to the occupying troops. Although these weapons already existed 20 years ago, in the Iraq War they were not used massively by the militiamen because only mercenaries provided by NATO such as the mujhaidines of Afghanistan, or other mercenaries of other countries, will be able to access these types of weapons. the imperialist armies.

Iraqi militiamen could only access this type of weapons stolen from NATO headquarters, or through sales on the black market, which at that time was being limited by the commercial blockade imposed by imperialism on Iraq. But now it is different, and this weaponry has reached the Palestinian guerrillas en masse, just as we see the Ukrainian partisans act with this weaponry in the fight against Putin's occupying troops.

Other weapons that are being used massively by Palestinian militants are drones. Both aerial and underwater drones have had great development in the Ukrainian National Liberation War, it is a new type of weapons that appeared in the civil war in Yemen through an attack on oil facilities in Saudi Arabia, as in the second half of the year 2022 when they appeared spectacularly in Ukraine through impacts on the Kremlin and Moscow buildings. The characteristic of this type of weapons is that they are easy to build because they are made of simple materials, and they allow them to fly without being detected by radars or anti-missile surveillance systems, which allows them to evade the surveillance of the sophisticated defense systems of the armies. occupants.

Both techniques represent a technological change in the urban Guerrilla Wars that characterize the 21st century, and are diametrically opposed to the guerrilla wars of the 20th century that were developed fundamentally in the countryside. The technical evolution of Gaza's urban guerrilla warfare is being copied from the Ukrainian revolution where partisans massively use both types of weapons, allowing the militiamen to confront or defeat an army superior in quantity and quality of resources.

The entire Israeli attack and bombing on Gaza has been very effective in destroying civilian lives, but not at all effective in destroying the combat and attack capacity of the Palestinian militias. Furthermore, as IDF troops move deeper into Gaza, Israeli air raids slow down for fear of killing their own soldiers, seeking to avoid another scandal like the one that occurred in the incident that caused commotion in Gaza. the Israeli population when IDF soldiers killed 3 Israeli citizens who had surrendered, which was filmed live.

Second front of the 3rd Intifada: The Battle of the West Bank

The West Bank is the epicenter of another phenomenon that appears clearly in the Palestinian urban guerrilla war, which is the proportion of armed guerrillas in relation to the population, an element that also appeared in the Ukrainian National Liberation War. In Ukraine, millions of people had to emergency join the army and take up arms in the face of the imminent invasion of Putin's troops. In Palestine, it is estimated that the total number of existing militiamen among all guerrilla formations reaches 200,000 militiamen, figures that imply very high rates of armed militiamen in relation to the population, and the West Bank is the place where the largest number of new militias have emerged in recent years. years.

The estimated Palestinian population residing in Gaza and the West Bank is barely 4.5 million, so the existence of 200,000 militiamen implies a rate of around 1 guerrilla for every 20 Palestinians, and if we take into account the emergence of massive formations of new militias secularists, especially in the West Bank, who are in opposition to the Palestinian Authority, the proportion may be even higher in terms of the number of guerrillas. Brigades operate in the West Bank, most of which are secular and do not respond to Islamic fundamentalism, whose largest organization is the militia called "The Lions' Den." All of these Brigades confront Israeli forces in multiple areas with various explosive devices in an average of nine locations a day in the West Bank.

The Jenin Battalion of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade clashed with Israeli forces in Yamoun, and the Qalqilya Battalion of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade at Israeli checkpoints. The Jericho Battalion of the Al Quds Brigades faced Israeli forces in Jericho. Adding to the actions of these battalions is the Salfit Martir Omar Abu Laila Battalion that has recently emerged.

Salfit does not publicly acknowledge any affiliation with other Palestinian militia groups, neither Hamas, nor Hezbollah, nor Islamic Jihad, a phenomenon that is increasingly widespread in the West Bank with other recently emerged militias such as the Jenin Battalion, the Nablus Battalion and the Balata Battalion .

In the West Bank, the armed actions of the militias are combined with mobilizations and demonstrations in support of the struggles of the militias and against the Israeli occupation forces that have been growing, and allow the emergence of activists who write, organize and mobilize in favor of the release. At the same time, coordination has grown between Islamic fundamentalist militias, with secular militias such as Fatah, or the Lion's Den, which allows for better organized resistance to the presence of the IDF occupation troops in the West Bank.

The 4th front is that of the Golan Heights, territory occupied by Israel in Syria. There we group the actions in support of the struggle of the Palestinian people who are part of the 3rd Intifada of Iraqi militias located in Iraq, Syrians, and Houthis who are located in Yemen. This front has been transformed into one of the most spectacular following the actions of the Houthi fighters in the Red Sea, which has led to the loss of control of the Red Sea by the capitalist governments of the area, imperialism and the NATO. The loss of control of the Red Sea began when Houthi militias hijacked an Israeli-owned, Japanese-operated cargo ship transiting the Red Sea on November 19, 2023.

Also, the Chinese state shipping company COSCO, the fourth largest shipping company in the world, announced that it will suspend shipments through the Red Sea on December 19, joining other shipping companies. This implies a serious disruption to world trade because shipping companies are forced to circumnavigate Africa in order to connect the Middle East with the Mediterranean, thousands of kilometers they must travel which makes commercial trips more expensive and impossible.

Imperialism and NATO launched Operation Prosperity Guardian on December 18 in response to Houthi attacks on international shipping around the Red Sea alongside Britain , Bahrain, Canada, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Seychelles and Spain that will support the effort led by the United States, the operation launched by imperialism makes it clear that the 3rd Intifada has become a conflagration of international magnitude that puts in question imperialist dominance in the Middle East region.

For the destruction of the Nazi State of Israel!

Long live the war of national liberation of the Palestinian people!

From the river to the sea, Palestine will win!

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