The PCP strongly condemns the brutal attack launched this dawn by Israel on the Palestinian population of the Gaza Strip, causing hundreds of deaths and more than a thousand injured, many of them children.
This new massacre confirms that Israel has not abandoned its intention to continue the genocide in the Gaza Strip, as confirmed by the decision to prevent humanitarian aid from entering the Palestinian territory, in open violation of the terms of the agreement.
It should be remembered that the agreement that Israel refuses to comply with consists of three phases, providing, among other things, for a permanent ceasefire, the withdrawal of Israeli forces from the Gaza Strip, the return of the Palestinian population to their towns, the end of the blockade and access to humanitarian aid, the reconstruction process in this Palestinian territory.
Since January 19, when the agreement between the Palestinian resistance and Israel came into force, Israeli forces have continued to kill on a daily basis in the Gaza Strip, while continuing a violent aggression and repressive campaign in the West Bank, causing hundreds of deaths, carrying out mass arrests, indiscriminately bombing refugee camps, displacing tens of thousands of people.
Reports by UN bodies denounce the daily practice of crimes against the Palestinian people carried out by Israel. As the International Court of Justice has admitted, this is genocide, carried out in close coordination with the US and the European Union, and with the complicity and inaction of several governments, including that of Portugal.
Israel is carrying out state terrorism, massacring the Palestinian people, illegally occupying territory in Lebanon and Syria, failing to comply with agreements it has signed, deliberately causing a humanitarian crisis of huge proportions, threatening, attacking and disrespecting the United Nations and in particular some of its agencies, such as UNRWA.
Israel's criminal action is inseparable from the escalation of confrontation and war that US imperialism is carrying out in the Middle East - as in other regions of the world - including the recent bombings of Yemen, the renewed threats against Iran and the developments in Syria, with the establishment of a reactionary and obscurantist power, responsible for massacres against the population.
The PCP reaffirms its long-standing solidarity with the Palestinian people and their struggle for national liberation and calls for a firm condemnation of Israel's violation of the ceasefire agreement and of yet another heinous crime against the Palestinian people.
The Constitution of the Portuguese Republic and the principles of the United Nations Charter compel Portugal to take firm and determined action to help isolate Israel and prevent the realisation of the plans for the genocide and expulsion of the Palestinian people from Palestine. Portugal must uncompromisingly defend and promote the national rights of the Palestinian people, starting with the recognition of the State of Palestine, in accordance with UN resolutions.
The PCP calls for participation in the solidarity initiatives with the Palestinian people to be held tomorrow, March 19, at 18.00, in Rossio, Lisbon, and on March 30, in Lisbon, Porto and Coimbra, promoted by various organisations from the peace movement and of solidarity with the Palestinian people.
