From November 24 to 30, Israel temporarily stopped bombing Gaza to carry out a “prisoner swap” in which Hamas released 105 of the 345 it captured in the Al Aqsa Flood operation in exchange for 240 of the nearly 10,000 Palestinians imprisoned in Israel. Among those released by Hamas were two Filipino migrant workers.

After a 6-day “humanitarian pause,” at 7 a.m. Palestinian time of December 1, Israel again sent warplanes over Gaza. Within 24-hours, 184 Palestinians were killed, 589 were injured and 20 houses were destroyed in the bombardment. Before this, more than 15,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli bombing. More than 5,300 of them are children.

All the aircraft Israel uses are from the US and all the bombs these drop are American bombs. In total, 80% of Israel’s weapons are US-made.

Funding Zionism

The US imperialist created and maintains the evil Zionist state of Israel. Since World War II, Israel has received $146 billion, the largest aid the US has ever granted to its allies and colonies. It was almost entirely in the form of military aid, except for a few years when US provided economic aid to “industrialize” the country.

This huge fund is key to developing the Zionist fascist machinery. Before launching the Al Aqsa Flood, in which Palestinian forces invaded various camps and locations in Israel, it was touted as “the most technologically sophisticated military in the world.” This aid was also used to establish and develop the Israeli arms industry in partnerships with monopoly American arms makers. Some of the largest companies are Elbit Systems, Israel Aerospace Industries and Rafael.

With its current genocide in Gaza, the US Congress has adopted an urgent proposal to add $14.3 billion to the previous $3.3 billion annual military aid to Israel. This aid comes in the form of Hellfire missiles, 55mm cannon artillery, night-vision, bunker-buster (anti-tunnel) munitions and new military vehicles. These are in addition to the Iron Dome missiles and aerial bombs the US already supplies. US also supplies Israel with chemical and biological war matériel.

It is estimated that Israel has poured $48 billion into the two-month genocidal campaign. One third of this amount was shouldered by the US.

Special role in the Middle East

At its core, Israel’s Zionist state and fascist machinery exist to maintain US hegemony in the Middle East. Since the 1980s, the US has maintained here the largest weapons stockpile outside its own country, to ensure that weapons can be quickly deployed in the event of any “regional conflict.” Hidden inside the country is the so-called War Reserve Stockpile Allies-Israel or WRSA-I controlled by the US. Annually, the US allocates $200 million to fill the armory. Similar storage exists in South Korea and Japan, and same facilities are now being set up by the US in the Philippines.

In October, US president Joseph Biden pushed to remove restrictions on Israel’s use of weapons from this stockpile so that it could freely use US weapons in the genocide in Gaza.

The US awarded Israel the status of a “major non-NATO ally” and tightly aligned its fascist army with the American armed forces. Since 1983, the US and Israel have jointly developed the Israel Defense Forces, which is essentially an offensive force for the bloody occupation campaign of the Palestinian territories.

The US also maintains its own forces inside Israel, in addition to the hundreds of thousands stationed in various countries in the Middle East. In 2017, the US publicized the construction of a permanent American base inside an Israeli military camp in the Negev desert, 20 kilometers from Gaza. Two months before the Al Aqsa Flood, the US poured $35.8 million into expanding this secret base, codenamed “Site 512” and dubbed “a base within a base.”