JERUSALEM—Right-wing forces inside and outside the Israeli government are fighting a two-front war.
The military’s genocidal campaign in Gaza carries on as it has without pause for the better part of three years, with starvation stalking the land and bullets chasing people from food distribution points.
Behind the lines, meanwhile, an all-out assault is being carried out by fascist forces against those who dare to speak out against the ethnic cleansing being executed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his allies. Their top target: the Hadash coalition (Democratic Front for Peace and Equality) and its leaders—Arab and Jewish alike—in the Israeli Communist Party.
Health authorities in Gaza say that the numbers of dead and wounded continue to climb as armed mercenaries at aid centers of the U.S.-Israel backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation continue to open fire on Palestinians seeking food. Deaths of people waiting for handouts in huge crowds near food points in Gaza have become a regular occurrence.
Medical sources inside the Gaza Strip reported last Friday a surge in signs of famine, describing it as an “epidemic.” Hundreds of people are reportedly suffering from exhaustion, severe malnutrition, and memory loss, all of which are symptoms of prolonged starvation.
At Al-Shifa Hospital, officials said “hundreds of patients are arriving with severe hunger symptoms, including children and infants in critical condition.” A one-and-a-half-year-old girl died on Friday in the central Gaza city of Deir al-Balah due to severe malnutrition, amid a deepening hunger crisis caused by the Israeli blockade on the besieged Strip.
According to health officials, an estimated 17,000 children are currently suffering from acute malnutrition in Gaza. The crisis is putting immense pressure on the already strained healthcare system, which is struggling with a lack of hospital beds and essential medicines.
The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) recently warned that child malnutrition has sharply worsened, especially among children under five. Between March and June 2025, UNRWA’s clinics conducted nearly 74,000 screenings, identifying approximately 5,500 cases of moderate acute malnutrition and over 800 cases of severe acute malnutrition.
After his latest visit to Gaza, World Food Program Deputy Executive Director and Chief Operating Officer Carl Skau stated that starvation is spreading in Gaza, with about 500,000 people currently classified as “in starvation.”
“I met many of those families who told me that there are days that their children are not eating at all, and I heard mothers telling me how they’re trying to have kids not play so that they don’t draw more energy than they are able to provide them with food,” Skau said.
The WFP official noted that the fact that people are now dying every day trying to get food is “the starkest illustration of how desperate this situation is.” UNRWA attributed the alarming rise in malnutrition to the ongoing Israeli blockade on the Gaza Strip, which has severely restricted the flow of food, medicine, and humanitarian aid.
According to a statement from Hadash:“Israeli occupation in Gaza continues to kill and gravely injure hundreds of Palestinians each week, as they desperately seek the little shelter and food available. Famine is increasing, and Israel is inflicting on Palestinians conditions of life increasingly incompatible with their continued existence in Gaza.”
The group, which is an alliance of left parties in the Israeli parliament, said the shootings at food distribution points “are planned by the far-right government within a context of largely destroyed law enforcement and judicial systems, a fascist offensive in Israel, and the reinforcement of occupation in the West Bank.”
Regarding “reported plans by Israeli authorities to concentrate much of the population in a so-called ‘humanitarian city’—a concentration camp in destroyed Rafah,” Hadash called on the government to “refrain from taking any steps aimed the forcible transfer of the Palestinian population within Gaza or its deportation outside of the Strip.”
Along with the Partnership for Peace, Hadash is organizing major protests in Tel Aviv this week. A demonstration against war will be held at Habima Square in Tel-Aviv, Thursday, July 24, by hostages’ relatives and mothers of soldiers. On Friday, July 25, another rally against war, starvation, and genocide in Gaza will be held in Sakhnin.
Hadash’s active opposition to the genocide and war has put it in the crosshairs of Netanyahu and his extremist followers and allies.
This past Saturday evening, fascists assaulted the car transporting Hadash lawmaker Ayman Odeh to an anti-war protest in Ness Ziona, days after the Knesset failed to approve a motion to expel him from the legislature. According to Zo Haderekh demonstrators repeatedly cursed Odeh and chanted “death to Arabs.”
Odeh is the leader of Hadash and a prominent member of the Communist Party. Born in 1975 and raised in Haifa, Odeh is the most well-known Palestinian political leader inside Israel.
Police arrested three Ness Ziona residents on suspicion of damaging Odeh’s vehicle, including cracking the windshield, describing the attack as “rare and severe.” On Sunday morning, the three individuals who were arrested were released from custody by the Rishon Lezion Magistrate’s Court.
Two were sent to house arrest, and the other, a minor, was set free without restrictions. The judge stated that “numerous other members of the mob who surrounded and attacked Odeh’s car can be seen committing crimes but were not arrested.”
On Saturday night, Odeh accused the police of standing by doing nothing when he was attacked by right-wing counter-protesters during an anti-war demonstration in Ness Ziona earlier in the day.
“This morning, we were informed that fascist extremists had threatened to attack us if we showed up, but we decided not to back down. We decided that no one will silence our voices,” he wrote on X.
“I was attacked by dozens of thugs. They assaulted my staff and me with stones, sticks, and anything they could get their hands on. They surrounded our car, shattered the windows, and shouted ‘Death to Arabs’ the entire time. All the while, [National Security Minister Itamar] Ben Gvir’s police stood by and did nothing.
“But even in the face of such terrible violence, we will not be silent. On the contrary: it only strengthens our resolve, and our will to fight,” Odeh said. “We do not surrender to fascism. We stand firm against it, Jews and Arabs together, and we will defeat it.
“The struggle is clear: Democracy or fascism. As we did tonight, I will stand tall in the face of fascists, with my head held high, and I will attend every protest across the country.”
The fascists also surrounded and yelled at another Communist lawmaker, Ofer Cassif, who later accused the far-right government of supporting political violence.
“Just so it’s clear: There is legitimacy and even encouragement from the government to violence and murder of its opponents,” he tweeted.
Like Odeh, Cassif—the loudest Jewish voice against Israel’s war—has been targeted for expulsion from the Knesset by Netanyahu and his allies.
Hadash and the Communist Party responded to the assault, condemning the violence and asserting that it would not silence their voice.
“The brutal attack against Knesset members Ayman Odeh and Ofer Cassif in Ness Ziona comes from above, rooted in the organized incitement by those who fear a future for peace and democracy. They are afraid that we will raise our voices in a joint struggle against the occupation and for the expansion of the democratic space,” the two organizations said.
Hadash vowed, “The writing is on the wall, but we will erase it without fear and continue to engage with the public. Our struggle has already won, and it will continue to prevail.”
This article features reporting from Zo Haderekh newspaper. It has been supplemented with further information from People’s World.
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