The first protest of the Labour Party conference has just been announced

Campaign groups have announced the first major protest at this year’s Labour Party conference. It is over Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza.

Israel: the genocide continues as IDF kills 40 in safe zone

11 months in and Israel’s genocide in Gaza continues to accelerate. Schools and hospitals are still being continually struck by Israeli attacks and a Lancet study has estimated that the true overall death toll may be as high as 180,000.

Israel struck a declared safe zone in Gaza on Tuesday, in a strike that killed at least 40 people. The strike hit Al-Mawasi in the southern Gaza Strip, which Israel had designated as a “humanitarian zone” early in the war, and prompted condemnations from the region and beyond.

Samar al-Shair, one of tens of thousands of displaced Palestinians who have sought refuge in the coastal area, said the attack came “as we were sleeping in our tents”.

She said the Israeli military had asked Palestinians to go to Al-Mawasi “telling us it was safe. Where is the safety?”. Survivors of the strike scrambled to retrieve belongings from the rubble, including mattresses and clothing.

Civil defence spokesman Mahmud Bassal said people sheltering in the camp in the dunes along the Mediterranean coast had not been warned of the strike, which left “three deep craters”. “There are entire families who disappeared under the sand,” he said.

Widely condemned – but hollow words from the UK

UN chief Antonio Guterres condemned the strike, his spokesman Stephane Dujarric said, adding that “the use of heavy weapons in densely populated areas is unconscionable”.

Turkey said the strike added to Israel’s “list of war crimes”. Egypt denounced “the continuation of Israeli massacres”. Saudi Arabia decried “a new attack in a repeated series of violations by the Israeli war machine”.

Arab League ministers, meeting in Cairo, decided to “formally intervene” in support of an International Court of Justice case brought by South Africa that accused Israel of “genocidal acts” in Gaza.

British foreign secretary David Lammy condemned “the shocking deaths”, which he said showed “how desperately needed” a Gaza ceasefire was. However, Despite a change of government, the British state is still supporting these war crimes taking place on a daily basis.

Protest at the Labour Party conference

Labour’s decision to reinstate funding for UNWRA and the abandonment of a proposal to block the ICC’s warrants against Netanyahu are victories for the anti-war movement. Now, it will call on them to suspend all arms sales to the apartheid Israeli state.

Labour’s decision to suspend some arms sales to Israel is an admission of guilt on behalf of the British government. However, the suspension of just 30 licences is a tiny fraction of the number Britain issues.

So, a rally has been organised by various groups including Palestine Solidarity Campaign, Stop the Wat Coalition, Friends of Al Aqsa, and CND.

Join the protest in Liverpool on 21 September at Labour Party Conference. It will be calling on our government to push for a permanent ceasefire in Gaza and immediately end its support for apartheid Israel’s genocide.

There are coaches organised from around the country. Make sure you’re on one so you can make your demands to Starmer and Lammy as loud as possible.

You can find out about transport options here.

Featured image supplied

Additional reporting via Agence France-Presse