That is as mad and brutal as the Gaza conflict has become.

0n 8th April, seven UN-sponsored aid workers were killed in a strike on a convoy of cars by a Hermes 450 drone, entirely built in the UK. The total of aid workers  killed in IDF  “mistakes” in Gaza is now approaching 200.

Each vehicle was identified by roof markings and the convoy and its precise route were agreed in advance by the Israeli military.

From Israel we hear the usual weasel-worded apology for the “mistake” and an undertaking that the incident is being thoroughly investigated. This is the usual baloney. The IDF (Israeli Defence force) obviously knows the identity of the drone pilot and they know the chain of command involved in the operation. The world’s press has film of the aftermath. What more is there to investigate?  It was expected to be another case of IDF cover-up. But the destruction of the convoy and murder of UN personnel was so blatant and drew so much criticism, that blame was soon attached to some IDF commanders.

Will they be brought to account? Will they be put on trial? Or, after a decent interval, will they be quietly exonerated and reinstated? After all, the destruction of that aid convoy was fully in line with Israeli government policy.

Israel’s aim was clear from the start: the ethnic cleansing of Gaza. The means would include genocidal slaughter of Palestinians, starvation and the total destruction of housing, schools, hospitals any other infrastructure that makes civilised life possible. Two days after the October 7th 2023 Hamas attack, Israeli Defence Minister, Yoav Gallant revealed the plan for Gaza:”There will be no electricity, no food, no fuel, everything closed.”

Clearly, efforts by the UN, other states and foreign aid agencies were viewed as undermining the scorched earth plan to empty Gaza of all two million Palestinians. Every effort was made to block aid from entering Gaza. The border crossings from the rest of Israel/Palestine were closed. The one crossing from Egypt was heavily bombed. When Israel was forced to relent and allow some shipments of food and medical supplies, the aid lorries suffered every possible bureaucratic delay,

Israeli ministers resorted to their usual tactic: bare-faced lies. “There is no hunger in Gaza. “No hospital has been attacked unless it had been completely taken over by Hamas”.

On October 17th,the Al-AhliBaptist hospital suffered a massacre and on April 1st the al-Shifa Medical Centre (Gaza’a largest)was left a total ruin with hundreds of dead. In the face of the evidence on our TV screens, the Israeli Prime Minister told us that “Not one civilian was killed in Al-Shifa.”

It is not in the interest of Israel to have successful humanitarian aid programmes in Gaza or any other Palestinian areas. Netanyahu and other ministers have made it clear that they aim to empty Gaza of Palestinians in order to re-settle it with Jews.

Hence the appalling destruction of Gazan housing and infrastructure and the annihilation of the civilian population on a scale that can only be described as genocide. Any country supplying arms to Israel is complicit in genocide.

The Labour leadership has bleated about wanting to see the legal opinions on Israel’s conduct prepared for the Foreign Secretary. This is bullshit. The international Criminal Court (ICJ) has already expressed its verdict on Genocide in Gaza.

If Labour wants another legal opinion, don’t hang around.  This is the party prepared to spend £millions on lawyers in order to chuck out members it does not like, so instruct your own counsel to examine Israel’s stated intentions and actions.

But Labour remains reluctant to do anything that might upset Israel, because that would endanger its flow of money from the Israeli Embassy and wealthy Jews.

The UK government should  demand an immediate ceasefire. It should stop all arms exports to Israel, regardless of whatever the USA does and should demand the Israel government be arraigned before the International Court of Justice (ICJ) for crimes against humanity.