Despite the difficult conditions of connectivity, a few days ago we managed to talk at length with our comrade Ali Hammoud, leader of the ISL group in Lebanon, about various aspects of the war in the region.
Ali, please, give us an update
It’s important to remember that, for many years, we have been facing an occupation called Israel, a colonialist, imperialist state, implanted here to divide the Arab world. We can’t have a decent life while this enemy is occupying and committing massacres, which is well documented and Israel itself recognizes.
We are well aware of this situation, but it is also worth remembering Israel’s strategic military superiority compared to the Palestinian resistance and the Arab armies. After the massacres of 1973, 1982, 2000, over the last 60 years, we have come to an important conclusion: we cannot defeat Israel in a single battle or even a war, but by many years of building up forces to defeat it. It’s not a question of striking a single blow, because Israel has modern military forces and the support of Europe and the United States to guarantee its security. Even before October 7, most had reached this conclusion.
October 7 exceeded expectations, although rumors had been circulating for some time and everyone knew that Hamas was able to push several kilometers into Israeli occupied territory and retreat. Hezbollah itself has the capacity to advance 20 or 30 kilometers from Lebanon. On the 7th, Hamas entered about 15 kilometers and attacked several kibbutzim under the questionable slogan of “God’s victory.” We do not believe that victory can be guaranteed under a religion, much less behind Iran and other Arab regimes. In this war for the liberation of Palestine, the only solution is resistance, which is a very big tactical difference.
What is the situation in the Gaza Strip?
Gaza is now 70% destroyed, all its infrastructure. There are more than 40,000 dead, 10 to 15,000 missing under the rubble who are also presumed dead, 100,000 wounded and a million and a half people in permanent migration depending on where Israel strikes. From being a liberated, though surrounded, city, Gaza fell under the military control of Israel, which even installed new bases there.
In Gaza and Lebanon, the tone of the war is increasing, and it could last up to five years. There is talk that Palestinian fighters could enter Gaza from Egypt, attack Israeli troops there and change the balance of forces. But in Gaza the humanitarian situation is very complicated, terrible. It has already been declared a non-viable city and now there is a risk of childhood polio and other diseases spreading.
What role does Iran play in this conflict?
Although Hamas does not say it openly, it has suffered the betrayal of Iran and other Arab states because none of them stood up to help Palestine. From a victory to recover territory, now the situation has changed, the Palestinian position has weakened and there is an attempt to prevent many Gazans from migrating to Egypt.
It must be remembered that Hamas is part of the Muslim Brotherhood, an organization that has different political agreements in each country. This was the policy of Hamas leader Ismail Haniya, who was recently assassinated by an Israel strike in Iran, and continues to be the policy of other Hamas leaders in Turkey and Yemen. The new leader of Hamas, Yahya Sinwar, is fully aligned with Iran.
There are negotiations with Turkey and Iran to resolve who will govern Gaza, whether Hamas or the Palestinian Authority continue, or Israel takes over. Now the conflict is spreading to the West Bank. The Israeli extreme right is well aware of this political conflict and tries to divide the two Palestinian lines, occupying Gaza and also the West Bank. They want to increase military operations to transform the West Bank into a new unviable Gaza in order to drive Palestinian residents towards Jordan and Egypt.
As for the situation in Lebanon, we must take into account Iran’s big lie about the “unity of the battlefield.” It means that they will always support whoever is attacked by Israel. But over the last eleven months, we have seen that this is a total lie. On October 8, the Lebanese border was opened to try to advance and ease the pressure on Gaza. But there is no infrastructure left standing there. Emptied of people, companies, factories, it will be destroyed.
Israel carried out attacks inside Lebanon…
Yes, we already know that Israel has great air and intelligence superiority. That is why they can assassinate the first line of Hamas and Hezbollah leaders who are in Lebanon looking for weapons to send to Palestine.
Now there are also bombings deep inside Lebanon, 70 or 80 kilometers in, and even as far as Beirut, but there is not a clear response from Hezbollah, essentially because there is no involvement from Iran. Iran does not want to intervene directly to protect its own economic and political interests. Iran is afraid of the nuclear aspect, as it has factories, and it does not want to be affected by the United States and is waiting for the result of the US elections. Iran suffers from a very big economic and social crisis. Every year there is some popular uprising, as the Iranian people are not happy with the government, which fears these rebellions.
On the Lebanese border there could be bigger clashes with Israel. Although Israel assassinated respected commander and number two of Hezbollah Fuad Shukr in Beirut on July 30, Hezbollah makes agreements to only attack military targets because the Iranian decision is to avoid escalating to a major war. It launched about 300 Katyusha missiles and drones, although it possesses much better ballistic missiles.
The response took place on Sunday, August 25, before six in the morning. An hour earlier, 70 Israeli planes had bombed about 60 areas in southern Lebanon, but not those from which the missiles were then launched. Although Israel knows, certain secrecy is maintained about where they are fired from. That is why there were no deaths.
Obviously, Israel has a superior force, in military weight and in imperialist support, but resistance is the right choice, and not alongside a country like Iran. Over these eleven months, the Palestinians have been paying a high price with their own blood because no religious state is really going to help them.
In Lebanon, what are the government, the army and the unions doing?
At the government level, there is actually no president and, with that excuse, parliament is paralyzed. So there is no official position on the conflict with Israel. Negotiations are only being held with the United States to seek an agreement and for Hezbollah to withdraw 15 kilometers from the border. As for the Lebanese army, it does not fight against Israel at all but only protects the political and religious leaders.
There are no real unions in Lebanon, just an official religious union leadership. When the civil war began in 1996, unions were divided in two wings: a bureaucratic religious one and a more genuine one. The military took advantage of the situation to arrest the leaders of the latter. After 1996, the CP, instead of rebuilding real unions, founded small ones of its own. That is why we are faced with the problem that, in terms of a new and independent labor movement as an alternative to the official unions, the CP’s attempt did not work. In some cases, leaders of this sector even made agreements with the bureaucracy against the workers.
The General Union of Students played an important role. In times of civil war, faced with large demonstrations, the government took advantage of the situation to eliminate it. There have been some attempts to rebuild the GUS, but it is very difficult.
What perspectives do you see for the conflict?
The decision to deepen the war is important and will be taken in any case by Europe or Iran. This conflict will continue for at least for six more months, since no one will make decisions until the new US Administration takes office in February 2025. Israel and the Netanyahu government are not going to back down in Gaza, only strong pressure from the United States would make them shift their position a little.
As for the state of mind of the Palestinian people, it is really difficult. The situation is so catastrophic that they sometimes celebrate when they get a little water to drink or a cucumber to eat. In addition to the logical pain over the dead, they often cannot even bury their bodies. 50% of the population unconditionally supported Hamas and that is decreasing. They also recruit new fighters, although 90% know that they will almost certainly not return from the operations. In our opinion, the most dangerous decision is the forced migration of the Palestinian population, which could lead to expulsion. Some people already want to leave Gaza permanently.
Hamas did not plan much for the continuation of fighting after October 7 because it expected Iran and its allies to respond. They thought that Iran would stop Israel’s offensive in Gaza. To understand a little how the minds of these sectors work, it is necessary to remember that all the movements are political Islamist. On October 8, the Lebanese border was opened, but Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah waited 31 days to speak out. It is clear that he believed that Iran would intervene within five or six days with “God’s help.”
How does the Fatah Palestinian Authority play?
Islamist leaders lie to people and end up believing their own lies. It was a bad tactic inside Palestine and a strategic loss regarding the role of Iran, Yemen, Lebanon and Syria. They refuse to acknowledge that Gaza is being vacated and Israel is now advancing on the West Bank, in what constitutes a new Nakba. This is what the Israeli extreme right announced and this Nakba is already underway. They see things as if they were the same as before October 7.
As for the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank, since the Oslo Accords, they negotiate with the United States, they do not guarantee the Palestinian people anything, only their own continuity. When the al-Ahli hospital in Gaza was attacked and there were protest marches in the West Bank, the PA came out to repress the protests, even using live ammunition. To understand its style, each internal sector of the PA reflects its negotiations with Israel, the United States, Saudi Arabia or some other country. Less than a month ago, there were clashes in the West Bank, a wounded Palestinian was taken to a hospital and Israel kidnapped him. Women came down to defend him, but the PA did nothing. The best word to describe the Abbas government is traitor, because it helps Israel sustain the occupation.
What can you tell us about the nationalist currents and the left?
The actual main political division among the Palestinian people is between Fatah and Hamas, beyond the agreement they made a month ago in China, which causes internal erosion and delays the process of liberation from Israeli rule. There is a political left, the PFLP, which is very weak although it maintains some strength in Palestine and the refugee camps in Lebanon. They had some level of military involvement, but nothing has been said about them for three or four months.
Fatah, the main sector of the PLO, is a socio-political organization and many people depend on its management. The choice for the Palestinian people is critical because Fatah has betrayed them and Hamas is making them pay a very high price, so the decision will become clearer if the war ends in a few months.
Unlike other previous situations, today the role of the left in Lebanon is marginal. The slightly larger groups are silent and organization in general has weakened. With the deep crisis in Lebanon, many young activists left the country and this exodus also affected us.
At the level of our modest forces, with groups of young students of Medicine, Pharmacy and Psychology, we have formed the group “For the People” and we are doing some tasks of humanitarian solidarity for the refugees who are fleeing from southern Lebanon. In these humanitarian tasks we have organized new comrades and are advancing in some transition to political work, even though we know how difficult this is under these circumstances.
Interview by Pablo Vasco