It is completely untrue to say that Israel "evacuated" Gaza two years ago.
While the Israeli state pulled out the zionist paramilitary settler groups Israel kept control of the land,sea and air borders in and out of Gaza and started to impose a military and economic stranglehold on the city with the most terrible consequences for the civilian population which has been reduced to hunger,poverty and terror.

Palestinian fishing boats have been prevented from fishing in coastal waters,power stations have been blown up so that there is scarcely any electricity,The sewage system has been destroyed by Israeli shelling so that raw sewage is flooding streets and the mediterranean itself,hospitals and clinics are operating with only the barest of necessities,children on the beaches have been blown up by Israeli shells fired from a naval warship,women and children have been massacred in their homes by huge bombs.

Israel stands accused of collective punishment against the Palestinian people in Gaza.The UN representative, denied entry by Israel into Gaza, has accused Israel of war crimes against its civilian residents.

But "collective punishment" is not a new strategy.Only two years ago in Lebanon the Israeli military set out to destroy the infrastructure of the country and flattened apartment blocks,bridges,town centres,markets,roads.car convoys of refugees etc. In the process it killed and maimed thousands of civilians.Israel got a bloody nose then from Hezbollah despite its overwhelmingly superior military firepower.

In Israel itself there have been very brave demonstrations opposing the carnage which shows that there there are some in Israel itself who see the criminality of the actions of the Israeli state towards the people of Gaza.

On saturday the Palestine Solidarity Campaign has called a major demonstration against the bombing of Gaza in central London.Assemble at 12.30 outside the Embankment tube .
ifor