THE ceasefire in Gaza, at least pausing a 15-month-long genocidal campaign against the Palestinian people waged by a depraved Israeli state, must be welcomed.

If the ceasefire takes hold — always a doubt given Israel’s record in these matters — it offers some relief to the people of Gaza, whose suffering and losses are matched only by their resilience and resistance in the face of a terrifying onslaught.

It appears that Benjamin Netanyahu has endorsed the deal first proposed by the Biden administration last May, in all essentials.

The war has continued since because of Israel’s desire to eliminate Palestinians from Gaza, use the conflict as a pretext for wider regional aggression and to maintain the cohesion of its ruling right-wing coalition.

The last-minute obstruction by Netanyahu was undoubtedly driven by fears that the overtly fascist elements of that coalition may defect, bringing down his government.

The breakthrough appears to have been down to President-elect Donald Trump doing what the Biden administration has consistently refused to do — put serious pressure on Netanyahu to agree to the deal.

Faced with the impossibility of mobilising right-wing forces in the US against Trump, Netanyahu has had to give ground.

That so many have died in Gaza is fully the responsibility of Biden, supported throughout by Rishi Sunak and then Keir Starmer, as well as the Israeli regime. Their genocidal complicity is an infamy that should not readily be forgotten.

This is only the first stage of a ceasefire, and we are a long way from a permanent cessation of hostilities, let alone a political settlement to the crisis in Palestine. The possibility of Israel restarting aggression in a few weeks is real.

The priority must be rushing aid into Gaza to relieve the hunger, health and shelter crises over which the Israeli military has callously presided and started to repair the devastation which has left much of Gaza uninhabitable.

But these can only be temporary solutions if there is to be a return to the Israeli blockade of Gaza. It is unclear who is intended to be the governing authority of Gaza, but it is imperative that it should be the choice of the Palestinian people and not the imperialists.

Indeed, the experience of the horrors of the conflict is that there can be no solution to the wider crisis in Israel/Palestine without defeating the interference of imperialism, US and British in the lead, in the Middle East.

That is why it is critical that the magnificent movement of solidarity with the Palestinian people which has developed in Britain and across the world remains in a state of mobilisation.

Neither the Israeli state nor its imperialist sponsors will concede anything to the Palestinian people without a struggle. Our demands should be what the Palestinians themselves decide would constitute progress.

Israel ends this phase of the conflict more isolated than ever before in its history, regarded as a pariah in much of the world and with its leaders as outlaws.

That is largely due to its own aggression and its disregard for international law and civilised conventions alike, but it is also a tribute to the strength of the mass movement, which has been a shining example of sustained solidarity without many precedents.

The possibilities of further progress depend on this global movement of solidarity, even as they rest primarily on the courage of the Palestinian people themselves, standing unbroken on their own land.

As a start we urge all readers to support this weekend’s solidarity demonstration in London, being held in the teeth of obstruction from the police and Israel’s supporters. Now is not the moment to stand down.