La Via Campesina, representing millions of peasants, landless workers, rural women, and grassroots movements in over 80 countries, declares a state of political and moral alert in response to the catastrophic regional escalation triggered by Israel’s war on Gaza and the broader Palestinian people.

In the early hours of today, the Israeli occupation launched large-scale airstrikes on Iran — a dangerous development that transforms what was already a genocidal campaign in Palestine into a regional war with unforeseeable consequences. This marks a new phase in a long-standing colonial project, now fueled by imperialist impunity, aimed not only at crushing Palestinian resistance but also at destabilizing the entire region through military aggression, collective punishment, and political domination.

This expansion of the war poses a direct threat to millions of lives across West Asia and North Africa. It risks igniting an uncontrollable spiral of violence, mass displacement, and economic collapse, while emboldening authoritarian regimes and deepening global food insecurity. It is a grave assault on people’s sovereignty, self-determination, and dignity everywhere.

At the center of this dangerous moment stands the Sumoud Convoy— a powerful act of grassroots international solidarity, launched from Tunisia and en route to Rafah.

This convoy, embodying the will of the world’s peoples to break the siege on Gaza, has been stopped in eastern Libya by the authorities in Benghazi, near Sirte, preventing it from continuing its journey to Rafah. This obstruction, coupled with the systematic repression by Egyptian authorities — who have officially declared that the convoy will not be allowed to cross into Gaza — reflects a deliberate attempt to stifle solidarity. Additionally, dozens of international participants from the Sumoud convoy and the global march to Gaza, who arrived at Cairo airport are being held under severe restrictions, with their freedom of movement effectively suspended in what amounts to undeclared detention.

La Via Campesina urgently calls on the authorities in Benghazi to facilitate the passage of the convoy, in accordance with the warm welcome it has received from the Libyan people. We hold the Egyptian government fully responsible — politically, legally, and morally — for the safety and freedom of all participants in the Sumoud Convoy and the Global March to Gaza, whether currently held at the airport or traveling toward Rafah by land, sea, or air.

Responding to the call of the people must not be met with repression. Opening the routes to Rafah today is not merely a matter of sovereignty — it is a historical obligation to humanity.

Meanwhile, the Israeli occupation has unleashed an unprecedented wave of bombardment across the entire Gaza Strip.

Camps, shelters, medical centers, and even breadlines have been turned into targets. In recent days, occupation forces have opened fire on starving civilians who had been summoned to receive food parcels, killing over 300 Palestinians in less than five days, most of them women, children, and elderly people simply searching for food under fire.

What makes this horror even more dangerous is the total blackout of communications and internet in Gaza, a chilling sign that further atrocities are being carried out in darkness, away from the eyes of the world, in a deliberate and calculated information siege.

In this context, Gaza becomes a brutal laboratory for international silence, a testing ground for how far the world is willing to abandon its ethical and legal responsibilities in favor of geopolitical convenience. What is happening is a systematic dismantling of international law, turning it into an instrument of the powerful instead of a shield for the oppressed.

La Via Campesina affirms:

1. We strongly condemn the Israeli colonial regime’s attack on Iran as an extension of its settler-colonial and imperialist agenda in the region. This act of aggression not only violates international law and the UN Charter, but also deepens the ongoing war against peoples’ sovereignty and self-determination across West Asia. We reject the normalization of war as policy and call for international accountability to stop this escalation before it ignites a broader catastrophe.
2. We call for a radical path of peace rooted in peoples’ justice and dignity not one imposed by colonial powers or imperial agendas. The lives and futures of our communities must not be sacrificed to militarism, geopolitical games, or arms industries. True peace will only come through ending occupation, lifting sieges, and respecting peoples’ sovereignty.
3. We urgently demand that the authorities in Benghazi remove all obstacles to the passage of the Sumoud Convoy a grassroots initiative driven by the will of the people. The convoy represents a powerful expression of solidarity across borders, and its mission to break the siege on Gaza must not be obstructed.
4. Preventing the Sumoud Convoy and the March to Gaza from reaching Rafah is not a bureaucratic obstacle, it is a political attack on the right of peoples to organize, resist, and stand in solidarity with those facing extermination. We denounce this obstruction and call on movements everywhere to defend the right to act in support of Gaza.
5. We urgently call on the Egyptian government to lift all restrictions on the convoy, ensure the safe passage of all participants into Gaza, and uphold its historical and moral duty to stand with Palestine.
6. We hold the Israeli occupation fully accountable for the ongoing atrocities in Gaza, and call for immediate international investigations, including by the International Criminal Court, into the mass execution of civilians in food distribution areas.
7. We warn against the growing international complicity that continues to normalize war crimes, silence victims, and offer political cover to a system of occupation, siege, and extermination.
8. This is a moment for mass mobilization in the streets, in the media, and in political arenas to send a message that is clear and uncompromising: The people reject war. The people stand with Gaza. The people will break the siege through their voices and actions.
9. We urge independent media platforms, journalists, and all those with a conscience to break the silence surrounding Gaza, expose the repression of international activists, and shine a light on the daily crimes being committed against a people buried alive under rubble and lies.

We call on all social movements, unions, and grassroots organizations across the globe to join the global day of action on 15 June, or organize local marches, protests, and campaigns demanding the opening of Rafah, rejecting regional war, and expressing unwavering solidarity with the Palestinian people facing starvation and genocide.

La Via Campesina stands firmly with Gaza, and with all those who dare to walk the path of dignity and justice in the face of war, repression, and erasure.

Globalize the struggle. Globalize hope.From the land, from Palestine, from the people – we resist to live.

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