The South African Communist Party (SACP) has on Tuesday supported the South African government’s decision to withdraw its Ambassador to Israel following the deaths of over 50 Palestinians, following Israel's deadly attack in the Gaza Strip earlier on Monday.

“Given the indiscriminate and grave manner of the latest Israeli attack, the South African government has taken a decision to recall Ambassador Sisa Ngombane with immediate effect until further notice,” South Africa’s Department of International Relations and Cooperation said.

The SACP said Monday’s attack was another campaign “by the apartheid regime of Israel to annihilate the Palestinian people and take over their entire land”.

The SACP said the ongoing Israeli brutality against the Palestinians was a reminder of the darkest days of Apartheid in South Africa.

“Imperialism again has its dirty hand in stirring up conflict as its lobbyists continue to benefit from the arms trade,” the SACP’s statement said.

The SACP further condemned US President Donald Trump administration’s decision to move the US embassy to Jerusalem.

“It is this decision that lies behind the latest round of the genocidal campaign directed at the Palestinian people by the apartheid regime of Israel,” said the SACP.

While the party praised the South Africa government for taking action by removing the ambassador, it said more needed to be done.

“The Palestinians supported us, the formerly oppressed people of South Africa, during our struggle against oppression. It is today our internationalist duty to support them to achieve freedom from apartheid,” the party said. 

The SACP said it was going to join ‘Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions against Israel’ and ‘Palestine solidarity’ movements at today's #FreePalestine protest in Cape Town, which will be addressed by the leadership of the SACP.

The SACP reiterated its support for the United Nations’s resolutions on ending the occupation of Palestinian land by Israel, and for “a two-state solution with an independent and sovereign Palestine on the contiguous borders of 1969 and East Jerusalem as its capital”.