Israel is perpetrating all kinds of brutal and inhuman atrocities against innocent Palestinians, with the tacit approval of America, other Western powers and many Muslim governments.
It is killing children, women, the elderly, journalists, doctors, and humanitarian workers with impunity. Israeli ministers, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Defence Minister Yoav Gallant, have openly expressed genocidal intentions. Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said the goal is to “destroy everything that’s left of Gaza.” Members of Netanyahu’s ruling Likud party have declared that “there are no innocent people in Gaza,” and that “the children brought this on themselves.”
According to UNICEF, over 50,000 Palestinian children have been killed or maimed since October 2023. More than 120 journalists — the highest number ever recorded in any conflict in such a short time — have been killed. Dozens of doctors, nurses, paramedics and teachers have also been killed. More than 80% of Gaza’s hospitals, along with schools, mosques, churches, bakeries, and UN aid facilities have been destroyed. Aid convoys have been bombed. Entire neighbourhoods have been erased. Food, water, fuel, and medicine are being blocked. Two million people are facing starvation and death. Yet the so-called civilised world remains silent. The United Nations, the International Criminal Court, and human rights organisations are practically doing nothing to stop Israel from this manslaughter and destruction.
The United Nations Independent Commission of Inquiry has accused Israel of war crimes and the crimes against humanity of extermination. “Israel has obliterated Gaza’s education system and destroyed over half of all religious and cultural sites in the Gaza Strip”, says the report.
According to a BBC report, in Europe there is also now a widely held belief, as in Israel, that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is prolonging the war not to safeguard Israelis, but to preserve the ultra-nationalist coalition that keeps him in power. As prime minister he can prevent a national inquiry into his role in security failures that gave Hamas its opportunity before October 7 and slow down his long-running trial on serious corruption charges that could land him in jail.
Netanyahu rarely gives interviews or news conferences. He prefers direct statements filmed and posted on social media. Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar declined a request for an interview. Boaz Bismuth, a parliamentarian from Netanyahu’s Likud party, repeated his leader’s positions: that there is no famine in Gaza, that Israel respects the laws of war and that unwarranted criticism of its conduct by countries including the UK, France and Canada incites antisemitic attacks on Jews, including murder.
This is not war. It is annihilation. Chris Hedges, an author and journalist, writes in CounterPunch: “This is the end. The final blood-soaked chapter of the genocide… Two million people are camped out amongst the rubble or in the open air… Sick. Injured. Terrified. Humiliated. Abandoned. Destitute. Starving. Hopeless… We — full participants in this genocide — will have achieved our demented goal of emptying Gaza and expanding Greater Israel… We will have mocked the ubiquitous university programs of Holocaust studies, designed, it turns out, not to equip us to end genocides, but to deify Israel as an eternal victim licensed to carry out mass slaughter… Genocide is public policy. Endorsed and sustained by our two ruling parties… Genocide as spectacle… This genocide will haunt us. It will echo down history with the force of a tsunami…”
It is also a grim reality that Western leaders in the US, the UK, across Europe, and many Muslim countries will be remembered as collaborators in genocide. US President Donald Trump proposed a plan to forcibly relocate Palestinians from Gaza to third countries, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has declared he will not stop the war until this “relocation” is fulfilled. The United Nations remains powerless. The Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) has failed to move beyond statements. Saudi Arabia and other wealthy Muslim nations, despite their considerable influence, have taken no tangible steps to isolate Israel or demand accountability. And so, the killing continues. The principle of “might is right” still governs global affairs. This genocide has also laid bare the moral bankruptcy of the international community. International law has been mocked. Humanitarian values have been shattered. The Western world’s claim to “civilised values” stands discredited, as it funds, arms, and shields the very state perpetrating these crimes.
Time is running out. The world must act now — through sanctions, embargoes, the enforcement of ICC warrants against Israeli leaders, and a complete halt to military aid. If not, the genocide in Gaza will not only leave an indelible stain on human history; it will signify the final collapse of international justice and the moral foundations of the world order.
At the same time, it remains a reality that Palestinians will not abandon their struggle for self-defence and freedom. As Mahmoud Khalil, a detained student activist, has aptly declared:
“The struggle for Palestinian liberation is not a burden; it is a duty and an honour… This struggle is sweeter than a life without dignity.”