Yet, as of November 2024, the Gaza conflict still burns hot. It has tragically taken the lives of more than 60,000 people, including over 17,400 non-combatants children. Recent incendiary numbers have emerged, underscoring the widespread devastation across the Gaza Strip. Relentless bombardment by Israeli occupation forces supported by international complicity and silence has turned much of the area into rubble. Humanitarian organizations, including Oxfam, are raising the alarm about the potentiality of a major crisis happening in Western Africa. While Israel executes its military campaign, claims of genocide and crimes against humanity are spreading like wildfire around the world.
Over the course of less than two years, Israel’s military actions have already inflicted this level of devastation. One recent study published in The Lancet medical journal argues that the true death toll in Gaza may actually be more than 186,000. The Israeli government has come under fire for its military strategy, which has allegedly included the starvation of the population. Eye-witness accounts paint a horrifying picture of a woman and her three children dying of hunger. This tragic loss is the result of a shocking lack of basic food and water supplies.
In addition, as of late May, more than 1,000 Palestinians who had approached Palestinians requesting help from the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation have been murdered. Indeed, there is an increasing outrage at Israel’s disregard for civilian life. Now it’s facing accusations that it’s doing so with malice, intentionally starving almost two million residents of crucial goods. Israel’s military operations are intended to methodically destroy the Palestinian population, critics charge. They point to the extreme clustering of hungry people into specific places as proof of this assertion.
The conflict’s historical context is critical. Creation of the state of Israel in 1948 meant the massacre of thousands and the depopulation and demolition of over four hundred villages. Historical evidence shows that Zionist leaders knew they had to remove the Indigenous population in the process. This backdrop of troubling history offers a lens through which to view the events of today.
The case against Israel on the merits is overwhelming, with accusations of committing a uniquely horrific crime. Humanitarian experts and critics say its actions amount to a tactic of genocide by starvation. The bombardment has now struck hospitals and schools indiscriminately. Hundreds of incident reports document the bombardments of hospitals, clinics, and ambulances. Attacks on already devastated infrastructure. In Gaza’s already dire humanitarian catastrophe, the targeting of crucial infrastructure has only deepened this tragedy.
Bret Stephens, a prominent commentator, has questioned the narrative surrounding allegations of genocide. He stated:
“If the Israeli government’s intentions and actions are truly genocidal – if it is so malevolent that it is committed to the annihilation of Gazans – why hasn’t it been more methodical and vastly more deadly?” – Bret Stephens
In response, Stephens maintained that the word “genocide” should not be diluted to ensure it stays a “uniquely horrific crime.” He argued against it being a ubiquitous excuse for military operations that kill civilians.
The UN genocide convention defines genocide as the “intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group.” This seemingly straightforward definition introduces complicated questions about intent and action in the context of Israel’s military operations. As such, passionate debates continue in American circles over whether to call the unfolding catastrophe in Gaza a “genocide.” In the meantime, the human tragedy grows by the minute.
