– Ranjan Solomon
As of July 2025, more than 60,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since October 7, 2023 [UN OCHA Gaza Situation Report, July 2025]. Among them are children seeking food, journalists documenting truth, and families huddled in tent cities – bombed without warning. This is not collateral damage. This is genocide, executed in broad daylight and live-streamed to a desensitised world.
According to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), since May 27 alone, over 1,054 Palestinians seeking humanitarian aid have been deliberately killed by Israeli forces [Jordan Shilton, Countercurrents, 26 July 2025]. At least 750 of these were attempting to reach supplies from the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation – an entity ironically established by U.S. and Israeli officials.
This is not war. This is the systematic extermination of a besieged population under the guise of “self-defence.” It fulfils the legal definition of genocide as per the UN Genocide Convention (1948): “acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group” [United Nations Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (1948)].
A Population Starved into Submission
Famine is not a by-product – it is a deliberate weapon. According to Philippe Lazzarini, Commissioner-General of UNRWA, Israel has blocked nearly 6,000 aid trucks waiting at the Rafah and Kerem Shalom crossings [UNRWA Official Press Briefing, July 2025]. Children are starving at unprecedented rates.
A report from Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders) found that 25% of children and breastfeeding women screened in Gaza were acutely malnourished [Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), Field Report, July 2025]. Gaza’s Government Media Office reports 122 starvation deaths since the beginning of the genocide – 83 of them children [Gaza Government Media Office, Public Statement, July 25, 2025].
Lazzarini stated: “Most children our teams are seeing are emaciated, weak and at high risk of dying if they don’t get the treatment they urgently need.” [Philippe Lazzarini, UNRWA Statement to Press, July 2025] Meanwhile, OXFAM reported a 150% increase in waterborne diseases, and labelled Gaza a “petri dish of disease.” [OXFAM, “Health Crisis in Gaza,” July 2025] These are textbook symptoms of collective punishment.
The Myth of “Hamas Stealing Aid”
Israel has repeatedly claimed that aid is being diverted to Hamas. But an internal USAID investigation, revealed by Reuters, found “no reports alleging Hamas” benefited from U.S. aid between October 2023 and May 2024 [Reuters, USAID internal audit leak, July 25, 2025]. The claim is a pretext to starve 2.2 million people, half of whom are children. This is not about Hamas. It is about erasing Palestinian life, culture, memory, and future.
Killing While Feeding
In an act of grotesque cruelty, Israel has repeatedly targeted Palestinians queuing for food. On July 25 alone, Israeli airstrikes killed 62 civilians, including 19 waiting at food distribution points [Gaza Health Ministry casualty reports, July 25, 2025]. These are not military targets.
Even humanitarian structures set up with international cooperation are used as bait. The message is chilling: “We will kill you even when you beg.” This is not just inhumane. It is calculated extermination.
Silence, Lies, and Complicity
European and American powers continue to release toothless statements about the need for restraint. On July 24, leaders of France, Canada, the UK, and Australia signed a joint letter expressing “concern” [Joint Statement by France, UK, Canada, Australia, July 2025]. Even French President Emmanuel Macron’s promise to recognise Palestine in September rings hollow when France continues to sell arms to Israel [Amnesty International, “Arms Transfers to Israel,” July 2025].
Worse, these same powers are brutally suppressing anti-genocide protests at home – labelling them antisemitic, criminalising campus movements, and unleashing state violence. The media, too, has colluded in silence, downplaying atrocities or echoing Israel’s unverified claims that all victims were Hamas.
Germany’s Chancellor Friedrich Merz phoned Netanyahu last week to express continued support, calling the genocide “understandable from a security standpoint” [German Chancellor’s Office, Statement to Tagesschau, July 2025]. This is the language of colonizers and war criminals.
Ilan Pappé: Genocide by Policy, Not Accident
Ilan Pappé, Israeli historian and author of The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine, and multiple other books and articles, has called the events in Gaza “a planned genocide.” In a recent statement, he said: “What we are witnessing is not a reaction, not a war, but the execution of a long-term strategy to depopulate Gaza. It is genocide not by error, but by intent.” [Ilan Pappé, public address via Palestine Solidarity Forum, July 2025]
Bombs for the “Riviera of the Middle East”
Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff announced a withdrawal from peace talks with Hamas, signalling support for Israel’s continued assault. Meanwhile, Israeli ministers like Bezalel Smotrich and Amichai Eliyahu openly advocate depopulation and total erasure of Gaza [Knesset Debate transcripts, July 2025].
These are not fringe voices – they are ministers of the state.
Killing the Witnesses
Since October 2023, 232 Palestinian journalists have been killed [Gaza Media Office, July 26, 2025]. The most recent was photojournalist Adam Abu Harbid, assassinated near Khan Younis. Gaza’s Media Office issued a statement: “We call on the International Federation of Journalists and all global media bodies to condemn these systematic crimes.” [Statement from Gaza Journalists’ Union, July 2025]
Why the World Must Act Now
The International Court of Justice (ICJ) has ruled that Israel must prevent genocidal acts [ICJ Order on South Africa v. Israel, January 2024]. The International Criminal Court (ICC) has issued arrest warrants for Netanyahu and Defence Minister Gallant [International Criminal Court, Press Release, May 2025]. But the killings continue. It is time for sanctions, arms embargoes, and total diplomatic isolation. Grassroots resistance must rise. Boycott. March. Resist. Insist. The moral line is clear.
This is not a time for fence-sitting. You either stand with the oppressed, or you stand with the oppressor.
Will we say Never Again after Gaza is gone?
Palestinians do not need pity.
They need solidarity.
They need justice.
They need it now.
[Ranjan Solomon has been active in the Palestinian solidarity movement since 1987. A political analyst and human rights defender, he writes and campaigns globally for justice in the Global South, with a focus on settler-colonialism, occupation, and state violence.]
