Starve, Silence, Disable: New Weapons in Israel's Genocidal War
This is not 'collateral damage'. It is the deliberate, systematic creation of disability.
An injured man is taken to the Al-Ahli hospital following overnight Israeli army airstrikes across the Gaza Strip, in Gaza City, on March 18. Photo: AP/PTI.
"Give me a voice of thunder that I may hurl imprecation upon this cannibal, whose gruesome hunger spares neither woman nor child." – Rabindranath Tagore
In Gaza, the cannibal devours relentlessly – its hunger insatiable, its thirst for blood unquenched. The savagery unfolding is unprecedented, more brutal than anything recent memory can bear. Its crimes are so grotesque that one would be tempted to draw parallels with those tried at Nuremberg.
The thunderous plea of Tagore seems to pale when faced with the indescribable and unsurmountable suffering that Gazans are subjected to.
One must be a heartless monster to remain unmoved by the cries of children undergoing amputations without anaesthesia, lying on blood-soaked floors in overcrowded spaces.
Writing in The Hindu of October 5, 2024, Farhat Mantoo of MSF-Doctors without Borders, South Asia Chapter, narrates the story of 15-year-old Abdul, who ventured out on February 10, 2024, to surprise his mum with some 'salt or flour' amid the devastation in northern Gaza.
As he scoured abandoned homes, he was grievously injured during an Israeli airstrike. Abdul crawled for more than an hour before help arrived and he was taken to a hospital. With hospitals overwhelmed with casualties and critical supplies lacking, doctors were forced to perform surgery on Abdul without anesthesia. The situation has far worsened now.
Denied wheelchairs and other assistive devices and robbed of caregivers, the disabled are forced to flee from one bombardment zone to another on foot – many of them crawling, dragging their bodies maimed by the violence. Homes, hospitals, rehabilitation centres – any building in the path of the Israeli Defence Forces – are reduced to rubble.
This is not "collateral damage." It is the deliberate, systematic creation of disability. As a powerful submission to the UN Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD Committee) to its hearing in August 2025, argues, this is the "mass production of disability." The submission, by Women Enabled International (WEI) endorsed by several global organisations, including India's National Platform for the Rights of the Disabled (NPRD), documents an appalling reality:
"Thousands have been made newly disabled due to amputations, traumatic injuries, psychological trauma, and the denial of essential medical care."
According to a UNICEF/WHO update in early 2025, between 3,105 and 4,050 limb amputations were reported since October 7, 2023, in Gaza. Approximately 25% of these victims were children, equating to around 780 to 1,000 child amputees. A May 2025 report from the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA) and Christian Aid Ireland cites the total number of amputations as 4,700, with 850 of those being children.
The bombs maim bodies; the siege prevents treatment; trauma decays the spirit. Disability here is not an unforeseen tragedy – it is an intended outcome, a weapon in the arsenal of genocide.
Oldest logic of genocide: Target the disabled first
What is unfolding in Gaza is not an isolated tragedy – it is part of a grim historical legacy. In 1994, in Rwanda, persons with disabilities were locked in churches and burned alive. In Srebrenica (Bosnia, 1995), the elderly and disabled were abandoned to die.
But the most horrific was what happened in Nazi Germany where disabled individuals were the first to be exterminated, targeted under the concocted logic of racial hygiene. Under Aktion T4, an estimated 2,00,000 disabled individuals were annihilated. This program, which began in 1939, was a precursor to the Holocaust, marking the first phase in the Nazis' campaign of "racial purification". The disabled were considered "unworthy of life', a 'burden on earth' and were sent to gas chambers before the mass slaughter of Jews and other "undesirables".
The submission to the CRPD Committee notes:
'History has shown that persons with disabilities are disproportionately impacted by genocides, yet they remain perpetually excluded from protection, recognition and remembrance.'
In Gaza, disabled bodies are not mere casualties of war – they are actively targeted. Bombs destroy rehabilitation centres; sieges prevent access to wheelchairs; orders to displace people render the disabled incapable of fleeing.
Starvation as a weapon of reproductive genocide
The submission bears witness to horrors that words can scarcely capture:
"Mothers must deliver babies without anesthesia. Doctors use cellphone flashlights to conduct operations. Mothers who are starving cannot produce milk. Babies die prematurely because there is no fuel for incubators."
For women with disabilities, this nightmare is compounded. They are unable to flee, deprived of privacy, and at heightened risk of sexual violence. Reproductive care is denied, amplifying the terror.
The Palestinian Feminist Collective has named this for what it is: 'reproductive genocide'.
Occupation as a machine of disablement
Even before the current onslaught, Israel's prolonged occupation of Palestine was a monstrous machine producing disability. Settler violence, home demolitions, military checkpoints and apartheid-like healthcare systems have been a form of daily warfare for Palestinians. The current destruction only deepens this crisis:
"Disability-based dispossession is entrenched by the occupation. Impairment is worsened through violence, deprivation, and denial of access to care, education, and freedom of movement.'
In the West Bank, disabled women and girls live under constant threat of settler violence. Hospitals are either blocked or destroyed, further exacerbating the ongoing crisis.
The genocide is not only impacting people with disabilities, especially women, girls and gender diverse people with disabilities, in unimaginable ways, but the genocide has also been a mass disabling event. It has produced large scale disability – both visible and invisible.
An unending mental health crisis
In Gaza, mental health has collapsed under relentless siege. Continuous bombardment, loss of loved ones, forced displacement, and witnessing unspeakable horrors have pushed entire communities into collective trauma.
Children and adults alike wake screaming from nightmares that never end; parents mourn silently, numb with grief. The destruction of hospitals and the shortage of mental health professionals mean that psychological wounds go untreated, deepening despair.
Anxiety, depression and post-traumatic stress have become widespread, yet there is no safe space to heal. Here, trauma is not a moment – it is daily life, passed from one generation to the next in an unbroken cycle.
Numbers that the world refuses to see
A report in Al Jazeera, dated July 24, 2025, records the death of over 59,000 Palestinians and injuries to 1,43,000 in Israeli attacks. According to Harvard Dataverse, an estimated 3,77,000 people have "disappeared," buried under rubble and left uncounted. Among them are the disabled, who are left to die because they could not escape.
"Due to the actions of Israel, it is close to impossible to obtain accurate and timely data,' the submission warns. Erasure, too, is a weapon.
Profiting over bodies
The economy of genocide – as described by UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese – is built on the dispossession and disablement of Palestinians and disability justice helps us understand and name how war, surveillance, and militarism profit from the destruction of bodies and communities. International arms sales, border militarisation and the blocking of humanitarian aid are capitalist ventures that produce and sustain disability on a mass scale.
Israel's bombardment of Gaza serves as a live testing ground for AI-guided weapons, surveillance technologies and riot control tools – all of which are then exported worldwide including to India. As the submission notes:
"War, surveillance, and militarism profit from the destruction of bodies and communities."
From Nazi doctors conducting experiments on disabled prisoners to modern arms manufacturers boasting of "battle-tested" weapons, genocide and capitalism have always walked hand in hand. Not to speak of the 'Riviera of the Middle East' that someone is dreaming of.
Convention betrayed
Israel ratified the CRPD, thereby obligating itself to protect persons with disabilities, particularly in conflict. The Fourth Geneva Convention demands medical care and protection for civilians. Yet, hospitals are bombed, aid is blocked and disability services are wiped out.
"Non-compliance with these obligations may constitute grave breaches of international law and warrants independent investigation and accountability."
Yet, bombs continue to fall, and words like "proportionality" fill press releases.
How many more?
In Gaza, children wake to find their limbs gone. Mothers bury babies – premature and stillborn. Disabled women crawl across a wasteland where homes and rehabilitation centres once stood. From Aktion T4 to Srebrenica, from Rwanda to Gaza, genocide begins by marking some lives as disposable.
"Persons with disabilities are disproportionately impacted by violence yet are consistently excluded from protection and remembrance."
History asks us: how many more limbs, wombs, and futures must be shattered before we say enough?
The silence that speaks: India's disability movement and Gaza
The Indian disability movement has been strikingly silent on the unprecedented suffering of disabled Palestinians in Gaza. While global disability organisations have condemned Israel's deliberate targeting of persons with disabilities and joined calls for a ceasefire, most prominent Indian disability groups continue to look away.
This silence is disturbing. It not only betrays the foundational principles of the disability rights movement – supposedly built on the rejection of hierarchies of whose lives matter – but also echoes the position of India's current ruling establishment to side with Israel. Many have been unequivocal supporters of the neoliberal trajectory and stand compromised. The disability community, which has historically stood against state violence and exclusion, now risks complicity by omission.
Moreover, by refusing to engage with the mass production of disability in Gaza – children losing limbs in bombardments, denial of assistive devices, starvation used as a weapon – the movement distances itself from global disability justice. In doing so, it inadvertently affirms an unequal valuation of lives: solidarity, it seems, is not extended to Palestinians – disabled or otherwise.
This selective empathy undermines both credibility and conscience, exposing a silence that itself becomes a form of violence and complicity.
Muralidharan is general secretary, National Platform for the Rights of the Disabled (NPRD).
The Wire is now on WhatsApp. Follow our channel for sharp analysis and opinions on the latest developments.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Print
5 hours ago
- The Print
Anti-drug drive in final phase: Punjab CM
He said the backbone of the drug supply chain has been entirely broken, and he thanked the people of Punjab for their enthusiastic support in this noble mission to save the future generations. Addressing members of these defence committees, Mann said the Punjab government launched the 'War Against Drugs' campaign on February 4 and has achieved major success in eliminating the roots of the menace. Ludhiana, Aug 4 (PTI) Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann on Monday said his government's anti-drug campaign has entered its final phase, and expressed confidence that newly formed defence committees in villages and cities will play a decisive role in ending drug trafficking in the state. Mann said to keep villages and cities drug-free in the future, the government has formed defence committees and said he is fully confident that these committees will act as 'generals' in this war against drugs and safeguard villages and cities. He said each village or ward defence committee will be formed with four core members: the village sarpanch or ward councillor, a representative from the anti-drug campaign, the block development and panchayat officer or their representative, and the SHO or their representative. These committees will include 10 to 20 members, depending on the population, he said, adding that only individuals with clean records and reputation — such as retired army personnel, teachers, and village headmen — will be included. Each committee will be officially notified by the local sub-divisional magistrate, and committee members will be issued special government ID cards. It will facilitate communication with the administration regarding drug-related information or anti-drug activities, he said. Villages and wards will have round-the-clock surveillance to ensure no trafficker dares to operate, he said. The committee members will also assist in drug rehabilitation efforts and help reintegrate former addicts into society, he added. Any village or ward that achieves 100 per cent drug-free status will receive formal recognition and certificates of appreciation from the government, said Mann. 'These committees will raise awareness through street plays and door-to-door campaigns, adding that schools will also conduct awareness programs for children,' he said. He noted that more than 10,000 village-level meetings have already been held, and many panchayats have passed resolutions to declare their villages drug-free. He blamed traditional political parties for dragging Punjab into the swamp of drug addiction, saying, 'Had the previous governments restrained drug traffickers, we would not have needed to conduct such programmes today. Governments usually form development committees — not defence committees.' Mann said the state government has been forced to form these committees to fight the war against drug dealers. While the incumbent state government is fighting them, traditional parties were 'hand in glove' with them and were offering them protection, he alleged. Without naming anyone, Mann said, 'Important evidence has been found against the jailed former Akali minister, and it will be presented in court.' Mann was apparently referring to Shiromani Akali Dal leader Bikram Singh Majithia who was arrested in a disproportionate assets case on June 25. PTI COR CHS RHL This report is auto-generated from PTI news service. ThePrint holds no responsibility for its content.
Economic Times
5 hours ago
- Economic Times
Trump says he's cut drug prices by up to 1,500%. That's not possible
Synopsis Donald Trump claimed significant drug price cuts, even up to 1500%. Experts refute this, stating such cuts are impossible. They suggest it would mean people are paid to take medicine. The White House defended Trump, citing price differences with other nations. Trump also mentioned future price drops. Some drugmakers are open to cuts. AP Days after he sent letters instructing top pharmaceutical manufacturers to use a "most favored nation" pricing model for prescription drugs, President Donald Trump told reporters on Sunday that he had cut costs by up to 1,500%. But Trump's grandiose claim is mathematically impossible. Here's a closer look at the facts. TRUMP: "You know, we've cut drug prices by 1,200, 1,300, 1,400, 1,500%. I don't mean 50%, I mean 14 - 1,500%." THE FACTS: This is false. Cutting drug prices by more than 100% would theoretically mean that people are being paid to take medications. The Trump administration has taken steps to lower prescription drug prices, but experts say there's no indication costs have seen such a massive drop. Geoffrey Joyce, director of health policy at the University of Southern California's Schaeffer Center, called Trump's claim "total fiction" made up by the Republican president. He agreed that it would amount to drug companies paying customers, rather than the other way around. "I find it really difficult to translate those numbers into some actual estimates that patients would see at the pharmacy counter," said Mariana Socal, an associate professor of health policy and management at Johns Hopkins University who studies the U.S. pharmaceutical market. She added that Trump's math is "really hard to follow." Asked what Trump was using to back up his claim, White House spokesman Kush Desai said: "It's an objective fact that Americans are paying exponentially more for the same exact drugs as people in other developed countries pay, and it's an objective fact that no other Administration has done more to rectify this unfair burden for the American people." The White House provided a chart of price differentials for drugs in the U.S. and comparable countries, but did not offer any other evidence. On Sunday, Trump also described cuts to drug prices as a future development, not that already happened. "So we'll be dropping drug prices," he said. "It will start over the next two to three months by 1,200, 1,300 and even 1,400%." Prices for most prescription drugs - unbranded generics are the exception - are higher in the U.S. than they are in other high-income countries. This is in large part due to the way drug prices are negotiated in the United States. Trump made his recent appeal in letters to 17 pharmaceutical manufacturers, the White House announced last week. He asked them to reduce costs in the U.S. by matching the lowest prices of prescriptions drugs in other comparably developed countries. Some drugmakers have since indicated that they are open to cutting costs. This move follows an executive order Trump signed in May setting a 30-day deadline for drugmakers to electively lower prices in the U.S. or face new limits in the future over what the government will pay. The federal government has the most power to shape the price it pays for drugs covered by Medicare and Medicaid. It's unclear what - if any - impact the Trump administration's efforts will have on millions of Americans who have private health insurance. Socal pointed out that if drug manufacturers had cut costs to the extent Trump claims, they would be shouting it from the rooftops, especially given the heat they've taken over the years for their pricing practices. "My expectation would be that they would make announcements - public announcements - and that those announcements would come way in advance of the actual effective dates when those price cuts would come into effect," she said. Joyce agreed that there has been no indication of a substantial cut. "Not at all, not at all, none whatsoever," he said. "And let alone 1,500."
Hindustan Times
6 hours ago
- Hindustan Times
Restaurants use unsafe colouring agent: Karnataka minister on quality food
Karnataka Health Minister Dinesh Gundu Rao on Monday appealed to people not to be "fooled" by attractive and colourful dishes, but to insist on safe and quality food. He cited the recent testing of six samples belonging to the Empire Group of Restaurants, which turned out to be unsafe due to the use of banned synthetic colouring.(PTI) He cited the recent testing of six samples belonging to the Empire Group of Restaurants, which turned out to be unsafe due to the use of banned synthetic colouring. "Despite repeated warnings, the restaurant group continued to use the unsafe colouring agent. Only after legal notices were sent did the colour go from red to yellow," the health minister told reporters during his weekly media briefing. There was no response from the Empire Group of Restaurants. According to the minister, better quality food and drugs can become the norm only if people insist on quality goods. "Yes, the government needs to do its part and tackle this legally, but people too should cultivate quality conscious as culture," he said. The minister also said the health department held a video conference on July 30 with cooking oil manufacturers to insist that the trans-fat level should not exceed 2 per cent. "We told them that if it exceeds 2 per cent, strong action will be taken against them," he added. Dinesh Gundu Rao said the oil manufacturers were also urged to sell used cooking oil (UCO) to manufacturers like Pyrene Industries, which converts UCO into biodiesel. According to 2024-25 data, 28,73,124 litres of UCO were used to manufacture biodiesel and soap, he said. "We want this figure to increase substantially so that UCO does not go back into the market for cooking purposes," he added. Rao said the Karnataka government has merged the enforcement division of Ayurveda, Siddha and Unani (ASU) medicines under the AYUSH Department, as well as the existing AYUSH drug testing laboratory in Bengaluru, with Drug Control Division of the Food Safety and Drug Administration Department for better functioning of the Health Department. According to him, the government's proposed app to control drug safety is expected to be functional by the end of this month. "With this app, we can immediately withdraw defective drugs, as we can track at distributor level. So, we can put an immediate stop to further sale of that drug," said the minister. He said, once the app is in force, they will expand its scope. "Next will be to take it to the pharmacy level. We want to onboard every pharmacy on the app," he added. At present, the recall procedure takes two days, he said, citing the recent recall of nearly 40 lakh drugs in two days. "This too, we had made a breakthrough with the help of a software. Earlier, it used to take nearly 30 days to recall batches of failed drugs from the market," he added. The minister also said work is progressing at expected pace in bringing the private ambulances and mobile medical units under the ambit of Karnataka Private Medical Establishments (KPME) Act. "We will be coming out with an amendment soon," he added.
