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IOL News
4 days ago
- General
- IOL News
The echoes of humanity: Gaza, the Auschwitz of our times
Palestinians receive lentil soup at a food distribution point in Gaza City. The World Health Organization warned that malnutrition was reaching "alarming levels" in Gaza. Image: Omar AL-QATTAA / AFP IN THE shadow of history's darkest chapters, a tragedy of catastrophic and colossal proportions has and continues to reach new levels of depravity daily, demanding we confront what it means to be human. Today, as the world watches the systematic suffering in Palestine, where children starve and civilians are reduced to mere numbers in a relentless conflict, we must ask: have we learned nothing from the past? The cries from Gaza, echoing the horrors of Auschwitz, pierce through the noise of indifference, urging us to reclaim our humanity before it slips irretrievably away. The starvation of children in Palestine is a visceral wound on our collective conscience. Forced starvation, a weapon as cruel and deadly as any bomb, has become a tactic in this conflict, reducing entire populations to desperation. The United Nations warns of famine, yet the international response remains tepid, mired in political calculations rather than moral imperatives. This is not a distant statistic but a reality etched in the gaunt faces of children, their ribs protruding like the bars of a cage. What we permit today is what we would have tolerated and remained silent about in the past, history's living judge will not spare us. Video Player is loading. Play Video Play Unmute Current Time 0:00 / Duration -:- Loaded : 0% Stream Type LIVE Seek to live, currently behind live LIVE Remaining Time - 0:00 This is a modal window. Beginning of dialog window. Escape will cancel and close the window. Text Color White Black Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Opaque Semi-Transparent Background Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Opaque Semi-Transparent Transparent Window Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Transparent Semi-Transparent Opaque Font Size 50% 75% 100% 125% 150% 175% 200% 300% 400% Text Edge Style None Raised Depressed Uniform Dropshadow Font Family Proportional Sans-Serif Monospace Sans-Serif Proportional Serif Monospace Serif Casual Script Small Caps Reset restore all settings to the default values Done Close Modal Dialog End of dialog window. Advertisement Next Stay Close ✕ Ad loading The global concept of humanity, once a beacon of hope after the Holocaust, now teeters on the brink. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights promised never again, yet here we are, witnessing a genocide in real-time. Hashtags like #IsraelTerroristState and #PalestineAction trend as desperate pleas, holding leaders accountable. Our inaction writes a verdict alongside the enablers of past atrocities. History is presently shaping itself, and the space we occupy will be judged not by titles but by deeds or lack thereof. Manipulating historical trauma to sanitise the current genocide in Palestine is an insidious betrayal. The Holocaust, a scar on Jewish history, should unite us against all suffering, not justify new horrors. The Palestinian experience, decades of occupation, displacement, and now starvation, demands its own recognition, not a footnote to another narrative. To deny this fractures the shared dignity that binds us as humans. Children, the most innocent casualties, bear the brunt of this moral failure. Their starvation is deliberate, a fact that should ignite global outrage. Yet, neutrality persists, a shrug of shoulders mirroring those who watched the rise of Nazism. Leaders must face this: your silence is a legacy you cannot escape. When a child cries out, bloodied and broken, hungry and afraid and there is no parent left alive to hold that child, it becomes the moral obligation of every single mother and father across this planet to answer to that cry. We could weep tsunamis of tears as we watch the cruel and calculated extermination of a people and still it will never be enough to drown out the despair of what we are all witness to. This is a moment of reckoning. The need for humanity has never been more urgent. It demands more than sympathy, it requires action. Governments must impose sanctions, open humanitarian corridors, and enforce laws protecting civilians. Individuals must advocate, raise awareness, and refuse to accept the unacceptable. The Palestine Action movement is a call to resist where others have fallen silent. What about the hostages? What about October 7th ? The defenders of this cruelty shout in an attempt to legitimise the cruelty. The bitter truth endures, not even the lives of the hostages matter to those who have exploited that very thing to justify and fuel their campaign of terror. October 7th a terrible and dark day and one that in all its profound horror tore open the world's eyes to the ongoing oppression and occupation in the open air prison that is Palestine. This minute, this second of this day in 2025 the clock ticks for justice, for humanity. The images of starving children, the wails of bereaved mothers, and the ruins of Gaza are not abstract, they are the test of our humanity. We must reject the middle ground, choosing life over death, compassion over indifference. We cannot undo the past, but we can shape the future. The question is not whether we can act, but whether we will. For if we do not, the echoes of Auschwitz will not be history's only lesson, Palestine will be our enduring shame. Humanity knows no race or religion, it is the fundamental universal binding thread that links us as people. To see your own child reflected in the eyes of the dying child taking his last breath as a camera live streams it, to hold your own child and feel their warm body and know a mother somewhere is cradling the lifeless body of hers – to feel and to know it's only though some stroke of luck and geography that we are here and not them there and that alone should compel every human being with an ounce of humanity to speak out, to act - as we would hope others would do for us if the tables were turned. Palestine is the litmus test we cannot afford to fail. The moral compass points in one direction as it has been for hundreds of days now, let Palestine not become the planet's altar at which everything that it is to be profoundly humane within each of us, goes to die. Humanity must be resurrected. Vanessa Govender Image: Supplied
Sinar Daily
7 days ago
- Politics
- Sinar Daily
Gaza's Airdrop Ordeal: Humanitarian Aid or a Squid Game Show?
THINK of the infamous glass bridge scene in Squid Game: a line of desperate contestants, suspended high above the ground, forced to choose between panels of glass - one tempered, the other a death trap. Each step is a gamble. Behind them, time is ticking; ahead, only fear. Below, death awaits. Now shift that image to Gaza. Barefoot children, limping fathers and hollow-eyed mothers race beneath parachuting aid packages in an open-air prison. The skies rain not salvation, but risk - boxes that might fall safely or crash onto a crowd. Each run is a gamble. There is no courage here, only desperation. No winners, only survivors or casualties. The world watches - entertained, horrified or indifferent. But this is no game. Aid packages falling from the sky over Gaza - parachutes drifting in cinematic slow motion, filmed from military aircraft and broadcast with dramatic flair - might seem like a gesture of compassion. But the reality is far darker. This is not humanitarianism - it's a performance. And for Palestinians, it's beginning to feel like a deadly game show. This handout photo taken over Gaza and released on August 1, 2025 by the Spanish Ministry of Defence shows the release of humanitarian aid from a Spanish Air Force Airbus A400M Atlas airplane over Gaza. (Photo by HANDOUT / Spain Defence Ministry / AFP) On July 27 this year, Israeli aircraft began dropping aid into northern Gaza after announcing limited daily pauses in its offensive. But almost immediately, the truth broke through the façade: the airdrops injured several Palestinians, according to Al Jazeera. Crates fell in chaotic fashion, endangering the very people they were supposedly meant to help. The image of people sprinting across bombed-out streets, risking injury or death just to grab a bag of rice, is chilling. It resembles something out of Squid Game, where survival becomes sport, and the powerless must scramble for basic needs under the watchful eye of the powerful. Dangerous, Chaotic, and Deeply Insufficient Each airdrop delivers only a symbolic fraction of what is actually needed. Gaza is home to over two million people. Yet scattered pallets, with no distribution system, are expected to feed entire communities. Worse still, aid packages often land in dangerous zones, the sea or inaccessible areas. Several Palestinians have died trying to retrieve them. This is not aid. This is a deadly lottery. The weakest lose. The desperate suffer. And the powerful film it. Nine-year-old malnourished Palestinian girl Mariam Dawwas is carried by her mother in the Rimal neighbourhood in Gaza City on August 2, 2025. The World Health Organisation warned on July 27 that malnutrition was reaching "alarming levels" in Gaza. (Photo by Omar AL-QATTAA / AFP) Israel Prefers Airdrops - But Why? In a stunning moment of irony, Israel publicly announced that it would allow foreign governments to airdrop aid into Gaza. Think about that: the same state that bombs aid convoys and blocks trucks at land crossings is now saying, 'Go ahead - toss food from the air.' Why approve airlifts but restrict trucks? Because airdropping aid allows Israel to control the narrative. It gets to appear cooperative, while continuing to restrict the kind of aid that actually reaches people effectively. Allowing airdrops is a way to avoid allowing real access. It creates an illusion of generosity, while avoiding pressure to lift the siege, stop the bombing or allow UN convoys through. It's not a humanitarian breakthrough - it's a carefully calculated performance. Airdrops Are Political Theatre As shown in viral social media critiques like this one, airdrops serve more as PR (public relations) tools than real relief efforts. The visuals - parachutes over war-torn neighbourhoods - make headlines. But the deeper truth is hidden: the same governments staging these drops are often the ones supplying weapons, blocking ceasefire resolutions or criminalising pro-Palestinian advocacy. You can't bomb a population and expect applause for dropping them snacks. Airdrops sanitise brutality - making it easier for the global public to consume images of 'help' instead of confronting the real images of occupation, starvation and slaughter. TOPSHOT - French military personnel load an aircraft with humanitarian aid in Jordan, before an airdropping operation over the Gaza Strip on August 2, 2025. (Photo by Ahmad GHARABLI / AFP) Airdrops Dehumanise Palestinians Palestinians are not props in an action film. They are not waiting for Hollywood-style rescues from the sky. They are a people - with agency, rights and dignity, being deliberately starved, bombed and cut off from the world. Reducing them to aerial aid recipients strips them of that humanity. It shifts the narrative from one of occupation, apartheid and genocide to one of vague 'tragedy,' as if this were a natural disaster rather than a deliberate act. These stunts reduce Palestinians to figures in a crisis simulation. They are not contestants in a survival show. They are a people enduring displacement, starvation and bombardment. Their dignity is stripped away when they are forced to chase parachutes for food while the world claps from a distance. Humanitarian aid should empower - not humiliate. But these airdrops do the opposite. They turn survival into spectacle, while world powers refuse to address the root cause: a brutal siege and a military campaign that has devastated Gaza's civilian population. Gaza Needs Ceasefire - Not Cameras If the international community is serious about saving lives, it must demand: An immediate and lasting ceasefire Fully opened land crossings for medical and food aid Unimpeded humanitarian access led by neutral agencies Accountability for war crimes And above all, justice for Palestinians, not photo ops Until that happens, these airdrops remain what they truly are: A PR stunt for the complicit and an insult to the oppressed. In Gaza, aid should fall through borders - not from the sky. And certainly not like it's a scene out of a Squid Game show. Revda Selver is Friends of Palestine Public Relation and Media Executive. The views expressed in this article are his own and do not necessarily reflect those of Sinar Daily.
Sinar Daily
30-07-2025
- Politics
- Sinar Daily
Food consumption, nutrition indicators in Gaza reached their worst levels
Gaza faces the grave risk of famine as food consumption and nutrition indicators have reached their worst levels since the conflict began. 30 Jul 2025 08:47am Palestinians bring back aid parcels they managed to procure as they walk on a coastal path west of Beit Lahia on July 29, 2025, after aid trucks entered the Israel-besieged Gaza Strip from the northern Zikim border crossing. (Photo by Omar AL-QATTAA / AFP) NEW YORK - United Nations (UN) Secretary-General António Guterres said Gaza faces the grave risk of famine as food consumption and nutrition indicators have reached their worst levels since the beginning of the conflict, the Emirates News Agency (WAM) reported. Gaza faces the grave risk of famine as food consumption and nutrition indicators have reached their worst levels since the conflict began, according to data shared in the latest Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) Alert. Palestinians climb in the back of a truck ona coastal path west of Beit Lahia, after managing to get aid [arcels on July 29, 2025, after aid trucks entered the Israel-besieged Gaza Strip from the northern Zikim border crossing. (Photo by Omar AL-QATTAA / AFP) ''The latest Integrated Food Security Phase Classification Alert confirms what we have feared: Gaza is on the brink of famine. "The facts are in - and they are undeniable. Palestinians in Gaza are enduring a humanitarian catastrophe of epic proportions. This is not a warning. It is a reality unfolding before our eyes,'' said the Secretary-General in response to the findings of the latest Integrated Food Security Phase Classification Alert. ''This nightmare must end,'' he added. The IPC Alert highlights that two out of the three famine thresholds have now been breached in parts of the territory, with the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO), the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) and UNICEF warning that time is running out to mount a full-scale humanitarian response. Relentless conflict, the collapse of essential services, and severe limitations on the delivery and distribution of humanitarian assistance imposed on the UN have led to catastrophic food security conditions for hundreds of thousands of people across the Gaza Strip. Food consumption - the first core famine indicator - has plummeted in Gaza since the last IPC Update in May 2025. Data shows that more than one in three people (39 per cent) are now going days at a time without eating. More than 500,000 people - nearly a quarter of Gaza's population - are enduring famine-like conditions, while the remaining population is facing emergency levels of hunger. Acute malnutrition - the second core famine indicator - inside Gaza has risen at an unprecedented rate. In Gaza City, malnutrition levels among children under five have quadrupled in two months, reaching 16.5 per cent. This signals a critical deterioration in nutritional status and a sharp rise in the risk of death from hunger and malnutrition. - BERNAMA-WAM More Like This
Toronto Sun
24-07-2025
- Politics
- Toronto Sun
Hamas says responded to latest Gaza ceasefire proposal
International criticism is growing over the catastrophic humanitarian situation in Gaza. Photo by Omar AL-QATTAA / AFP GAZA CITY — Hamas said on Thursday that it had responded to an Israeli proposal for a 60-day ceasefire in Gaza, as pressure mounted for a breakthrough to end almost two years of devastating conflict that has triggered a humanitarian crisis for civilians. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. THIS CONTENT IS RESERVED FOR SUBSCRIBERS ONLY Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada. Unlimited online access to articles from across Canada with one account. Get exclusive access to the Toronto Sun ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment on. Enjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalists. Support local journalists and the next generation of journalists. Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword. SUBSCRIBE TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada. Unlimited online access to articles from across Canada with one account. Get exclusive access to the Toronto Sun ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment on. Enjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalists. Support local journalists and the next generation of journalists. Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword. REGISTER / SIGN IN TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account. Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments. Enjoy additional articles per month. Get email updates from your favourite authors. THIS ARTICLE IS FREE TO READ REGISTER TO UNLOCK. Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments Enjoy additional articles per month Get email updates from your favourite authors Don't have an account? Create Account Mediators have been shuttling between Israeli and Hamas negotiators in the Qatari capital Doha for more than two weeks but the indirect talks have so far failed to yield an elusive truce. International criticism is growing over the plight of the more than two million Palestinian civilians in Gaza, where more than 100 aid and rights groups have warned that 'mass starvation' is spreading. Palestinian militant group Hamas said in a statement on Telegram that it has 'just submitted its response and that of the Palestinian factions to the ceasefire proposal to the mediators.' A statement from the office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu confirmed it had received the response. 'It is currently being evaluated,' it added. Your noon-hour look at what's happening in Toronto and beyond. By signing up you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc. Please try again This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Hamas's response included proposed amendments to clauses on the entry of aid, maps of areas from which the Israeli army should withdraw, and guarantees on securing a permanent end to the war, according to a Palestinian source familiar with the ongoing talks. Through 21 months of fighting, both sides have clung to long-held positions, preventing two short-lived truces from being converted into a lasting ceasefire. The indirect talks in Doha began on July 6 to try to reach an agreement on a truce deal that would also see the release of Israeli hostages. Of the 251 hostages taken during Hamas's October 2023 attack on Israel that triggered the war, 49 are still being held in Gaza, including 27 the Israeli military says are dead. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. But the talks have dragged on without a breakthrough, with each side blaming the other for refusing to budge on their key demands. For Israel, dismantling Hamas's military and governing capabilities is non-negotiable, while Hamas demands firm guarantees on a lasting truce, a full withdrawal of Israeli troops and the free flow of aid into Gaza. With pressure for a breakthrough mounting, Washington said top envoy Steve Witkoff will travel to Europe this week for talks on a ceasefire and aid corridor. 'Risk of famine' The World Health Organization's chief warned on Wednesday of widespread starvation in Gaza, saying food deliveries into the territory were 'far below what is needed for the survival of the population.' This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. 'A large proportion of the population of Gaza is starving. I don't know what you would call it other than mass starvation — and it's man-made,' Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told reporters. France warned of a growing 'risk of famine' caused by 'the blockade imposed by Israel.' Israel has rejected accusations that it is responsible for Gaza's deepening hunger crisis, instead accusing Hamas of preventing supplies from being distributed and looting aid for themselves or to sell at inflated prices. Israel has also maintained that it is allowing aid into the Palestinian territory but that international agencies were failing to pick it up for distribution. COGAT, the Israeli defence ministry body overseeing civil affairs in the Palestinian territories, said on Thursday that around 70 food trucks had been unloaded at aid crossings the previous day. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. 'Over 150 were collected by the UN and international organisations from the Gazan side, but over 800 still await pick up,' it said in a post on X. Aid agencies have said permissions from Israel are still limited, and coordination to safely move trucks to where they are needed is a major challenge in an active war zone. The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said that, in coordination with the UN children's agency UNICEF, trucks carrying medicines and medical supplies were scheduled to enter hospitals on Thursday. Israel's military campaign in Gaza has killed 59,219 Palestinians, mostly civilians, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory. Hamas's October 2023 attack on Israel resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people, most of them civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures. Sports Golf Canada Canada Sunshine Girls
Newsweek
16-07-2025
- Politics
- Newsweek
Hamas Is To Blame For the Suffering in Gaza
This week we exceeded 6,600 days of Hamas' rule over the Gaza Strip. Hamas seized control of Gaza on June 14, 2007, after winning the 2006 elections and violently ousting its rivals. In the ensuing 18-plus years, Hamas has entrenched itself as an authoritarian regime in Gaza that many observers label as one of the worst governments ever to rise to power through elections. Gaza's 2 million residents have endured systemic oppression, human rights abuses, economic devastation, and repeated wars as a result of Hamas' "leadership." Hamas has systematically stolen from its people in every possible way, and explicitly makes the deaths of those under its rule a central facet of its military strategy. Hamas has waged a campaign of terror against Israel and Jews worldwide, but it does so by first reigning with terror over the people of Gaza. People are struggling with how to understand what has happened to Palestinians in Gaza. The poverty, violence, death, and hopelessness in Gaza is absolutely horrendous. Someone must be to blame, because there is no reason anyone should have to live in such conditions. But who? Many Westerners, especially young people, have latched onto a flagrantly false accusation: Gaza is in dire straits because Israel is in the process of perpetrating a genocide. Clearly, most who use that term don't know what it means. Some ought to know better: The false and horrific accusation before the highly politicized International Criminal Court is a total sham. When I speak to groups, I'm sometimes asked what I think of Israel's "genocide." I reply by asking them what "genocide" means. Their typical reply to me? A blank look. A squirm. They don't know what it means, or if they do, they don't know how to apply it to Israel's war on Hamas. Why? Because it's a completely false accusation against Israel. Israel is not trying to wipe a people off the Earth, and the evidence for that fact is all around—from Israeli troops' presence on the ground in Gaza (why would that be if they were trying to wipe Palestinians out?), to Israel's conduct in Judea and Samaria (where there is no active war against the Palestinians, much less something more dramatic), to the international freak-out that ensues whenever anyone discusses allowing Palestinians to leave Gaza in the search for better lives, even if only on a temporary basis. The narrative of Israeli genocide is outrageously false. But that doesn't mean there isn't a tragedy in Gaza, that no one is to blame, or that there is no coherent story we can tell about what has befallen innocent Palestinians there. A Palestinian woman mourns over the covered body of a relative, killed in overnight Israeli strikes, during the funeral procession at the Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City on July 15, 2025. A Palestinian woman mourns over the covered body of a relative, killed in overnight Israeli strikes, during the funeral procession at the Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City on July 15, 2025. Omar AL-QATTAA / AFP/Getty Images We should—indeed we must—define the tragedy of what has happened to Palestinians in Gaza. I humbly suggest we use this word: "dehumanicide." As in, Hamas and its terrorist partners in crime, including the Iranian regime, have committed dehumanicide against the Palestinians in Gaza for over 6,600 days and counting. I define "dehumanicide" as when a people's leadership condemns its population to death by treating them not as humans but as props. By camouflaging among civilians—placing weapons, tunnels, and command posts in and under hospitals, schools, mosques, and apartment buildings—Hamas has committed an act of dehumanicide. Hamas transformed civilian lives into strategic assets for international outrage. Hamas instrumentalized Gazans not as people to be protected, but as tools of their horrific, twisted, evil warfare. Hamas accepts these civilian deaths as the "cost of doing business." Indeed, Hamas welcomes the deaths because it knows the world will use them as cudgels against Israel so that Hamas can prolong its long war against the Jewish state. Hamas' crime of dehumanicide against Palestinians in Gaza differs from mere disregard for human life. It is a structural inversion of human value, where vulnerability is weaponized, and death is prized and monetized politically. How does dehumanicide differ from other "cides?" Unlike genocide, which seeks to exterminate a people from without, and unlike suicide, which targets the self, dehumanicide is a vicious betrayal from within—a leadership or organization reducing people it purports to lead to human sacrifices in service of its ideology and propaganda. Hamas and its related groups have committed dehumanicide against Gazans, aided by Islamic Jihad, Houthis, Hezbollah, and other terror groups that are part of this evil axis, along with the Iranian regime and its useful foot soldiers in the West who either sympathize with Hamas, or merely do its bidding because they fail or don't want to recognize this reality. Let's finally speak the truth about what has happened in Gaza. The real tragedy is not an imaginary genocide by Israel, but the systematic dehumanization of Palestinians by their own supposed leaders. May the day soon come when we stop the count of Hamas' rule and begin counting the days of Gaza's freedom from Hamas' oppression. And maybe after that, we can figure out whether there might be a realistic, implementable solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and what that might look like, so there is no more suffering of Palestinians or Israelis as a result of this seemingly unsolvable conflict. Jason D. Greenblatt was President Donald Trump's Middle East envoy between 2017 and 2019. He is the author of In the Path of Abraham and the founder of Abraham Venture LLC. Follow him on X: @GreenblattJD The views expressed in this article are the writer's own.
