(By Khalid Masood)
Introduction: When the World Looks Away, Gaza Buries Its Children
Catherine Russell, Executive Director of UNICEF, recently laid bare a truth the world has chosen to ignore: 45 Palestinian children killed in just two days by Israeli airstrikes. Behind this stark figure is an even more horrifying reality—over one million children now face starvation, trapped under siege, with no access to food, water, or medicine. As Muslims, as human beings, how can we remain silent while innocent lives are turned into statistics, and children become targets?
This is not a war. This is a massacre of the voiceless, unfolding with full knowledge of the so-called international community. This article explores the grim reality of Gaza today, the global hypocrisy that fuels it, and the moral obligation upon all those who still have a conscience.
The Context: A People Under Occupation, a Strip Under Siege
For over seven decades, Palestinians have been denied their right to land, life, and liberty. Gaza, a narrow strip of land barely 365 square kilometers in size, has been transformed into the world’s largest open-air prison. The 16-year-long Israeli-Egyptian blockade has crippled its economy, devastated healthcare, and turned even basic survival into a daily struggle.
While Tel Aviv frames its latest aggression as “self-defense,” the truth is bitter and clear: Gaza is being bombed into submission, its infrastructure flattened, its children buried beneath rubble, and its people collectively punished for daring to exist.
The Human Cost: Gaza’s Children Pay the Price
🧒 Child Martyrs and Endless Trauma
According to Gaza’s Health Ministry, over 45 children were killed in recent Israeli airstrikes—many while sleeping, eating, or sheltering with family. Thousands more have been wounded. Nearly half of Gaza’s population is under 18; they are not combatants, they are not militants—they are the future being incinerated.
Beyond death lies the unending trauma. Children scream in fear at every drone, cry out for mothers already martyred, and learn the sounds of war before they can read.
“We no longer have the luxury to cry,” says one mother from Rafah who lost three of her children in a single strike.
🍞 Starvation as a Weapon of War
UN agencies now warn that over one million children are on the brink of starvation. With aid blocked, food supplies destroyed, and water systems bombed, Gaza is being choked. According to the World Food Programme, 96% of the population faces acute food insecurity. Hospitals run without power, operating in darkness, trying to save lives with empty shelves and no anesthesia.
🏥 Infrastructure in Ruins
Israel’s bombing campaign has flattened schools, hospitals, and homes. Over 50% of Gaza’s buildings are damaged or destroyed, according to UNICEF. Clean water has become a memory. Sanitation is collapsing. Disease is now as much a killer as bombs.
International Silence: The Deafening Hypocrisy of the Global Order
⚖️ United Nations Deadlocked, the West Complicit
Despite global outrage, the UN Security Council remains paralyzed, often paralyzed by U.S. vetoes shielding Israel from accountability. Secretary-General António Guterres called it “a crisis of humanity”—but words cannot heal wounds or stop bombs.
Western powers continue to parrot Israel’s right to self-defense while turning a blind eye to the slaughter of children. Their selective outrage is an insult to every principle they claim to uphold.
Where is the West’s commitment to human rights when Palestinian children die under its weapons?
🌍 The Muslim World: Divided and Dormant
While Turkey, Qatar, and Jordan have called for humanitarian corridors, most of the Muslim world remains muted or fragmented, shackled by diplomacy or fear. The Ummah’s silence is an open wound on our collective soul. Our brothers and sisters in Gaza cry for help—and we must ask: where is our united voice?
The Israeli Justification: A Shield of Propaganda
The Israeli military claims to target Hamas, accusing the resistance of using civilians as human shields. Yet every bomb that flattens a school, every airstrike on a hospital, every child torn apart in sleep, tells a different story.
Warnings and leaflets do not absolve murder. No justification exists for turning residential neighborhoods into graveyards.
Legal and Ethical Crimes: Gaza as a Case Study in Impunity
Under international law—including the Geneva Conventions—what is happening in Gaza amounts to collective punishment and potential war crimes. The International Criminal Court (ICC) has opened investigations, but political pressure, especially from the U.S. and EU, hinders enforcement.
Legal experts stress that indiscriminate bombing of civilian areas, starvation tactics, and blockade of medical aid are not acts of war—they are crimes against humanity.
Voices from the Ashes
- 🗣️ A doctor in Khan Younis:
“We perform surgeries without morphine. Children scream in pain. We treat amputations in hallways. The world watches.” - 🧕 A teacher in Gaza City:
“Our students come to class hungry, traumatized, and uncertain if they will return home. Education under fire is not education—it’s resistance.”
Conclusion: This Is Not Just Gaza’s War—It Is Ours
UNICEF’s desperate plea was not just a statement—it was a verdict on the world’s moral collapse. When we normalize the deaths of children, we surrender our humanity.
As Muslims, we are taught that the killing of one innocent soul is like the killing of all mankind. So where is our outrage? Where is our action?
What Must Be Done:
- Immediate, unconditional access for humanitarian aid.
- A binding UN resolution enforcing a permanent ceasefire.
- Full investigation of war crimes under international law.
- Unified diplomatic pressure from the Muslim world to end the siege.
Final Words: The Ummah Must Not Be Silent
Gaza is not a news story—it is a test of faith, a call to conscience. While bombs fall, silence is complicity. While children starve, neutrality is betrayal.
Let every masjid, every home, every soul in the Ummah echo one truth:
“This horror must stop.”
And we must not rest until it does.
