People are the most precious thing, and children the most precious of all. For the joy and wonder they bring, and all the promise they hold for humanity. Right now, thousands of innocent children are being terrorized and slaughtered by America and Israel in Gaza before the eyes of the world. They say they’ll continue it for months. Don’t turn away, hear the Palestinian people’s cries. Join the fight to stop this barbaric genocide. Dig into why it’s happening and how to stop it—in Gaza and everywhere!

This past week again underscored the urgency of acting. While Biden and other U.S. officials express some concern about the staggering level of civilian deaths caused by the U.S.-Israeli war in Gaza, they continue to give full military support to Israel. Israel repeated claims it was carefully targeting Hamas fighters, not civilians. But this is a lie!

The reality? Their war didn’t slow down, it got even more depraved, barbaric, and blatantly, deliberately genocidal.¹

Deliberately targeting civilians—massive death and casualties: At least 19,076 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza and the West Bank in 10 weeks—over 80 percent of them civilians! More than 1,700 have been killed this past week—nearly 250, on average, every single day. Nearly 8,000 people are missing and presumed dead, buried under the rubble left by U.S.-Israeli bombardments. More than 50,897 have been injured.²

Targeting children: Since October 7, more than 10,000 children have been killed or are lost under rubble and presumed dead. At least 24,000 have lost one or both parents in Israeli attacks. About 18,000 have been injured, some critically. Two children were recently executed at point-blank range during a raid in the occupied Palestinian West Bank. Even before this latest war, 80 percent of children in Gaza experienced emotional distress and half had contemplated suicide.³

Destroying homes and forced displacement—when nowhere is safe from Israeli attack: More than 300,000 housing units have been damaged by U.S.-Israeli bombings and more than 52,000 have been destroyed or made uninhabitable. This, plus the terror of bombing, has displaced over one million Palestinians from northern Gaza to the south. Now they’re again being bombed and forced to evacuate further south. Palestinians, some who’ve been forced to move 2, 3, even 4 times, say they have nowhere to go and nowhere is safe.⁴

Separating families, terrorizing the population: Israel has rounded up hundreds of men, from 12 to 70 years old, separated them from their families and trucking them to undisclosed detention camps, often forced them to strip to their underwear and wait in the cold, with no food, as Israeli troops took pictures and spread them online. “We were treated like cattle, they even wrote numbers on our hands,” one Palestinian said.⁵

Starving a whole population: Israel has blockaded all but a trickle of food from entering Gaza and its bombs have destroyed bakeries and food distribution. So right now 97 percent of those in the north and 83 percent of those in the south are going hungry. More than two-thirds of the population report not eating anything for 24-hour periods. The U.S.-Israel war has made people so desperate they storm aid trucks and devour food deliveries on the spot.

Cutting off water, now poisoning it: Israel cut off most of Gaza’s water supply when the war began. Since then Gazans have been limited to two to three liters a day—much of it not safe to drink. The international health standard is 100 liters a day! Three liters is the bare minimum amount to avoid health problems. One aid worker reported, “Every little girl and boy I met … asked me for bread and water.” Yet now Israel is testing out flooding the underground tunnels in Gaza with seawater—threatening to poison what limited water supplies there are left in Gaza and perhaps cripple agriculture for decades.⁶

Destroying religious and cultural heritage sites: These are genocidal war crimes aimed at destroying the cultural and historic fabric of a society. Israel has destroyed over 100 cultural heritage sites, including churches, mosques and other historic buildings. Israel recently desecrated six Palestinian cemeteries, including by razing one to set up a military post. Israeli soldiers also denigrated Palestinian religious beliefs by reciting Jewish prayers inside a mosque. Two women were shot to death on church grounds in Gaza.⁷

Escalating raids and killings in the occupied West Bank: Since the war began, Israel has killed at least 289 Palestinians in the West Bank (which is not controlled by Hamas). At least 65 were children. It has injured more than 3,365 and arrested some 4,000 Palestinians—many who have been beaten, tortured, or deprived of medical care. In the city of Jenin, Israel carried out its largest raid of the war this past week, killing 12—two executed at point-blank range—and arresting over 500.⁸

Attacking the Freedom Theatre: Israel also raided and smashed up the world-renowned Freedom Theatre dedicated to fighting for Palestinian justice, equality and self-determination. Ahmed Tobasi, one of the producers, said, 

This is theater. It’s not a military base…. we have children, young people, girls, boys, women [who] come here to practice, to find a place where they can express themselves, where they can imagine there is a better life, a better place in this world, where they can decide their future in different ways, to choose to be different from the reality that we’re living. And still the Israelis come, and they’re telling us, “No, you cannot dream…. they destroy everything that shows there is culture, there is art, that we Palestinians, we are a normal people.⁹

Killing journalists: In a vicious effort to prevent the truth of its genocidal war from being seen by the world, Israel has killed (either directly targeting or as a result of its wanton disregard for Palestinian civilian life) at least 64 journalists, and perhaps more than 90, since the war began. This week Reuters reported that journalist Issam Abdallah and six others were reporting from southern Lebanon on October 13 and clearly identified as journalists but deliberately targeted by an Israeli tank shell. Abdallah was murdered—a war crime. On Friday, Al Jazeera cameraman Samer Abudaqa was killed in an Israeli drone strike which Al Jazeera Media condemned as part of a campaign “systematically targeting and killing Al Jazeera journalists and their families.”“¹⁰

The U.S. and Israel—deliberately carrying out genocide: This past week there have been big headlines about Biden criticizing Israel for “indiscriminate” bombing and other U.S. officials calling on Israel to de-escalate its war. While Biden is concerned about managing public opinion, and exposing the U.S.’s and Israel’s blood-soaked nature, this is also murderous hypocrisy in service of U.S. imperialist interests. Israel’s Prime Minister Netanyahu immediately rejected any de-escalation and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant declared: “It will take and require a long period of time. It will last more than several months. But we will win, and we will destroy them.”¹¹ The U.S. response? Making clear they firmly backed Israel: “We’re not here to tell anybody, ‘You must do X, you must do Y,’” National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said. “Our support for Israel is not diminished,” White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said.

Arming Israel at the “speed of [genocidal] war”: As if Kirby’s and Sullivan’s words didn’t make things crystal clear, Biden approved an “emergency” $106 million sale of 14,000 rounds of tank shells to Israel. The U.S. has been massively arming Israel at “the speed of war”—the speed and intensity of Israel’s genocidal onslaught. The U.S. has already supplied Israel with 15,000 bombs, including 2,000-pound bunker busters, and 57,000 artillery shells, since October 7. “The emphasis is on damage and not on accuracy,” Israeli military official Daniel Hagari said in October. ¹²

Israel and the U.S.—threatening and risking a wider war: Israel’s genocidal assault on Gaza has ratcheted up tensions across the Middle East (and the world) in particular with Iran and its allies including Lebanon, Syria, and Yemen. Since October 7, Israel has launched 34 attacks against Lebanese Armed Forces positions with artillery fire, drones and helicopters.¹³ And it has used white phosphorous—supplied by the U.S.—against Lebanese civilians.¹⁴This past week, Israel’s Prime Minister Netanyahu threatened another genocide—in Lebanon. “If Hezbollah chooses to start an all-out war, then it will single-handedly turn Beirut and South Lebanon, not far from here, into Gaza and Khan Yunis.” This comes as the U.S. has ordered its 19 warships, including two aircraft carriers, to remain in the Red Sea and the Eastern Mediterranean.

An Invitation and a Challenge

Anyone with a beating heart should be sick at heart at what’s taking place in Gaza and the West Bank, and joining the thousands of others righteously protesting against this genocidal U.S.-Israeli war. But there’s more. Anyone with a conscience should be asking why these horrors are taking place, and keep taking place. What is driving them, what are their roots? And what can and must be done to stop them.

There are answers to these questions—HERE, HERE, and HERE. But it takes work. Let’s get to it for the sake of the Palestinian people and the sake—and future—of all humanity.