The world is failing Gaza again

Last October, the world applauded what was then believed to be the end of three years of one of the worst cases of mass murder and destruction in modern times: Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza. President Donald Trump gathered leaders in Sharm El-Sheikh to witness the signing of his 20-point peace plan for Gaza, including the ceasing of hostilities. His so-called Board of Peace was supposed to oversee a phased Israeli withdrawal from the Strip, the disarming of Hamas, the takeover by a civilian administration and the beginning of reconstruction.

But hopes were dashed and the war was quickly resumed by one presumptuous party: Israel. Gaza’s killing fields saw more innocent victims succumb to the superior Israeli firepower. The blockade was never lifted and only one crossing was opened, through which a trickle of aid was allowed to enter under strict Israeli control. The peace was a mirage and the ceasefire a blatant lie.

Since the ceasefire of October 2025, more than 1,330 Gazans have been killed, according to its Health Ministry, bringing the war’s toll to more than 73,400. More than 1.4 million people, or 67 percent of the population, are still suffering from crisis-level hunger or worse. Rations remain low, medical supplies keep running out and fuel remains scarce.

The images that shocked the world while the war raged of starving children, crowds scrambling for aid trucks and hospitals dark for lack of fuel have not disappeared. What is worse, Israel managed to normalize the genocide and news from Gaza began to drop from Western media bulletins. The voice of desperate Gazans has been muted.

Israel managed to normalize the genocide and news from Gaza began to drop from Western media bulletins
Osama Al-Sharif

The real scandal is not that Western governments do not know the truth, but that they do know and have largely adjusted or are able to frame it differently. For the Board of Peace, the “ceasefire” is holding and Israeli violations are rarely criticized. Famine in Gaza, verified by international nongovernmental organizations and UN monitors, is merely a footnote.

And when Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz says there is “no real solution for Gaza in the end without migration,” no one in Washington responds. The networks shelve the story, while real people die every day.

What has also been normalized by Israel is the dehumanization of Palestinians. National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir has proposed removing 250,000 Gazans in the first year of his administration and 1.86 million in seven years, as if moving a population were simply a logistics problem — one of arithmetic. Israel is prepared to displace “by any means” once Trump agrees and the plan is “frozen,” Katz says, as he boasts that 70 percent of Gaza has already been emptied of people.

The response from most Western capitals is almost always careful, procedural and diplomatic. That is complicity in dehumanization. Words like “concern” and “deeply troubled” have characterized their policy for nearly three years. That needs to end.

It is ironic that Trump, whose Board of Peace’s only achievement so far is the troubled Gaza peace plan, is reluctant to admit that the war in the enclave has never stopped and that it is Israel that bears the blame. The plan is failing for one reason only: Benjamin Netanyahu and his far-right government. And when the International Criminal Court warns on the use of starvation as a method of warfare in Gaza, the US president attacks the court, imposes sanctions on judges and the chief prosecutor and calls on its members to withdraw.

And then there is the elephant in the room. UN investigators, human rights organizations and many countries believe Israel has committed, and is committing, genocide in Gaza. But for politicians, it is not the facts on the ground that matter — it is the use of the term, as if the definition mattered more than the actual killings.

There are no guarantees that a new Israeli government will allow reconstruction efforts to begin or will withdraw
Osama Al-Sharif

Still, public opinion is shifting across continents. Recognition of a Palestinian state by several Western governments in 2025 has been welcomed but is largely symbolic. Germany still supplies Israel with munitions despite a growing opposition among Germans. The same is said about the US, where Washington is about to seal a $2.8 billion deal, most of it funded by US taxpayer grants, to supply Israel with 40,000 one-tonne bombs, even as support for Israel among Americans is at a historic low.

On the first day of the UN General Assembly high-level meeting on Tuesday, the war on Gaza took center stage for several prominent speakers. While Trump congratulated himself on ending the war, King Abdullah of Jordan, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkiye and President Emmanuel Macron of France pointed to the international community’s failure to stop the killing spree in Gaza and the West Bank. On Tuesday alone, Israel killed four Palestinians in Gaza. On Wednesday, it killed six more.

For Israel, the war’s stated goal was to destroy Hamas. Israeli army chief Eyal Zamir told Netanyahu and Katz in late July that Hamas is a “defeated organization.” Hamas approved a plan on July 30 to give up its weapons gradually as Israel withdraws. Netanyahu rejected the Trump-backed 15-point plan and insisted on full disarmament first. US envoy Jared Kushner then assured him that the army would not have to withdraw until Hamas had disarmed. Israel still calls it a ceasefire even as its drones and tanks continue to hunt and kill Palestinians daily.

The bitter reality is that a world that has failed Gaza in so many ways can repair the guilt and stop the crime only through Washington. Europe cannot compel Israel and Arab governments are not able to. The UN is paralyzed. The US provides the bombs, the financing, the diplomatic cover and the envoys who decide whether to enforce a plan or ignore it. The complicity is clear but so is the ability to end the massacres.

A day after Trump delivered his UN speech, the Board of Peace unveiled a six-month, $2.45 billion plan to begin reconstruction and governance in Gaza. It includes ambitious infrastructure, education and health initiatives that are designed to support Trump’s 20-point plan to end the Israel-Hamas war. In a statement, the board announced that fully rebuilding Gaza’s physical infrastructure will cost about $35.2 billion over the medium term and another $71.4 billion over the next 10 years.

What is lacking is a timeline and the political will to force Israel to publicly accept the entry of an International Stabilization Force and the takeover of a Palestinian civil administration body — both issues Israel has flatly rejected so far.

Israeli apologists will say that Gazans will have to wait until after the Israeli elections at the end of October. But there are no guarantees that a new Israeli government will allow reconstruction efforts to begin or will withdraw from over 70 percent of Gaza.

The Trump administration has not pressured Netanyahu to allow full humanitarian access, fuel and much-needed medical supplies, which is the minimum one would expect. Would it force him or his successor to end its occupation of Gaza?

The world has failed Gaza again and again. The killings continue and dehumanization has become the norm. The sad fact is that one country can change this today. Only America can push Israel to stop its abuses in Gaza and implement the plan that would end the Palestinian people’s long-term suffering.