Dying slowly: Displaced Palestinian mother Samah Matar holding her malnourished son Youssef at a school where they are sheltering amid a hunger crisis in Gaza City. — Reuters
IT’S plain murder on a massive scale, starving the Palestinians to death in defiance of global opinion.
What is happening in Gaza now is one of the world’s worst hunger crises being deliberately carried out right before our eyes.
This famine is not the result of a drought, a failed harvest, or a natural disaster. It is man-made — driven by the choices of governments, the inertia of international institutions, and the indifference of too many with the power to stop it.
These are cruel, deliberate, and intentional acts to slowly and painfully wipe out an entire nation of people by starving them to death.
Israel is carrying out this heinous genocide because it knows the world cannot do anything much it, or does not want to.
The United States, its most powerful ally, has not said anything about the famine. The European Union has at least warned Israel over the worsening starvation crisis in Gaza. The US has reportedly said its envoy Steve Witkoff will head to Europe for ceasefire talks and to create an aid corridor.
It will just be words and words and more words. We know these are mere hypocrisies and the US and EU must bear a heavy responsibility.
These are the countries that supply arms, offer diplomatic cover, and issue standard statements of “deep concern” while failing to compel change in the aggressor.
Worse, they have taken action against individuals and institutions who have spoken up for the Palestinian cause, with such criticisms often conveniently labelled “anti-Semitism’’.
In Gaza, the water systems have reportedly been destroyed, and food production has ground to a halt. The media has reported that a strict blockade – tightened further since the war began – has left aid agencies struggling to deliver even the most basic supplies.
Food convoys are delayed, blocked, or attacked. Aid workers have been killed. Warehouses bombed.
The entire 2.1 million population of Gaza is facing prolonged food shortages, with nearly half a million in catastrophic situations of hunger, acute malnutrition, starvation, illness and death.
It started with the bombings which flattened most parts of Palestine, driving out the people. Now comes the most horrific act, starving the people to death.
All of us, regardless of our faith and culture, are confronting a profound moral test – one we are currently failing.
We should be outraged – Israel is not above moral scrutiny and its actions cannot be justified, and certainly not excused, by the Christian theological belief that Israelis are “God’s chosen people”.
It does not grant them immunity. Like everyone else, they have to be held accountable, as it targets the very space that the Christian faith holds most dear.
The Jews are mostly not Christians, and many have openly shown their contempt for Christian pilgrims visiting Jerusalem. There is enough recorded evidence.
The Jews may have a special place in Biblical history but the modern state of Israel under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is not beyond reproach.
Recently, at least three people were killed and 10 others wounded, including a priest, in Israel’s attack on the Holy Family Church, Gaza’s only Catholic church, prompting Pope Leo XIV to call for an immediate ceasefire.
The only response from Israel? A note of regret, claiming it was stray ammunition.
How can we do nothing and just watch when innocent people, including elderly people and women and children, are literally being killed by stopping the supply of food.
In many reported cases, when Palestinians gathered to collect their food, they were shot at and killed by Israel soldiers.
Since 2023, three Christian churches have been bombed and the only Christian-run hospital in Gaza, the Al-Ahli Arab Hospital, has been targeted five times.
It was reported that at least one of those attacks killed nearly 500 people – and it was carried out on Palm Sunday.
The systematic genocide has gone into a frenzied mode with the United Nations warning that nearly half of Gaza’s 2.3 million people face catastrophic food insecurity.
One in three children under two is acutely malnourished. These are not projections – they are symptoms of a population on the brink.
The UN has reportedly said at least 500 aid trucks must enter Gaza each day to meet basic needs. On most days, fewer than 100 get through. In the north, the situation is worse. According to Unicef, children are dying of hunger before help can reach them.
What is happening in Gaza is not a Muslim problem. Any God-fearing human being should be outraged.
Israel has violated international humanitarian law, it’s that simple. It is no longer a question of politics or religion. It is a question of basic humanity.
The right to food is foundational. The right of a child to survive cannot be conditional on the outcome of a war.
How can we tolerate and watch as infants die of hunger and doctors operate in hospitals without electricity, clean water, or even milk for newborns?
The least we can do is pray for the Palestinians, show moral support, act with courage, and join the growing global call for a sustained ceasefire.
That means unrestricted access to humanitarian aid. It also means calling into account those obstructing it.
What is happening in Gaza should not be just the concern of congregation prayers in mosques but should also be raised in churches and temples because no one can condone genocide.
No nation is above public accountability and, certainly, the Biblical Israel is not the same as modern day political Israel.
