Gaza City — Israel’s war on Gaza entered another bloody chapter on Thursday as heavy bombardments killed at least 53 Palestinians across the enclave, including women and children, amid sweeping threats of forced displacement. Defence Minister Yisrael Katz issued what he called a “final warning” to residents of Gaza City, declaring that anyone who remained would be considered a “terrorist or terror supporter.”
The ultimatum, coupled with relentless bombardment of homes, schools and hospitals, has triggered fresh accusations of ethnic cleansing and war crimes. Humanitarian agencies warn that the collapse of basic services, the paralysis of aid operations, and the deliberate targeting of civilians have turned Gaza into what one aid worker described as “a wasteland of rubble and despair.”
Families Wiped Out:
At Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al-Balah, staff struggled to identify the bodies of nine victims, seven women and two children, pulled from the wreckage of a family home flattened by Israeli missiles on Wednesday night.
“This was a massacre,” said Dr. Marwan al-Qudra, a surgeon at the hospital. “Entire families are being erased in a matter of minutes. We cannot save half the injured because we have no medicines, no anaesthesia, no blood supplies. These are not just statistics; these are mothers, children, grandparents.”
Elsewhere, Al-Awda Hospital in Nuseirat reported two deaths and multiple critical injuries, including children, after a strike on the Bureij refugee camp. “Every day we face new waves of wounded, and every day the shortages get worse,” said nurse Fatima Abu Jamei. “We have to decide who gets treatment and who is left to die.”
Eyewitnesses from Gaza City’s al-Sabra neighbourhood described entire streets reduced to rubble. “I saw body parts scattered after the airstrike,” said Hani Mahmoud, a local journalist reporting for Al Jazeera. “The army tells us to evacuate, but where do we go? The roads are bombed, and those who try to leave are chased by helicopters and tanks.”
The “Final Warning”:
Defence Minister Katz’s statement that Gaza City’s half a million remaining residents would be classified as “terrorists” unless they fled south has been widely condemned.
“This is not a warning, it is a threat of mass punishment,” said Raji Sourani, director of the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights. “By declaring all civilians in Gaza City as legitimate targets, Israel has torn up even the pretence of international law. This is forced displacement under fire, a textbook war crime.”
Israel claims its goal is to isolate Hamas by sealing the Netzarim corridor, effectively bisecting the Strip. Reuters reported that the Israeli military has blocked the coastal al-Rashid road, Gaza’s main north-south artery, trapping civilians. “People are told to evacuate, then bombed as they flee,” said Mahmoud. “It is a death trap.”
Hamas denounced Katz’s remarks as “arrogance and disregard for international law,” accusing Israel of carrying out a systematic campaign of ethnic cleansing.
Even the UN Secretary-General warned in August that Israel’s declared plan to seize Gaza City constituted a “dangerous escalation” and could “lead to mass atrocities.”
Aid Under Fire:
The bombardment has further crippled Gaza’s humanitarian lifeline. On Wednesday, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) suspended operations in Gaza City, citing “unprecedented risks to staff.” Earlier, Doctors Without Borders (MSF) also halted activities.
UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini said that Israeli forces are killing around 100 Palestinians daily, either through bombardment or attacks on aid distribution points. “The systematic targeting of civilians at food lines is beyond comprehension,” he told reporters.
The Health Ministry in Gaza confirmed that in the past 24 hours alone, 77 people were killed and 222 wounded. Among them, two were killed and 44 were injured while trying to get humanitarian aid, raising the total toll of Palestinians killed while seeking food since May to 2,582, with nearly 19,000 injured.
Human Rights Watch has described Israel’s repeated shootings at food distribution sites as “war crimes.” One HRW investigator told Al Jazeera: “This is not crossfire, it is targeted killing of civilians queuing for survival.”
Legal Reckoning:
Israel is already under unprecedented international scrutiny. The International Criminal Court (ICC) has issued arrest warrants for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defence Minister Yoav Gallant over alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity. The International Court of Justice (ICJ) is hearing a genocide case against Israel filed by South Africa.
Despite these proceedings, the killing continues. “Impunity is Israel’s greatest weapon,” said Michael Lynk, former UN Special Rapporteur on Palestine. “As long as Western powers shield it from accountability, Israel can commit atrocities with little consequence.”
Demilitarisation And The Politics Of Genocide:
The violence comes as the U.S. pushes a new 20-21-point Gaza plan that hinges on demilitarisation under international monitors. Critics argue this amounts to stripping Palestinians of the right to resist colonial domination and the right to self-determination while entrenching Israel’s military supremacy.
“Demilitarisation under occupation is code for permanent subjugation,” said analyst Mouin Rabbani. “It ensures Gaza remains defenceless while Israel continues its campaign of destruction.”
Colombia’s President Gustavo Petro broke ranks with international consensus, calling for an “army of nations that do not accept genocide” to intervene and protect Palestinians, one of the few global leaders openly advocating direct action against Israel’s campaign.
A Manufactured Famine:
Alongside bombs and displacement, hunger is being used as a weapon. Gaza’s Ministry of Health reported that famine-related deaths, particularly among children, are accelerating.
“The deliberate restriction of aid, combined with attacks on food seekers, is engineered starvation,” said Dr. Sara Roy of Harvard’s Centre for Middle Eastern Studies. “This is not collateral damage, it is part of the architecture of genocide.”
Conclusion: Gaza, Greater Israel, And The Global Machinery Of Complicity.
The figures are staggering: over 100,000 Palestinians killed, approximately 377,000 injured and maimed since October 2023, the majority women and children. Thousands more remain buried beneath rubble that rescuers cannot reach. Hospitals are collapsing, families are erased, and half a million civilians are branded “terrorists” in their own homes. This is not the chaos of war; it is the systematic architecture of genocide.
And yet, instead of accountability, world powers offer the language of “demilitarisation.” Western leaders recognise a Palestinian state on paper while underwriting Israel’s war in practice. The 20-21-point Gaza plan, promoted by Washington, London, Brussels, and quietly backed by Arab capitals like Riyadh, Cairo, and Abu Dhabi, is no roadmap to peace. It is a political ploy to strip Palestinians of their land, their identity, and their livelihoods, to lock Gaza into permanent subjugation under the banner of a greater Israel. By demanding demilitarisation, fragmenting governance, and placing Gaza under external supervision, the plan erases Palestinian sovereignty altogether.
This policy is enforced with weapons stamped with Western serial numbers. Boeing, Lockheed Martin, and General Dynamics supply the missiles and warplanes. BAE Systems provides key F-35 components through UK export licenses. Germany delivers tank parts and naval systems. France, Italy, and Canada send surveillance and weapons technology. Every massacre in Gaza carries the mark of a Western arms manufacturer, while those same governments posture as guardians of human rights.
But the complicity does not end with the West. Egypt enforces the Rafah blockade, strangling Gaza’s last lifeline under Israeli and U.S. pressure. The UAE normalised ties with Israel while funnelling investment into the occupation’s economy. Saudi Arabia positions itself as a broker of “peace” while aligning with Washington’s demilitarisation agenda. These Arab regimes, wrapped in the rhetoric of Arab solidarity, have in practice enabled Gaza’s siege and displacement to proceed unhindered.
Even the United Nations, once a forum for decolonisation, has played its part in legitimising Israeli impunity. Security Council resolutions are repeatedly vetoed by the United States. UN agencies warn of famine, mass killings, and war crimes, yet stop short of naming the genocide for what it is. The ICJ and ICC have opened cases, but without enforcement, their rulings serve as paper shields against the bombs and bring the war criminals to accountability.
Gaza’s destruction cannot be separated from Israel’s broader territorial project. In the West Bank, settlements expand and settler militias terrorise families into flight. In Jerusalem, Palestinians are expelled from Sheikh Jarrah and Silwan while Judaization policies erase the city’s Palestinian identity. Gaza is simply the most visible front in a single colonial continuum, the consolidation of a greater Israel, where Palestinian existence itself is criminalised.
History has shown this pattern before. In Bosnia, the world delayed until Srebrenica’s graves forced recognition. In Rwanda, 800,000 were slaughtered while international powers looked away. In South Africa, apartheid thrived under decades of Western trade and investment. Gaza belongs in this lineage of denial and complicity. The difference is that today’s genocide is broadcast in real time, with the evidence undeniable, and yet the response is not paralysis, but active collaboration.
“This is not a roadmap to peace,” analyst Mouin Rabbani has warned. “It is a blueprint for pacification and control.” For Palestinians, the meaning is clear. “The world debates the future of Gaza while we bury our dead,” said a Gaza doctor in Deir al-Balah. “They speak of plans and security. We speak of survival.”
Unless this machinery of complicity, Western arms, Arab regimes’ betrayal, and UN paralysis is dismantled, Gaza will not be remembered as a failure of policy. It will stand as the clearest proof that genocide was permitted in full daylight, armed and endorsed by the governments and institutions that claimed to defend human rights, while an entire people’s future was erased to cement the project of a greater Israel.