Gaza war

"The message the Arab world is hearing is loud and clear. Palestinian lives matter less than Israeli ones. Our lives matter less than other lives. The application of international law is optional, and human rights have boundaries — they stop at borders, they stop at races and they stop at religions."

"The @PalestineRCS report of evacuation threats to Al-Quds hospital in Gaza is deeply concerning. We reiterate - it’s impossible to evacuate hospitals full of patients without endangering their lives. Under International Humanitarian Law, healthcare must always be protected."

"This organization was established to foster peace in our world. If you, as Member States of the United Nations, will not or cannot stop this bloodshed, then we must ask: what is the United Nations for?"

"Residents of Gaza, join the many who are heading to the south of Wadi Gaza at this hour. I would like to inform you that although Hamas continues to undermine the ongoing humanitarian efforts on your behalf and uses you as human shields, today the IDF will once again allow passage on the Salah al-Din Road between 10am and 2pm. For your safety, take this next opportunity to move south beyond Wadi Gaza. Many of you are doing this at this hour, as you can see in the attached photos that were taken a short while ago. If you care about yourself and your loved ones, head south according to our instructions. Rest assured that Hamas leaders have already taken care of defending themselves."

"When the genocide began, I started having nightmares — no, to describe them as nightmares isn't accurate. My soul would be transported in my sleep; I was in Gaza, ghouls tearing at me, violating me, and the world was red. I jolted awake several nights a week, sobbing. Panic engulfed me when my mind failed to rationalize that I'd woken up."

"As someone who was heavily involved in the Afghan Evacuation in 2021 after Taliban took over Afghanistan, I must say this. For months, my colleagues & I were receiving tens of calls every single day from officials, parliamentarians, congressional members, athletes, artists, trade unions, from every continent asking us to save lives! I swear that I personally spent days convincing a group in the US that we don’t have to evacuate dogs since Taliban were not into eating dogs! How do you think we should feel right now as we see your reaction to #Gaza_Geniocide ? Where did your humanity go? Principles? Women’s rights? Seriously how do you justify this to yourselves? Hospitals are being targeted and you provide a justification for that? Is there another bottom that you still have not reached."

"There is a degree to which people in the Arab world and the Global South are drawing a line between Gaza destruction and the presidential embrace of Prime Minister Netanyahu. There’s a way that the United States is hitched to what the Israelis want to do, whether the United States wants to do it or not."

"If the Zionist aggressions do not stop, the hands of all parties in the region are on the trigger."

"As Israeli forces continue to intensify their cataclysmic assault on the occupied Gaza Strip, Amnesty International has documented unlawful Israeli attacks, including indiscriminate attacks, which caused mass civilian casualties and must be investigated as war crimes."

"So if you both cast doubt on Palestinian numbers but support no investigations — not even foreign journalists entering Gaza — what you’re really saying is: The death count does not matter because we’re going to support this regardless. We’re going to find ways to justify it."

"Israel is committing the holocaust of our time, and it is doing it in full view of a seemingly indifferent world."

"You can reduce Hamas. You can kill as many soldiers as you can find, I suppose. The question always is, at what price? And no, you can’t you can’t kill off Hamas because Hamas is more of an ideology. It’s not only a military force. [...] It’s theatre. I would say the primary audience is domestic, here in the United States. We know obviously that President Biden faces reelection next year and that his opponent may be Donald Trump. So what Biden is attempting to do is to show that Israel has no better friend than Joe Biden and the Democratic Party."

"My fear – and this is something I’ve been saying for four weeks now – knowing Netanyahu and the way he thinks, he will not stop before he restores his pride by restoring the ratio of one to 10 [Israeli deaths to Palestinian deaths]. So we’re in for more, and only until it reaches 14,000 will he probably start talking sense to the main diplomats that are now visiting the region. They’re all coming here to try to talk to him. He’s not heeding anyone."

"What the finance minister of Israel said reveals the real plan of the Israeli government, total ethnic cleansing of the Gaza Strip. It is not surprising, but unfortunately, the world is not paying sufficient attention to this terrible plan and to the fact that Israel is conducting ethnic cleansing with bombardment and airstrikes against the civilian population of Gaza."

"Israeli military operations have created an untenable humanitarian crisis, which will only worsen over time. But are Israel’s actions — as the nation’s opponents argue — verging on ethnic cleansing or, most explosively, genocide? As a historian of genocide, I believe that there is no proof that genocide is currently taking place in Gaza, although it is very likely that war crimes, and even crimes against humanity, are happening. That means two important things: First, we need to define what it is that we are seeing, and second, we have the chance to stop the situation before it gets worse. We know from history that it is crucial to warn of the potential for genocide before it occurs, rather than belatedly condemn it after it has taken place. I think we still have that time."

"It is clear that the daily violence being unleashed on Gaza is both unbearable and untenable. Since the Oct. 7 massacre by Hamas — itself a war crime and a crime against humanity — Israel’s military air and ground assault on Gaza has killed more than 10,500 Palestinians, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, a number that includes thousands of children. That’s well over five times as many people as the more than 1,400 people in Israel murdered by Hamas. In justifying the assault, Israeli leaders and generals have made terrifying pronouncements that indicate a genocidal intent. Still, the collective horror of what we are watching does not mean that a genocide, according to the international legal definition of the term, is already underway. Because genocide, sometimes called “the crime of all crimes,” is perceived by many to be the most extreme of all crimes, there is often an impulse to describe any instance of mass murder and massacre as genocide. But this urge to label all atrocious events as genocide tends to obfuscate reality rather than explain it."

"My greatest concern watching the Israel-Gaza war unfold is that there is genocidal intent, which can easily tip into genocidal action."

"While we cannot say that the military is explicitly targeting Palestinian civilians, functionally and rhetorically we may be watching an ethnic cleansing operation that could quickly devolve into genocide, as has happened more than once in the past."

"If we truly believe that the Holocaust taught us a lesson about the need — or really, the duty — to preserve our own humanity and dignity by protecting those of others, this is the time to stand up and raise our voices, before Israel’s leadership plunges it and its neighbors into the abyss. There is still time to stop Israel from letting its actions become a genocide. We cannot wait a moment longer."

"The children in Gaza brought it upon themselves."

"What’s needed here is an occupation. When you have presence out on the ground, you have intelligence and control; you’re the landlord."

"Any visit that did not include a public call for a ceasefire essentially amounts to an endorsement of the continuing Israeli attacks on Gaza [...] I think US policy is to support at the moment whatever Israel is trying to accomplish, however realistic or unrealistic that may be."

"I’ve been doing this a long time. I never really thought that I would see and have confirmed pictures of terrorists beheading children."

"You are a Jewish state. You are a Jewish state, but you’re also a democracy. And like the United States, you don’t live by the rules of terrorists. You live by the rule of law. And when conflicts flare, you live by the ru- — law of wars. What sets us apart from the terrorists is we believe in the fundamental dignity of every human life — Israeli, Palestinian, Arab, Jew, Muslim, Christian — everyone. You can’t give up what makes you who you are. If you give that up, then the terrorists win. And we can never let them win."

"We are all human beings created in the image of God with dignity, humanity, and purpose. In the darkness, to be the light unto the world is what we’re about. You inspire hope and light for so many around the world. That’s what the terrorists seek to destroy. That’s what they seek to destroy but — because they live in darkness — but not you, not Israel. Nations of conscience like the United States and Israel are not measured solely by the example of their power. We’re measured by the power of our example. That’s why, as hard as it is, we must keep pursuing peace. We must keep pursuing a path so that Israel and the Palestinian people can both live safely, in security, in dignity, and in peace. For me, that means a two-state solution. We must keep working for Israel’s greater integration with its neighbors. These attacks have only strengthened my commitment and determination and my will to get that done. I’m here to tell you that terrorists will not win. Freedom will win. So, let me end where I began. Israel, you are not alone. The United States stands with you."

"Well, today, I say to all of Israel: The United States isn’t going anywhere either. We’re going to stand with you. We’ll walk beside you in those dark days, and we’ll walk beside you in the good days to come. And they will come. As you say in Hebrew, which I’m not going to attempt to do because I’m such a terrible linguist, I’ll say it in English, “The people of Israel live.” “The people of Israel live.” Israel will be a safe, secure, Jewish, and Democratic state today, tomorrow, and forever. May God protect all those who work for peace. God save those who are still in harm’s way."

"Nobody, nobody, nobody on God’s green Earth can justify what Hamas did. They’re a brutal, ugly, inhumane people, and they have to be eliminated."

"I grieve with the families of those killed or wounded in the tragedy at the hospital in Gaza. We’re working with our partners in the region to get life-saving humanitarian assistance to civilians in Gaza as quickly as we can."

"Israel is going after a group of people who have engaged in barbarism that is as consequential as the Holocaust. And-- so I think Israel has to respond. They have to go after Hamas. Hamas is a bunch of cowards. They're hiding behind the civilians. They put their of—their—their—their headquarters where civilians are and buildings and the like. But to the extent they can separate out and avoi—I'm conf-- the Israelis are gonna do everything in their power to avoid the killing of innocent civilians."

"My warning to the Ayatollah was that if they continue to move against those troops, we will respond, and he should be prepared. It has nothing to do with Israel."

"Biden and Blinken are still giving cover to Israel, diplomatic and otherwise – and the promises of peace – in order for Israel to continue with this genocide."

"This marks the last day of what’s now been a nine-day trip of intensive diplomacy throughout the Middle East and now here in the Indo-Pacific. And along the way and at each stop, in different ways, we’ve sought to advance a number of critical objectives: minimizing harm to Palestinian civilians and maximizing the humanitarian assistance that reaches them; working to prevent the spread of the conflict; focusing on getting hostages home as well as getting American citizens and other foreign nationals out of Gaza; and working to set sustainable, durable conditions for genuinely lasting peace and security for Israelis and Palestinians alike. To that end, I’ve had conversations starting a week ago with the Israeli Government about steps that can be taken to advance each of these objectives. And among those steps that we talked about more than a week ago were humanitarian pauses. These can advance all of the objectives that I just mentioned. We appreciate the fact that, yesterday, Israel announced four-hour pauses with three-hour notice in specific areas, as well as two humanitarian corridors that will allow people to move more safely and freely to get out of harm’s way and also to access assistance. These steps will save lives and will enable more assistance to get to Palestinians in need."

"At the same time, much more needs to be done to protect civilians and to make sure that humanitarian assistance reaches them. Far too many Palestinians have been killed; far too many have suffered these past weeks. And we want to do everything possible to prevent harm to them and to maximize the assistance that gets to them. To that end, we’ll be continuing to discuss with Israel concrete steps that can be taken to advance these objectives. We’ll continue to focus relentlessly on getting our hostages home. We’ll continue to focus on expanding humanitarian assistance that gets into Gaza and reaches people in effective ways. And we’ll continue to focus on the steps that can be taken now to try to start to set the foundation for durable and lasting peace, which, as we’ve said repeatedly and believe, has to include two states for two peoples."

"These Hamas attacks are without justification – they deserve global condemnation. But the response by Benjamin Netanyahu’s government also deserves our clearest condemnation. There’s no doubt we can say the response has been disproportionate and is violating international humanitarian law. The right of a state to defend itself has limits, and those limits imply respecting the lives of innocent civilians, especially children, and respecting civil humanitarian law."

"The destruction of buildings in Gaza… is more or less or even greater than the destruction suffered by the German cities during the Second World War."

"I can’t write about poetry amidst the ‘reasonable’ tones of those who aim to acclimatize us to this unreasonable suffering. No more ghoulish euphemisms. No more verbally sanitized hellscapes. No more warmongering lies"

"We should all be standing up and objecting and calling for an end to genocide. Until Palestine is free… we will continue to see violence. We will continue to see this structural violence producing this kind of resistance."

"We currently have people being operated on without having morphine. It just happened to two kids. We have a lot of kids that are unfortunately among the wounded, and I was discussing with one of our surgeons, who received a 10-year-old yesterday, burnt on 60% of the body surface, and he didn’t end up having painkillers. There is no justification at all to block these essential medicines to reach the population."

"Some forms of protest are being permitted and some are not."

"Right now, in Gaza, the situation is horrific and catastrophic. Those hospitals and clinics that have not been evacuated are overwhelmed and are barely functioning. No electricity, no medical supplies. Surgeons in Al-Shifa hospital are now operating without painkillers."

"Nothing can be gained from the continued bombing of civilians."

"At the end of this war, not only will Hamas no longer be in Gaza, the territory of Gaza will also decrease."

"War crimes are war crimes even when committed by allies, and should be called out for what they are."

"I’ve addressed my concerns about the fact that violence has started again and I’ve again repeated what I said at the Rafah gate: no more civilian killings."

"You are against occupation in Ukraine — can you deny that the Palestinians are under occupation? Nobody is asking you to go and declare war on the Israelis because they are occupying the Palestinians; people are asking you to be rational, wise and convince your allies — push them to their senses."

"After a week of horror in Gaza and the EU diving in headfirst, draping our Parliament in the Israeli flag, aiding and abetting in war crimes, including the bombing of a hospital and still we find it impossible to say that Palestinian lives matter. We’re still privileging one category of victims over another. We talk about the humanitarian situation in Gaza, but why is there a humanitarian crisis? Is it a natural disaster? Who cut off the water, fuel and electricity? Are we not sure? Who is bombing Palestinian civilians? Do we not know? Do you think we couldn’t mention it? There is a crime unfolding in Gaza now, such as we have not seen since the 1940s, and we are in it up to our necks. We are watching Israel murder Palestinian civilians and preparing to drive millions of them into the Sinai Desert to annex and colonise their land. it is another Nakba. it is a crime against humanity. It is not a humanitarian crisis. The EU will never live down this shame. Long live Palestine! Long live Gaza!"

"Palestine is a moral litmus test for the world."

"France is very concerned by the humanitarian tragedy taking place in Gaza. And it’s for this reason that France voted in favour of this resolution. And it’s for that reason that we plead for a new, immediate and lasting humanitarian truce that should lead to a sustainable ceasefire."

"We're Rolling Out Nakba 2023."

"We've always grew up to hear the stories of the Nakba, we've never imagined that we would grow up to live it. It happened in 1948 because it wasn't televised, the world didn't know what's going on in Palestine. But now it's quite disgraceful that it's televised carnage and the world is literally watching."