The Gaza genocide has reached its third anniversary, and hundreds of innocent people continue to be killed despite a ceasefire. The war has spread to Iran, Iraq, Syria and Yemen. The instigators of these wars are getting richer and more powerful from defence and oil contracts, while the victims are being killed daily.
The occupiers are now threatening the West Bank as they did Gaza. This genocidal threat came from Smotrich, the far-right Israeli leader, who has been instigating settlers to terrorise Palestinians in the West Bank. The fact that there is no Hamas in the West Bank exposes the reality behind the destruction and wanton killing. Was this about Hamas, or was it really about grabbing land and removing any trace of Palestinians from Gaza?
Three years on, what have we witnessed?
1. Palestinian resistance and resolve
The people of Gaza have stood strong against air and naval power, tanks, bombs and missiles, including 21st-century military technology and day-and-night bombardment. They have resisted and defended their children, families and homes with bare hands, sticks and stones whilst under siege, denying them water and food. Their women and children have been targeted and their doctors killed. The deliberate bombing of hospitals, homes, roads and bridges has left Gaza in rubble. When wounded families have sought refuge in tents, these have been bombed. When children have queued for food and water, they have been targeted by snipers. Through this onslaught, the Gazans have stood firm and remain on the land, resolute and defiant, relying and trusting in Allah (SWT) alone.
2. Cowardice and betrayal from Muslim rulers
Unlike past genocides, the systematic mass murder of at least 100,000 women, children and civilians has been live-streamed. Gaza is surrounded by Muslim countries, including Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia and Turkey, with armies and weapons, food and water, yet not one entered the forsaken strip to rescue the people. The cowardice of Muslim rulers is as plain as the genocide we have all witnessed. It is telling that those who deny the genocide are also those who defend the inaction of the Muslim rulers. Cowardice is inaction due to fear. Betrayal is the failure to fulfil the trust of the ummah. They have the material means not only to defend Muslims in Gaza but also to liberate Palestine, yet they have chosen not to. Allah (SWT) says:
“And what is the matter with you that you fight not in the cause of Allah and for the oppressed among men, women, and children“
Surah An-Nisa
Yet they deploy their armies and use weapons for nationalist causes.
3. UN impotence and inaction
In 2025, an independent inquiry set up by the United Nations Human Rights Commission (UNHRC) declared that Israel is failing to prevent and actively committing genocide. Importantly, however, the inquiry was independent and did not represent the UN. This typifies the UN’s approach to the Gaza genocide: impotent and ineffective while appearing to care. The UN supposedly exists to uphold international law and protect human rights but, in reality, is at best a talking shop where the real power is held by the Security Council’s five permanent members. Is it any surprise, then, that the US, which has armed Israel during the genocide and is a permanent member, uses its veto to protect Israel from accountability?
4. Israeli genocide
Israel’s onslaught on Gaza following 7 October 2023 is not the first time the rogue state has “cleared the swamp”. This time it has gone further, killing more women and children than before and completely destroying Gaza to make it unliveable. Israeli officials often proudly claim that one Israeli life is worth ten Palestinian lives, but the apartheid state’s execution of the genocide in Gaza surpasses even that shameful and obscene measure. The targeting of women, children, doctors and journalists has been a particularly cruel and vile feature of this genocide. Whole families have been murdered, with three or four generations killed in a single targeted bombing. Access to water and food has been used as a weapon of war, a war crime in its own right. Israeli officials, including Netanyahu himself, have likened the Palestinians to Amalekites. King Saul is said in the Hebrew Bible to have been commanded by God to completely destroy the Amalekites, including men, women, children and livestock. Proof of genocidal intent, if any more were needed, behind the mass murder.
5. US complicity
America, led by Donald Trump, has provided Israel with billions in military funding to execute the Palestinian genocide. Israel would not have been capable of sustaining such a bombing campaign without direct US support. The US has provided political cover for Israel to continue bombing and killing despite increasing international calls for it to stop because of the huge number of civilian deaths. The US has used its veto at the UN Security Council against sanctions on Israel. The Trump administration has tried to stop US states from boycotting Israeli goods through the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement. On the back of the destruction of Gaza, Trump set up the Board of Peace to administer the rebuilding of Gaza into a riviera of the Middle East, minus the Palestinians. For all the American bluster about human rights, the US has been more than complicit, as without its direct military, financial and political involvement Israel would not have been able to carry out the genocide.
6. Fall of the West
The genocide in Gaza has exposed the fallacy of the civilised West. Lauded Western values such as human rights, women’s rights, the right to resist, freedom of expression and self-determination have been exposed as hollow. Completely empty unless they serve Western interests. The West has always presented these as universal values that must be universally applied for the betterment of the world. However, the Gaza genocide, with its mass murder, targeting of women and children, manufactured starvation as a weapon of war, and denial of the right to resist occupation and pursue self-determination, has clearly shown the world that the West does not care for these values when it comes to Palestinians.
7. Islamic reawakening
Social media has live-streamed the Gaza genocide onto our phones and into our homes. The innocence of the victims and their lack of means, after decades of discrimination, denial of basic rights, forced evictions, destruction of olive groves and livelihoods, and harsh treatment including the imprisonment of children, has opened people’s eyes to the iman of the Palestinians. Muslims have reflected on their own iman, lives and priorities, and this has awakened Islamic consciousness among many Muslims. Muslims have gained a renewed sense of purpose and understanding of what it means to be Muslim, linked to fighting for justice for the Palestinians.
8. Global awakening
The genocide has unveiled to the world the injustices being committed against the Palestinians and the true reality of Zionism and the Zionist state. From South Africa to South America and Asia, people can clearly see the struggle of the occupied and helpless against the powerful and wealthy. In some sense, they see the plight of the Palestinians reflected in their own struggles for survival in a world dominated by wealthy nations that exploit their resources. Like the Palestinians who have been let down by global institutions, they see bodies such as the IMF and World Bank exploiting their wealth. The global awakening to Israel’s war crimes, with America at its side, is clearer than it has ever been. Israel now ranks as one of the least liked nations in the world. To demonstrate public opinion turning against Israel, during the UN Conference in New York in September 2026, 77 national delegations reportedly walked out in protest against its actions towards the Palestinians.
9. Taking a stand against injustice
Across the world, tens of millions of people have been taking a stand against Israel’s genocide for three years. These mobilisations include university students holding encampments, tens of thousands marching in Western capitals, and public protests and demonstrations throughout the Muslim world calling for the liberation of Palestine. One unique aspect of this movement has been the participation of hundreds of non-Muslims, from popular cultural figures risking their livelihoods to pensioners, who have even been prepared to go to prison for taking a principled stand against the genocide.
10. Only liberation will free Palestine
The UN has proved impotent and an institution captured by the US. Social media has proved incredibly useful in creating public opinion against the genocide and in support of justice for Palestinians, but it has its limitations. The genocide has proved that only liberation will free Palestine. It requires independent Muslim militaries to mobilise in defence of Palestinians and to liberate the land. It requires an army to repel an army. While Muslim nations have the means, they do not have the political will. Political will comes from courageous, independent thinking, an Islamic strategic vision for Muslims and the ummah, and a system rooted in the Sharia that has proved successful.
It is worth noting that Muslims only lost Palestine when they lost the Ottoman Khilafah. Theodor Herzl, the founder of modern political Zionism, approached the Ottomans in 1896 and again in May 1901. He offered millions of pounds to help pay down the empire’s heavy foreign debt in exchange for a charter allowing Jewish settlement and autonomy in Palestine. Sultan Abdul Hamid II firmly declined the proposals. He stated that the land belonged to his people, who had defended it with their lives, and declared that he would not sell even a single foot of it. The Sultan reportedly told an emissary that, as long as he was alive, the sultanate’s body could not be divided and that partition could only happen over their corpses. That resolve, courage and independence are needed today in the Muslim world to stop the genocide.
