On the early hours of Saturday, July 19, 2025, the Gaza Strip witnessed a new bloody massacres committed by the Israeli occupation across various parts of the Strip, resulting in the deaths of 43 people, including 32 civilians who were targeted while waiting to receive humanitarian aid. This scene reflects the continuation of a policy of systematic killing and the use of starvation as a weapon of war against the civilian population.
The deadly strikes were carried out across multiple areas of the Strip. Medical sources reported that three civilians were killed by occupation gunfire while waiting in line for food aid west of Rafah city, bringing the total number of fatalities in this particular attack to 32.
This comes at a time when Palestinians in Gaza are enduring a suffocating blockade that cuts off access to food, medicine, and water, rendering the act of gathering for aid a deadly risk.
In Khan Younis, in the south of the Strip, two civilians were killed when occupation forces bombed tents sheltering displaced persons west of the city. These makeshift tents had been hastily erected in the open following the forced displacement of thousands of families due to the war.
In the north of the Strip, the bombardment targeted a gathering of civilians in the town of Jabalia, resulting in the deaths of two people. Meanwhile, another seven were killed and 17 seriously injured in an attack on tents housing displaced families near Al-Tabeen School, east of Gaza City.
Further airstrikes around the Al-Shifa Medical Complex, the largest remaining medical centre in the Strip, wounded several civilians inside a residential flat, in a blatant violation of the sanctity of medical facilities and the safety of neighbouring residents.
What is unfolding in Gaza can only be described as a war of genocide, perpetrated by Israeli occupation forces in a systematic manner, with utter disregard for the most basic principles of international humanitarian law. The repeated targeting of unarmed civilians, whether while seeking food or fleeing areas of bombardment, points to a clear and recurring pattern of deliberate killings.
Instead of serving as a means to save lives, humanitarian aid in Gaza has become a death trap. The occupation uses the severe shortage of food and medicine as a weapon to subjugate the population, then targets them during their efforts to survive. Such conduct constitutes a war crime under international law; indeed, a crime against humanity, as it deliberately punishes the population as a group and denies them the basic conditions necessary for life.
Since the outbreak of war on 7 October 2023, the number of casualties has surpassed 198,000 dead and wounded, according to local statistics, the majority being women and children. In addition, over 9,000 people remain missing beneath the rubble, their fate unknown. Hundreds of thousands are now at risk of famine and disease, living under conditions of forced displacement that lack the minimum essentials for survival.
The occupation forces continue to commit their crimes with impunity, despite international orders from the International Court of Justice calling for an end to military operations targeting civilians. This reflects the absence of international will to uphold justice and raises serious questions about the effectiveness of the existing international legal system.
What is happening in Gaza today is not merely an armed conflict, but a clear case of genocide, executed through both military aggression and starvation, aimed at destroying the foundations of life and breaking the will of an entire people, while the world looks on in silence or complicity.
