The people of Gaza are being forced to endure the unbearable: no clean water, no safe shelter, no food, no
electricity, and no way out. International law is clear — civilians must be protected, aid must flow, and collective punishment is forbidden. Yet Gaza has been turned into an open-air prison under siege, where basic human rights are trampled daily and the very act of survival is criminalised.
What’s happening in Gaza is not a natural disaster. It is a man-made humanitarian catastrophe — the deliberate destruction of civilian life on a scale that shocks the conscience. Entire families are being wiped out. Children are being buried under rubble. Hospitals are being bombed and starved of fuel and medicine. This is not collateral damage — it’s collective punishment.
World leaders issue cautious statements while the killing continues. Humanitarian agencies plead for access, but are ignored or blocked. Meanwhile, those with the power to stop the bloodshed allow it to escalate, hiding behind excuses and diplomatic paralysis. Silence, in this context, is complicity.
We must say it plainly: starving civilians, bombing homes, and destroying vital infrastructure are war crimes. Allowing an entire population to be treated as expendable is a moral disgrace. History will not be kind to those who justified, excused, or averted their eyes from this atrocity.
The demands are urgent and non-negotiable:
* An immediate and unconditional ceasefire.
* Full, unrestricted humanitarian access.
* Protection of civilians and accountability for perpetrators.
* A real pathway to justice and freedom for Palestinians, not endless cycles of siege and slaughter.
To remain neutral in the face of such brutality is to side with oppression. The people of Gaza are not collateral; they are human beings whose lives matter. The world must act now — not with platitudes, but with decisive pressure and consequences — to end this humanitarian nightmare.
- contributed by Ella Martin, CoOperativeNZ 2025
