Words matter. They shape how we understand events, how we respond to them, and ultimately, how history remembers them. In Gaza, the crucial question isn’t merely whether to label the ongoing tragedy — it’s about accurately capturing the genocide on the ground.
Before you come at me and say “what genocide?”, don’t be extra. My response to that will be: don’t undermine people’s misery.
Also, that’s based on the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. It clearly provides a legal definition of the term, which this article will examine and prove, showing that the mounting evidence suggests that the ongoing events in Gaza go beyond a “war on Hamas” and point to actions that amount to genocide.
The framing of this conflict as a war is a misleading justification for Israel’s actions, which seem to serve as a cover for the racial erasure of the Palestinian people.
It’s no longer sufficient—or ethical—to rely on vague labels that diminish the scale of the atrocity. What is unfolding in Gaza demands a more precise term: genocide. And we must call it what it is.
Gaza War Definition: What Actual Wars Look Like
War traditionally describes armed conflict between relatively balanced military forces. There’s an expectation of soldiers fighting soldiers, with civilians tragically caught in the crossfire despite rules meant to protect them. What we’re witnessing in Gaza doesn’t fit this framework. When over 70% of those killed are women and children, we’re not watching collateral damage from a war—we’re watching the systematic destruction of a population. Does anyone seriously believe 7 out of 10 Hamas fighters are children and women? The legal definition of genocide is crystal clear. The 1948 Genocide Convention defines it as “acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group.” These acts include:- Killing members of the group
- Causing serious bodily or mental harm
- Deliberately imposing conditions calculated to bring about physical destruction
- Preventing births
- Forcibly transferring children
The Evidence That Points to Genocide
1. The Killing of a Generation
Let’s talk numbers, because they’re screaming what politicians won’t say. Over 42,000 Palestinians dead. More than 13,300 of them children. Let that marinate for a moment—thirteen thousand children. That’s more children killed in Gaza in a few months than in all other global conflicts combined over four years. Children. Not fighters. Not soldiers. Children. “They didn’t just kill my children. They erased my future,” cried one Palestinian mother who lost her entire family. Entire family trees—grandparents, parents, children, babies—wiped out in single strikes. In real wars, both sides suffer losses. But this? This is almost entirely one-sided. If Israel and Hamas were truly at “war,” we’d see roughly equal military casualties. Instead, we see the systematic destruction of one civilian population. The bombs keep hitting schools where families seek shelter. Hospitals where the wounded pray for life. UN “safe zones” that prove anything but safe. When bombs fall on children’s beds, refugee tents, and hospital incubators, this isn’t accidental. The pattern is too consistent, too devastating to be “mistakes”. Wars have rules. Wars have two sides fighting each other. This has one side doing most of the dying—and most of those dying are wearing diapers, not combat vests. This isn’t war. It’s something far darker.2. The Deliberate Creation of Unlivable Conditions
The methodical destruction of Gaza’s civilian infrastructure reveals a pattern consistent with creating conditions where human life becomes impossible:- 97% of groundwater is now undrinkable
- Every major hospital has been damaged or rendered non-functional
- Food production facilities, including bakeries, have been systematically targeted
- Water treatment plants and sewage systems have been destroyed
- Power generation capabilities have been eliminated
“Fighting Hamas”: The Convenient Fiction
The claim that Israel is simply “fighting Hamas” has become the central justification for the devastation in Gaza. But the evidence increasingly reveals this as a convenient fiction—a smokescreen that masks a much darker reality. If the military campaign were truly about defeating Hamas:- Why target water systems that every civilian in Gaza depends on?
- Why destroy every hospital, where the sick and wounded—not militants—seek care?
- Why bomb UN schools full of displaced families who fled their homes seeking safety?
- Why block humanitarian aid from reaching starving children?
- Why target ambulances and medics trying to save lives?
3. Statements Revealing Malicious Intent—And You Guessed It, Genocide
Perhaps the most chilling parallel to historical genocides lies in the explicit statements made by officials. Just as Nazi documents revealed intent through their explicit language, statements from Israeli officials provide disturbing insights into potential genocidal intent:- Defence Minister Yoav Gallant announced: “We are fighting human animals and we act accordingly… There will be no electricity, no food, no fuel.”
- Israeli President Isaac Herzog stated that there are no innocent civilians in Gaza, effectively removing the distinction between combatants and non-combatants.
- The biblical reference to Amalek—a command for complete destruction—has been invoked by high-ranking officials.
- A former general openly advocated on television for creating “severe humanitarian distress” to make “Gaza a place where no human being can exist.”
The Deliberate Nature of Civilian Targeting
The case for genocide rather than war rests significantly on the evidence of deliberate civilian targeting—namely women and children—rather than incidental harm:- The use of evacuation orders followed by attacks on evacuation routes and designated “safe zones” creates a pattern where civilians have nowhere safe to go—a strategy seen in previous ethnic cleansing campaigns. Basically asking people to move to zones and deliberately bombing them.
- The systematic destruction of civilian food and water sources cannot be explained by military necessity but aligns perfectly with creating conditions meant to eliminate a population.
- The repeated strikes on clearly marked medical facilities, ambulances, and humanitarian workers suggest a strategy aimed at eliminating life-saving infrastructure for civilians.
- The use of starvation as a weapon, explicitly prohibited under international law, has been documented by multiple organisations.
