62,214

62,214 people have been killed in Gaza since October 7th, 2023

On October 7th, 2023, 7,000 militants lead by Hamas, an extremist group in Gaza, broke out of the barricaded Gaza strip and killed a total of 1,200 people in southern Israel. Of these people, 736 were civilians, and 21 were children. 

Following these horrific attacks, many nations denounced Hamas' actions as terroristic in nature or as a dangerous escalatory tactic. To be clear, Hamas' actions were in no way justifiable. Violence is violence and violence is wrong. Given the long history of occupation of Palestinian territories by Israel, these attacks represent a boiling over of resentment towards Israelis.

The Israeli response to the attacks which occurred on October 7th has been immense. People around the globe have debated over the past year and a half whether Israel has the right to defend itself, a question whose answer I'm still not clear on. However, Israel's violent siege and systematic starvation of 2 million people in the Gaza strip is clearly wrong and there is no excuse for such violence and cruelty. We all have a responsibility to first and foremost to put pressure on lawmakers in the U.S. to stop sending arms to Israel, who has been and continues to carry out a genocide in Gaza, and to call for the opening of Gaza to humanitarian aid.

On June 1st, 2025, Israeli forces opened fire on Palestinian civilians and children trying to obtain aid from an Israeli-U.S. backed aid distro site. A UN humanitarian agency has described Gaza as the hungriest place on Earth, and has accused Israel of denying crucial food and water to 2 million people in dire condition. Starvation is wrong and clearly goes criminally beyond "Israel's right to defend itself."

The tragedy in Gaza is overwhelming, but what is worse is the external world's response to these atrocities. A ship named the Conscience carrying much needed humanitarian aid across the Mediterranean was attacked by what is presumed to be Israeli drones. The West continues to supply Israel with weapons to carry out its genocide. The President of the United States mocks Palestinian deaths by laying forth plans to take control of Gaza and turn it into a "Riviera of the Middle East."

Awareness is the first step towards action, and I want everyone to be aware of the atrocities that are taking place.

Children are burning. 

All eyes on Gaza.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/longform/2023/10/9/israel-hamas-war-in-maps-and-charts-live-tracker