While public pressure has led more world leaders to speak out against Israel’s flattening of Gaza, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s right-wing government continues to dig its heels in — rejecting the widely popular idea of a two-state solution and refusing to end the campaign of destruction it has carried out for the past two years.
The Israeli military has upped its offensive in densely populated Gaza City, giving little to no warning before toppling high-rise buildings and driving Palestinians south using shelling and quadcopters. With support from the United States, Israeli forces also continue to target journalists and hospitals while blocking most aid and food from entering the enclave.
The Gaza Health Ministry says Israeli forces have killed at least 65,300 Palestinians — considered a gross undercount – and wounded nearly 167,000 since October 2023, when Hamas militants killed about 1,200 in Israel and took 200 hostages, about 50 of whom remain in captivity. Israeli forces are also accused of attacking Palestinians in the West Bank and enabling settler violence.
Activists, world leaders, human rights groups, genocide scholars and most recently a U.N. committee have determined that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza, a finding Netanyahu vehemently rejects. Leaders of several Western nations also recently announced their recognition of a Palestinian state at the U.N. in hopes of pursuing a two-state solution for the region.
