The views and analysis presented in this essay are intended solely to examine media narratives, political rhetoric, and foreign policy discourse concerning the Israeli government’s treatment of the Palestinian people. The author does not endorse, condone, or support terrorism, violence, or the funding of such acts by any state or non-state actor. This essay does not seek to excuse or minimize harm against civilians or human rights violations committed by any party. Rather, it aims to expose how systemic bias, misinformation, and political narratives have shaped public understanding of the Israeli state’s actions—including what international experts, legal scholars, and human rights organizations have increasingly recognized as a genocide against the Palestinian people. All interpretations are offered to promote a more informed, critical, and honest discussion of international affairs and media representation.
On October 7, 2023, fighters from Hamas carried out a brutal surprise attack in southern Israel. Around 1,200 people were killed, and roughly 240 others were taken hostage. The assault shocked the world and left Israelis grieving and fearful. Yet Israel’s military response to the attack went far beyond striking Hamas fighters. It unleashed a campaign against the Gaza Strip that has been described by international experts as genocidal in both scale and intent. Gaza, home to 2.3 million Palestinians, was already struggling under a sixteen-year blockade that had crippled its economy and public services. After October 7, the enclave was bombarded day and night, cut off from food, water, and fuel, and left in ruins.
By April 2025, Gaza’s health authorities reported more than 50,000 Palestinians killed and over 113,000 wounded since the start of the war. At least 14,500 of the dead were children. The United Nations children’s agency called this toll “unconscionable,” while legal experts from the United Nations and international human rights organizations warned that “a genocide is unfolding before our eyes.” Families were forced to flee again and again as entire neighborhoods were flattened. Food and medicine were deliberately withheld, creating conditions of mass starvation. The devastation was so sweeping that a senior Israeli officer bluntly told reporters, “Whoever returns here will find scorched earth. No houses, no agriculture, no nothing.”
Despite this destruction, the United States, Israel’s closest ally, has consistently shielded Israel from accountability. American leaders framed Israel’s actions as self-defense, even while entire families in Gaza were being buried under rubble. Reports of Palestinian suffering were often dismissed or doubted, while Israeli talking points were repeated uncritically. President Joe Biden stressed Israel’s “right to defend itself” and accused Hamas of “using [Gazans] as human shields,” a claim made without evidence. In October 2023, when asked about the soaring civilian death toll in Gaza, Biden said he had “no confidence” in the numbers reported by Palestinian authorities, even though United Nations officials and independent researchers confirmed those figures were accurate and likely underestimates.
This created a sharp disconnect between reality on the ground and the story told to Americans. While Gaza endured what the UN’s human rights chief called a “graveyard for children,” U.S. audiences were told a version of events where Israel was carefully targeting terrorists and Palestinians were suffering only because of Hamas. The result was a narrative that sanitized Israel’s conduct and vilified Palestinians, making it easier for the war to continue without widespread public outcry in the United States.
Gaza’s suffering did not begin in October 2023. For years, the territory had been under blockade, with Israel controlling its borders, airspace, and sea access. Even basic necessities such as electricity and medical supplies were restricted. After the Hamas attack, Israel’s defense minister announced a “complete siege,” cutting off water, food, fuel, and electricity for the entire population. He referred to Gazans as “human animals,” a phrase that revealed the dehumanization underlying Israeli policy. Human Rights Watch condemned this siege as the “starvation of civilians as a method of warfare,” which is a war crime.
The bombing campaign that followed struck residential neighborhoods, schools, refugee camps, and even hospitals. The al-Ahli hospital blast on October 17, which killed hundreds of people seeking shelter, became one of the war’s most infamous tragedies. By early November, more than 10,000 Palestinians were dead, most of them women and children. United Nations officials verified that these figures were reliable, but U.S. leaders continued to cast doubt. As the months wore on, the scale of killing grew almost unimaginable. By June 2024, over 37,000 Palestinians had been recorded killed, with thousands more missing under rubble. A study published in The Lancet concluded that the actual number was likely tens of thousands higher.
Displacement compounded the devastation. In the first weeks, Israel ordered over a million residents of northern Gaza to evacuate south. Families fled in terror, only to be bombed on the roads or attacked in the so-called “safe zones.” By 2024, nearly ninety percent of Gaza’s population had been displaced, many multiple times. United Nations officials described how civilians were treated like “pawns on a board game,” pushed from place to place with nowhere truly safe to go.
Children bore the brunt of this suffering. UNICEF declared Gaza the most dangerous place in the world to be a child. At least 14,500 children were killed in the first year and a half, with many more injured, orphaned, or permanently traumatized. Hospitals collapsed under the weight of the wounded. Doctors performed surgeries without anesthesia. Ambulances were struck by airstrikes. Premature babies died when incubators lost power during sieges on medical facilities. The World Health Organization reported that more than half of Gaza’s hospitals and clinics were no longer functioning by early 2024, leaving countless treatable injuries and illnesses to become fatal.
International law requires that civilians be protected, yet Israel’s actions showed repeated disregard for these principles. The International Criminal Court’s prosecutor sought arrest warrants for Israeli leaders for crimes including starvation of civilians and intentional targeting of civilian populations. United Nations experts accused Israel of using starvation as a weapon of war. Genocide scholars issued public warnings that the campaign in Gaza had crossed into genocidal violence.
And yet, while the world sounded alarms, the United States doubled down on support. Washington vetoed United Nations resolutions calling for ceasefires, blocked efforts to hold Israel accountable, and continued to send billions of dollars in military aid. In Congress, attempts to place conditions on weapons sales were swiftly defeated. American leaders echoed Israel’s justifications while dismissing Palestinian suffering as either exaggerated or self-inflicted. The “human shields” narrative became a cornerstone of U.S. rhetoric, effectively blaming Gazan civilians for their own deaths.
This imbalance was reflected in the media as well. American newspapers and television networks often highlighted Israeli victims with personal stories and emotional coverage, while Palestinian casualties were reduced to numbers or presented with skepticism. Israeli casualties were reported as fact, while Palestinian deaths were often prefaced with phrases like “according to Palestinian officials,” subtly casting doubt. When hospitals were bombed, headlines frequently echoed Israeli claims before independent investigations could be made. This language shaped how Americans understood the war, encouraging sympathy for Israelis and suspicion toward Palestinians.
The result of these choices has been devastating. By sanitizing Israel’s aggression and demonizing Palestinians, the United States has not only helped enable mass atrocities but also misled its own people about the nature of the conflict. The facts are plain: tens of thousands of civilians, many of them children, have been killed. Families have been starved, displaced, and dehumanized. The conditions of life in Gaza have been systematically destroyed. These are not unfortunate byproducts of war; they are the hallmarks of collective punishment and atrocity crimes.
Recognizing these realities is not about denying the brutality of Hamas’s October 7 attack. That attack was horrific, and the killing of Israeli civilians was an atrocity that deserves full condemnation. But acknowledging Hamas’s crimes does not excuse or diminish Israel’s responsibility for the immense civilian suffering it has inflicted. Every innocent life, Israeli or Palestinian, is sacred. Treating one set of victims as more human than the other only ensures the cycle of violence will continue.
The story told to Americans about Gaza has too often been one-sided, sanitized, and misleading. To move toward a just and lasting peace, that must change. The United States must stop excusing and enabling the destruction of an entire people under the guise of self-defense. It must stop equating Palestinian identity with terrorism. And it must start valuing Palestinian lives with the same moral seriousness as Israeli lives. Only then can America live up to its professed values of justice, equality, and human rights for all.
