By So Informed + Let’s Talk Palestine
“Israel has the right to defend itself.”
→ “Israel” is an occupying power in Gaza (as well as the occupied West Bank) under international law.
Occupying powers do not have the right to claim “self-defense” against those who they are occupying. Especially if the resistance from those being occupied is in direct response to the occupation itself.
Even if self-defense were to apply, which it does not, international humanitarian law restricts a military response to proportionality and distinction between combatants and civilians. “Israel” has made no such distinction as evidenced by the fact that the estimated civilian death toll is upwards of 90 percent of those killed in the genocide in Gaza.
Further, framing the genocide in Gaza as simply “Israel” defending itself ignores the reality of their decades-long occupation, ethnic cleansing, illegal settlement expansion, arbitrary detainment, and brutality of Palestinians. Ignoring this reality works to whitewash the very reason why Palestinians resist in the first place.
“The IOF is the most moral army in the world.”
→ This talking point has been routine in the Zionist hasbara catalogue for decades. But let’s just focus on the genocide in Gaza since October 7, 2023…
Countless investigations conducted by international humanitarian organizations have documented repeated egregious violations of international humanitarian law, human rights atrocities, and war crimes carried out by the IOF with impunity, including:
Beyond those clear war crimes, there have been hundreds of videos posted online by IOF “soldiers” themselves desecrating the corpses of Palestinian martyrs, donning the undergarments of Palestinian women, destroying and looting homes of those forcibly displaced throughout Gaza, and more.
Does that sound “moral” to you?
“Maybe they shouldn’t have voted for Hamas…”
→ The last election held in Gaza was in 2006 – nearly 20 years ago. Over 50% of Gaza’s current population was not even born or eligible to vote in 2006.
But let’s break that down even further...
While that math matters to get a true understanding of how absurd this argument is, it is enough to just state clearly: Whether or not someone voted for Hamas, no civilian should be bombed, shot, starved, or forcibly displaced because of how others voted nearly 20 years ago.
Blaming the suffering of those trying to survive the genocide on an election held two decades ago, especially when no new elections have been allowed since, is both intellectually dishonest and morally corrupt.
“Israel is doing everything it can to protect civilians in Gaza.”
→ Since October 7, 2023, we know for certain that “Israel” has murdered at least 59,800 Palestinians in Gaza. (Estimates put the death toll as high as 400,000.) This number doesn’t include the more than 14,000 people still buried beneath the rubble. And, given that Israel has also destroyed the capabilities of both the Gaza Health Ministry and the majority of hospitals to properly account for all of those killed, the death toll is significantly higher than what is being reported. If there were any effort being made to “protect civilians” on Israel’s part, the death toll would certainly not be so high.
All of that being said, Israel’s deliberate targeting of civilians has been well-documented for decades, including since its genocide in Gaza began. Here are just several instances since January of 2025:
→ Violence in Palestine has been ongoing since the creation of the settler colony of Israel in 1948, which prompted the mass displacement and dispossession of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians––the Nakba.
Millions of Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and in Gaza have been subjected to relentless brutalization, apartheid, ethnic cleansing, arbitrary detainment, and crimes against humanity by the Israeli regime for 75 years.
Prior to October 7th, Israel had killed and injured more than 66,000 Palestinian civilians in Gaza alone since the beginning of 2008. For decades, Israel has razed homes and infrastructure, created a water crisis, and has effectively caged millions of people into a nearly uninhabitable strip of land which they bomb frequently.
October 7th was a violent day, yes. But October 7th was certainly not the “start” of any violence—and to insinuate otherwise reveals a deep lack of historical knowledge, a lack of empathy for the daily lived reality of Palestinians, or both.
→ Many blame Hamas for Israel's disproportionate response and genocide of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, arguing that Hamas is putting Palestinian lives in danger by fighting against Israeli apartheid. However, this line of argument is an evasion tactic. It unfairly shifts the blame onto the victims, holding them accountable for resisting their occupier, while absolving the oppressor of any responsibility. It is also a dangerous and misleading argument, as it dismisses the killing of Palestinians as a standard response or “collateral damage”.
Furthermore, this argument neglects crucial context. The grim reality is that Israel's blockade has long been gradually causing the demise of the entire population in Gaza. Gaza’s humanitarian crisis was considered a ticking time bomb, with the United Nations warning in 2012 that Gaza would become uninhabitable by 2020 due to the blockade. (In January, after just three months of Israel’s genocide in Gaza, the United Nations deemed Gaza uninhabitable.)
It is therefore important to acknowledge that no Palestinian would willingly choose or accept enduring such conditions indefinitely, even though they are aware that change comes at a steep price.
→ In an interview with Sky News, former Prime Minister of Israel, Yair Lapid, said that the “majority” of those killed by Israeli Occupation Forces in Gaza were “terrorists”. He provided no evidence to back this statement up. In the months since, Israel has alleged to have killed upwards of “13,000” Hamas members, also providing no evidence to back this up.
For perspective: More than 36,000 people have been killed in Gaza since October 7, 2023. At least 81,400 have been wounded and an additional 10,000+ are buried under rubble.
When we engage in conversations about “terrorism,” we must ask ourselves: who defined “terrorism” when it comes to Palestinians? The United States, which has inflicted terror on countless countries around the world, and Israel, which is currently terrorizing 2.3 million people in Gaza.
Is it not terrorism to slaughter and maim nearly 120,000 people in the space of 8 months––people who you have trapped into a 25-mile long stretch of land while decimating their homes and hospitals and starving them into a famine? Is it not terrorism to deliberately target children?
So, we ask: do the United States and Israel hold the moral authority to call resistance to decades of brutal occupation “terrorism” while US-made bombs rain down on civilians from Israel?
→ On November 21, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stated clearly that even after the hostages are released, Israel will continue the Gaza Genocide: “We are at war, and we will continue the war,” he said. “We will continue until we achieve all our goals.” He and other Israeli officials have repeated this plan multiple times since.
Netanyahu and other Israeli leaders have made it abundantly clear that the genocide that they are inflicting in Gaza is, and never has been, about the hostages:
“Hamas is using civilians as human shields.”
→ As Israeli officials peddle the narrative that “Hamas is using civilians as human shields”, allow history to be instructive:
As noted by Jacobin, “Following past Israeli military operations in Gaza in 2009 and 2014, Amnesty International repeatedly investigated “human shields” accusations” and found no evidence to back up the accusation that Hamas uses civilians as human shields. Israeli occupation forces, on the other hand, have been documented to have used Palestinian detainees as human shields on more than one occasion through the years. (Every accusation is a confession.)
13-year old boy used as human shield and seven children killed by Israeli forces
OMCT World Organisation Against Torture, April 29, 2004
IDF used Palestinians as human shields 1,200 occasions in last five years, say Israeli defence officials
Belfast Telegraph, October 11, 2005
The Guardian has compiled detailed evidence of alleged war crimes committed by Israel … involving the use of Palestinian children as human shields.
The Guardian, March 24, 2009
Palestinian children tortured, used as shields by Israel: U.N.
Reuters, June 20, 2013
Euro-Mid Documents Israel’s Use of Human Shields in Gaza
Euro-Mid Observer for Human Rights, August 10, 2014
Israeli forces use Palestinian child as human shield in Gaza
Defense for Children International - Palestine, August 21, 2014
Will Someone Finally Say Israel Has Lost It?
“The armed men of the force also took a father and his daughter as human shields.”
Haaretz, May 31, 2022
→ Israel has been imposing a land, sea, and air blockade in Gaza since 2005. That blockade was tightened in 2007 in response to the election of Hamas. Israel has control over the movement of water, fuel, and other critical supplies. Israel also controls the physical movement of the more than 2,300,000 Palestinians in Gaza. Gaza is surrounded by concrete walls and 20-foot barbed wire fences constructed by Israel. Residents of Gaza cannot leave or enter without approval from Israel.
Additionally, since June 1967, the Israeli military authorities consolidated complete power over all water resources and water-related infrastructure. Israel also made “precise calculations of Gaza's daily calorie needs to avoid malnutrition” during a blockade in Gaza between 2007 and mid-2010, per defense ministry files.
Does that sound like ‘no control’ to you?
The consensus among prominent international institutions, organizations and bodies, such as the International Committee of the Red Cross, the International Criminal Court, the United Nations Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, UN General Assembly, European Union, and African Union, as well as international legal experts and other organizations, agree that Israel has occupied Palestinian territories–including Gaza–since 1967.
→ The death toll in Gaza is actually most likely a severe undercount given Israel’s decimation of any and all capabilities for those in Gaza to keep an accurate count of those Israel has killed.
It is notable that nearly every major humanitarian organization worldwide, the United Nations, and even the United States government all believe the death toll numbers given by the Gaza Health Ministry. In fact, the U.S. government has said that the number of Palestinians killed by Israel in Gaza is “even higher” than what is being reported.
Because Hamas is the governing body in Gaza, people (namely the media, Zionists, and politicians––which all have quite an overlap) have strategically and nefariously presented the death toll as being reported by the “Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry” in an effort to cast doubt on the figures. The strategy of presenting the reported death toll in this manner, while in tandem continuing to present Hamas as “terrorists”, has led to the manufactured questioning of the validity of the actual number of Palestinians killed in Gaza.
But the reality is what it is: the death toll in Gaza is both staggering and significantly underreported.
→ There is a war taking place–but it is certainly not Gaza’s war, nor is it Hamas’ war. Israel––one of the most well-funded militaries in the world with the full backing of the United States government––has waged a full-scale war on one of the most densely populated places in the entire world, where half of the population is children.
The asymmetry between the Israeli occupation forces and Hamas is painfully clear––Israel drops American-made bombs while “Hamas fighters are typically armed only with what they can carry and employ hit-and-run tactics against lopsided Israeli advantages in arms and technology.” (AP)
South Africa presented its case outlining Israel’s genocidal intent at the International Court of Justice in December 2023. In their case, South Africa strongly highlighted 8 points of Israel’s genocidal intent: