Palestinians are starving in rubble in a televised genocide, as the UK government continues to not listen to the outrage of its people
image by Mohammed Ibrahim. Unsplash
On 30 October 2024, tictocgenocide.com reported that “at 1 am, Israeli strikes targeted the Al-Farra family house in Sheikh Nasser area, east of Khan Younis. Three people were killed including one woman and one child (girl).”
It is further reported that both the family’s home and tent were bombed simultaneously. The victims include the brother of photojournalist Soliman Al-Farra. According to Gaza social media, this was the second massacre perpetrated against the Al-Farra family within a week, and the 4th massacre to affect the extended Al-Farra family.
On 2 October 2024, Dr. Al-Farra’s family home in Al-Manara neighbourhood was completely destroyed by violent strikes, killing at least 20 members. Then, on 25 October 25, 2024, the family’s house in Al-Manara neighborhood of Khan Younis was completely pulverized by Israeli bombing, killing at least 15 members of the family,
14 of which were children.
In order to keep data on victims in Palestine, there is a database according to which 298 journalists have been killed in 675 days.
Living in Gaza’s Jabaliya camp
Soliman Al-Farra now lives in Jabaliya refugee camp, which is under constant attack, and has been reduced to rubble. He contacted me on social media (journalists and health workers sometimes get e-sims from a charity for vital communications) with a heart-breaking message:
Soliman Al-Farra’s message
“Sister I witnessed things for the first time in my life.….
Every day I ask myself: Are we in a dream? Someone please wake us up from the nightmare that happens every day.
We have reached a very difficult stage to the point where I wish to see my family, sit with them.
I miss my family, I miss my destroyed house, I miss my neighborhood, I miss my friends, I miss my neighbors who were martyred, I miss sleeping and waking up without the sound of shelling.
I have reached a point where I wish an hour would pass without bombing, without a martyr!
Please pray for us.”
Jabaliya is hell
Apart from food, what is needed is medicines for the injured and sick. With the destruction of all infrastructure and a shortage of water, aid agencies warn of diseases spreading through the camps.
The Guardian writes that “even close Israeli observers are struggling to understand the intensity of the focus on Jabaliya.” Michael Milstein, of the Moshe Dayan Center at Tel Aviv University is quoted, saying: “It’s a mystery I have been trying to understand myself […] We all understand this operation doesn’t defeat Hamas, which obviously still exists, even in Jabaliya.”
Witnesses describe the situation in Jabaliya as hell. Homes are demolished on top of residents, and all one sees is destruction.
Amid the massive destruction in Jabaliya camp, a child rides his bicycle through the camp’s streets [Mohammed Ibrahim – Unsplash]
There is no infrastructure left.
No homes, no schools, no universities or hospitals. Just rubble, and those trying to survive.
According to the Guardian, Sam Rose, a senior deputy director for UNRWA (United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East) affairs in Gaza, said the latest Israeli operations were “completely different” to previous conflicts in the territory. “This time they are flattening the place…it has become uninhabitable.” UNRWA was established in 1949, after 700,000 Palestinians were displaced in the 1948 nakba.
He added: “I’ve been to Yarmouk [the Palestinian camp in Damascus that was heavily destroyed in 2015] but this is 20 times worse. I don’t think [the IDF] has a plan except just to keep going. It has an awful momentum.”
There seems to be a deliberate agenda in Jabaliya and across northern Gaza. It is a scorched earth policy known as the “generals’ plan”, aimed at driving out civilians from whole areas and declaring them “closed military zones”. The plan is to then consider anyone who stays a combatant, which justifies attacks, killings and the cutting of all aid and supplies.
Around 70% of the Palestinian deaths are women and children
As of 30 July 2025, according to the Gaza Health Ministry and Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs, over 62,700 people (60,785 Palestinians and 1,983 Israelis) have been reported killed in the Gaza war.
Among the martyrs have been:
- 217 journalists and media workers,
- 120 academics, and
- over 224 humanitarian aid workers, which includes 179 employees of UNRWA.
Al Jazeera runs a ‘Gaza tracker’ for the newest updates on casualties of the war.
Scholars have estimated 80% of Palestinians killed are civilians. A study by OHCHR, which verified fatalities from three independent sources, found that 70% of the Palestinians killed in residential buildings or similar housing were women and children.”
“Death on this scale has a sound and a smell”
UN Humanitarian Chief Tom Fletcher joined Mehdi Hasan to discuss how he is haunted by his visit to Gaza, where he witnessed death and trauma at such a large scale. He says: “death on this scale has a sound and a smell”.
He undergoes therapy to cope with his experiences, but he admits that they are nothing in comparison to what people living it must feel.
Why has it not stopped?
The media worldwide has been highlighting the suffering of the Gaza population for several months. Petitions are circulated asking for a ceasefire, for aid to get through, for sanctions against Israel and, most of all, for the UK to stop supplying arms and other military support to what now has been classified as genocide by the UN.
I feel angry and helpless.
I feel Europe and our government are doing nothing to stop this slaughter. Kent and Surrey Bylines wrote about another catastrophic historical genocide where millions of people were starved, the Holodomor in Ukraine in the 1930s. The current aid drop is described by the Conversation as a “smokescreen”.
Israel reports it has permitted 70 trucks per day into the strip since May 19. This is well below the 500–600 trucks required per day, according to the United Nations.
Every day more people die, either through acts of war or starvation. I despair that what I do is not enough.
All I can do is sign petitions, write to my MP, protest, and hope the government will wake up to reality. As horrific as 7 October was, the Gaza population has suffered for decades, and both Palestine and Israel have the right to a land of their own where they can thrive in peace. Protests across the world demand an immediate ceasefire, an end to this slaughter, and an international negotiated two-state solution.
The UK’s failings
But instead of the UK government using their influence to make this slaughter stop, last month the peaceful protest group Palestine Action was proscribed by the Home Office as a terrorist organisation.
Just holding a placard in support of Palestine is looked at with suspicion by the police. The government is not listening to public opinion which is resulting in ever bigger protests, with peaceful activist arrested for holding placards in support of Palestine and the wrongfully proscribed group. Just last weekend, nearly 500 protesters have been arrested.
In the meantime, the IDF is allowed to carry on committing genocide, and people are dying of starvation.
Israel keeps stating that the war is against Hamas, for the protection of Israel. Often, Hamas is being blamed for food not getting to starving people. The excuse for war crimes, like hospitals and schools being bombed had been that Hamas used them as hiding places.
However, Israel has not presented any evidence for the presence of Hamas. The supposed aim of fighting Hamas looks like a smokescreen. Instead of destroying Hamas, traumatised young people who have lost loved ones and seen their homes turned into rubble are particularly vulnerable to extremist messages, and more likely to join groups like Hamas.
International protests and holocaust survivors
Several anti- Zionist Jewish movements protest in Israel, the US and in Europe to show opposition to this Israeli war. In the UK, Jewish holocaust survivors came out to protest, 87-year-old Stephen Kapos, who himself was interviewed by police, and Dr Agnes Kory, a music teacher.
In an interview by The Independent, both were keen to clarify that protesting for Palestine is not antisemitism. Dr Kory stated that the holocaust was committed by European Nazis against European Jews, and had nothing to do with Palestine. She has a lot of friends in Israel and finds it heartbreaking that people are being brainwashed to believe that their security depends on Palestinians being killed.
What can we do?
Of course, writing to MPs, signing petitions and joining protests are important actions, but people in Gaza need help now and cannot wait for governments to act.
There are several crowdfunding sites asking for donations to help feed Gaza, including vetted fundraisers on Gaza Funds. I don’t know what difference my small donation will make, but maybe there are, by now, millions of people who want to help. The choice of organisations, like United Nations Population Fund, the UNICEF Gaza Appeal, and Save the Children is large.
I am praying that the growing pressure on governments will result in a truce and aid getting through to the needy before the situation becomes like Holodomor.
Al Jazeera staff murdered
Since releasing this article, the Israeli government has declared that they plan to occupy the whole of Gaza. They intensify their attacks and in the night of 10 August, five Al Jazeera staff have been killed in their tent outside Gaza city, with no proven affiliation to Hamas.
These reporters have been a vital source of up to date information because no international media have been allowed to enter the Gaza Strip. The killing seems indiscriminate, including women and children, but also blatantly targeting media, health and aid services. Journalists and their tents are clearly marked as Press, making this a war crime, adding to the ever-growing long list of war crimes committed by Israel since 7 October.
It is no longer enough to simply make condemning statements. There is a call by ekō for immediate action by world governments and foreign ministers to sanction Israel. If you agree, you can sign an open letter.
