In 2024, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office issued a statement that Israel was fighting a “just war” in its conflict with Hamas, a militant terrorist group.
The Carnegie Council for Ethics and International Affairs defines a “just war” as “warfare that is justified by a moral or legal tradition.” Therefore, Israel’s reasons for war in Palestine following the attacks in October 2023 are not inherently unjust. Like every nation, Israel has every right to defend itself from terrorist groups. The people of Israel have every right to a world where they do not have to fear for their lives, or the lives of their children, and the fate of their descendants.
But the way that it is carrying out its military actions in the name of self-preservation is unjust.
The United Nations (UN) defines genocide as “the intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group.” The word carries an enormous weight and is not used lightly.
And yet numerous organizations, such as Amnesty International and the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, have reached the conclusion that Israel is committing genocide in Palestine. Counterarguments say that Israel is seeking to destroy Hamas, not a nation or race. And in turn, Hamas’s actions are genocidal as well, as its goal is to destroy Israel.
But that does not excuse the fact that Israel is actively killing and displacing Palestinian civilians.
To understand the present, it is impossible to ignore the past. In the Balfour Declaration of 1917, Britain promised to establish a Jewish national home in Palestine. However, Arab nations opposed this. Further complicating matters was the fact that an Arab population already lived in Palestine before 1948, when Israel became a nation.
The 1948 Arab-Israeli War caused the mass displacement of Palestinians. This event is known as the “Nakba,” or “Catastrophe,” to the Arab communities, while Israelis remember it as their war of independence. By the end of the conflict, Israel controlled significantly more land and was the victor. However, the war took its toll, with thousands on both sides being killed.
The 1948 Arab-Israeli War would not be the last time there were conflicts between Arab countries and Israel. Along with these conflicts, there is currently also the issue of Israeli settlers moving into the West Bank. In reports from outlets such as CNN, the settlers brought violence to the people already living in the area.
In 2021, even before Hamas launched its surprise attack, Human Rights Watch found that Israeli authorities were essentially subjecting the people of Palestine to apartheid and abusing them based on their nationality and ethnicity.
The conditions of Palestinians worsened after the war. As of 2025, 236,505 people have been hurt or killed, according to the Gaza Ministry of Health.
In 2025, Save the Children reported that 20,000 Palestinian children had been killed in 23 months. Along with military raids, aid blockades are also contributing to the death toll. After Hamas attacked, Israel besieged Gaza, a densely populated area of Palestine, making it difficult for aid to reach the people. In 2025, the UN reported that Palestinians in Gaza were on the brink of famine and that 20,000 children were treated for malnutrition, emphasizing the humanitarian crisis.
The idea that children do not deserve to suffer should not be controversial. Nationality does not determine the value of a child’s life. The deaths of the Bibas children, Israeli hostages taken by Hamas, including a child who had not yet reached the age of one, underscore the painful truth that war harms everyone involved. Families of Israeli hostages fear that one more military incursion will endanger the lives of their loved ones, just as a Palestinian family agonizingly waits for the next airstrike.
As civilians lie under rubble and children starve, we should question whether a war that started as an act of self-defense has taken too much of a toll on human life.
A page on Al Jazeera leads to a list of Palestinian children killed in Israeli attacks. Many never reached their first birthday. There is tragic irony in the fact that a “just war” committed some of the strongest injustices against the most vulnerable of human beings.
As of now, a fragile ceasefire has been established. But Gaza is in ruins. And thousands of children will carry scars from the war for years to come. The blood spilled on both sides seeps into the same ground, running the same shade of red.
We are all human.
