GAZA/BEIRUT: For millions watching from afar, one question keeps echoing: why are ordinary men, women, and children — the powerless, the voiceless — paying the price of wars they never started?
In Gaza, entire families are being buried under rubble. Israel says its strikes target Hamas, yet homes, hospitals and schools continue to collapse in clouds of dust.
After more than two years of relentless bombardment, Gaza’s cities lie in ruins. The United Nations says nearly 70% of those killed are women and children. Israel insists it is fighting “terror networks,” but to the world’s common observer, it looks less like defence and more like destruction. The question now is no longer who fired first, but how much more can civilians endure?
The Expanding Battlefield
Despite several ceasefire declarations, Israeli airstrikes have spread beyond Gaza — pounding parts of southern Lebanon, Syria, and even Iran in what Tel Aviv calls “pre-emptive action” against Iranian-backed groups. The West Bank, too, remains under lockdown, with new settlements expanding despite international condemnation. Each new strike brings warnings of a wider regional war, yet Israel’s campaign shows no sign of restraint.
Why Only Muslim Nations?
Analysts note that Israel’s military operations have overwhelmingly targeted Muslim-majority nations — Lebanon, Syria, Iran, and the Palestinian territories — while Western powers remain largely muted. Critics argue this double standard has eroded global faith in international law, leaving millions of Muslims feeling that their lives are somehow less valuable in the global order.
Trump’s Simplistic Calls for “Peace”
US President Donald Trump, who once boasted he could “end the Ukraine war in 24 hours,” has called for an end to the killing in both Ukraine and Gaza. But his words — “go home to your families in peace” — ring hollow amid the scale of human tragedy. Peace, observers say, cannot be achieved by rhetoric alone, especially when Washington continues to supply Israel with weapons even as civilian casualties mount.
The Human Cost and the Moral Void
In Gaza’s shattered hospitals, doctors operate by flashlight. In Rafah and Khan Younis, children dig through debris searching for their parents. These are not soldiers — they are the world’s forgotten citizens, victims of a conflict that has lost all proportion.
The question haunting humanity is simple yet devastating: Why does the world remain silent when innocent lives — only Muslim — are erased under the roar of jet fighters? Until the conscience of nations values every child equally, from Kyiv to Gaza, peace will remain a slogan, not a solution.
