The daily massacres in the Gaza Strip, coupled with the world’s apathy and unwillingness to halt them, demand a renewed examination of modern human rights. This is no longer solely about the erosion of human dignity amid violent conflicts, nor merely about the stark re-emergence of a hierarchy of human worth—some lives deemed expendable, others shielded by the power of great states. It is also about questioning humanity’s place within an emerging global order that intertwines political, cultural, and social threads.
The five Palestinian journalists—one of whom Israel admitted to targeting in Gaza, alleging ties to Hamas without offering proof—together with the two others killed in the same strike, are only a fraction of the daily toll Palestinians pay to the machinery of this new order. The transformation of aid distribution points, established by the US-Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Organisation, into killing fields where Israeli soldiers practise sniping at moving targets has stirred no outrage among world leaders, even those who see themselves as part of the "civilised" world.
Even the grim arithmetic of daily killings no longer commands attention. Who knows how many Palestinians died yesterday? And even if the number appears on humanitarian agency websites or in the press, who truly cares? Who can save a starving child? Who can stop a tank from levelling a home simply to gratify the whims of Israeli soldiers?
Equally appalling are the pronouncements of those who claim to represent the victims, yet belittle the deaths and devastation suffered by their own people. More than 60,000 have been killed, hundreds of thousands wounded, and 70% of Gaza has been reduced to rubble.
All of this is dismissed, with chilling detachment, as “tactical losses” compared with what they call a “strategic defeat” for Israel. Such rhetoric, repeatedly voiced by Hamas leaders, fuels rather than impedes Israel’s extermination campaign. If the victims’ own representatives appear indifferent, why should the world be expected to intervene or assume responsibility for those who perish?
