there has never been a war in which 80% of the land was destroyed, 100% of the population was displaced, and 50% of the dead were children.
the anatomy of annihilation: Israel's war on Palestine defies any historical precedence.
Good day, spectators,
There’s something unprecedented happening in our world.
As I write this, it’s November the 14th, 2024, and the war of elimination of Palestine, which began many decades ago but has increased in brutality since October 2023, has turned into something far darker than anyone could have imagined. What many thought was just another chapter in an ongoing violent conflict is now by all important metrics…a full-scale genocide.
More than eighty percent of Gaza has been reduced to rubble, every single person has been forced to flee their homes, and more than half of those who have died in Israeli attacks are children. When did we normalise this? In what world is this something we have evolved to accept? What we are witnessing is a level of destruction and loss that is just impossible for most of us to comprehend.
It’s not just another war. It’s not just another story. It’s a full-scale attempt at ethnic cleansing, and it’s one that we cannot, as humanity, afford to look away from.
If you’ve been living under a rock and you’re somehow unfamiliar with what Israel is doing to the Palestinian people every day, then please favourite the following page:
the scale of destruction
When we talk about 80% of Gaza being destroyed, we’re not just throwing around numbers. It’s not an abstract statistic you can read, not process, and discard out of your mind. This is about real places, real homes, real lives—all now turned to dust. Picture an area the size of London: busy streets that used to be filled with people now filled with rubble. Schools that once taught kids are reduced to ruins. Hospitals that should be safe areas at any time of the day are lying in waste. This is what Gaza is; don’t be under any illusions.
In the annals of history, wars have been devastating. But this? This is something else entirely. There has never been a war where so much of a country has been decimated to this extent. Never a war where 80% of the land is nothing but wreckage.
And it’s not just the buildings. It’s the people. It’s the lives that have been shattered beyond repair. For every single building reduced to rubble, there’s a story behind it—a family who lived and laughed together, a whole past obliterated. No, these are not just statistics; they are people like you and me who once lived, loved, and dreamed. Now, they’re either dead or left with nothing but memories of what they used to have.
Yes, we’ve seen wars before, but we’ve never seen anything like this. This is a scale of destruction that completely defies humanity.
human rights, non-existent
Recently, Israel added a new insult to an already injured Palestine: banning UNRWA, the UN agency providing essential aid to Palestinians. This agency was the only lifeline for many, offering much needed food, education, and healthcare. Banning UNRWA isn’t just a slap in the face of the United Nations; it’s a death sentence for thousands and a denial of their fundamental human rights.
Israel justifies this move by branding UNRWA as an enabler of terrorism. But let’s be clear—this is about control, cutting off the very supplies and support systems that sustain Palestinian life. Without UNRWA, Palestinians in Gaza are left to fend for themselves in an ‘every man for themself’ wasteland, stripped of international protection and resources.
the impossible exodus
Imagine waking up one morning, and the home you've lived in your entire life is gone. Your neighbourhood? Gone. The streets where you grew up, the places you hung out with friends, the corners where you bought your milk—gone. Now imagine that isn't just your story, but everyone else's too. The entirety of Gaza, every last person, is now displaced. Think about that for a second: 100% of the population. Not 10%, not 50%, but every single person.
So, where do they all go? It's not like they can jump on a plane and fuck off to safety. No, they’re stuffed into makeshift shanty camps in the North or oftentimes simply left wandering with no place to go. It’s extremely relevant to mention at this point, that the refugee camps in the North are currently under siege and being bombed mercilessly. This isn't displacement; it's a deliberate dehumanisation with the end goal of wiping out what’s left of the Palestinians in Gaza. Israel has turned these people’s lives into a game of musical chairs, but the music has stopped, and there are no chairs left to sit on, nowhere to go.
When you and your family are crammed into a crappy tent, thirsty, and on empty stomachs, how do you explain to your child why they can't go home? Why there’s no bed to sleep in tonight? Or where all their favourite toys are? This is the reality of mass displacement.
This isn’t just about destroying a house or a neighbourhood. It’s about destroying the very soul of the Palestinians. Their roots, identity, and sense of being are stripped away, and yet, the world watches as if this is just another headline, just another conflict in a distant land. But make no mistake, what’s happening in Palestine isn’t just a story to scroll past. It’s a disaster that will be remembered for years to come.
from the cradle to the grave
The most gut-punching part of this seemingly endless nightmare is the children. More than half of the deaths in Gaza are kids. Let that sink in. Fifty percent. Kids who should be playing Fortnite and Minecraft with their friends are instead becoming numbers on a death toll. Kids who should be learning to read and write are learning the useful skills of dodging bombs and IDF bullets. The ones that do manage to grow into adults will also grow numb.
And here's where it gets even more twisted: in most wars, there are at least some rules, some semblance of decency. You know, like maybe we shouldn’t bomb schools or hospitals. But in Gaza? Forget about it. Here, children aren’t children; they’re ‘human shields’ designed to be torn down by Israel in order to get to Hamas. It’s almost as if every explosive dropped is a calculated attempt to maximise ‘collateral damage.’
No child should have to live through this. No child should have to wonder if today will be their last or see their friends, parents, and siblings blown to bits. This is a complete moral failure on a global scale.
never before seen in war
Of course, wars are as old as humanity, and history is littered with conflicts that have left cities in ruins and populations crushed. But when we look at what Israel is doing in Gaza—we’re looking at something that defies any historical comparison.
Take World War II, for instance, the benchmark for destruction in the modern era. Cities like London, Berlin, and Stalingrad were bombed to bits. But even then, amidst the hellscape of a global conflict, no city lost 80% of its structures. Even in the ruthless Luftwaffe air raids, there was some semblance of the city left, a flicker of life in the ruins. There was certainly never a point where the entire population of a country was forced to flee en masse. Yes, there were refugees, but 100% displacement? Never.
Let’s take another horrific event in human history for comparison: Rwanda, where a genocide took place that shook the world to its core. Over the course of just a few months, nearly a million people were slaughtered. The scale of the horror was unimaginable, but still, the physical destruction of the society wasn’t total. Cities didn’t vanish into rubble, nor was the infrastructure entirely wiped from existence.
And then there’s Gaza. A place where 80% of the land has been obliterated. A place where every single person has been forced to flee, leaving behind everything they’ve ever known. A place where half of the dead are children. Can we even fathom this? In what other conflict have we seen these numbers? Where else in history have we witnessed this scale of destruction and displacement, combined with such a tragic loss of young lives?
So when I say Gaza is under siege, when I talk about the horrors unfolding there, I’m not just using hyperbole. I’m stating a truth that is as clear as day. Gaza isn’t just another conflict zone. It’s a war unlike any other, and it’s happening right now, under our watch.
what now?
This is a catastrophe on a scale we’ve never seen before—80% of the land is flattened, every single person has had to flee, and half the dead are children. If you’re not shocked by now, then you’re part of the problem.
We can’t sit back and pretend this is normal. It’s not. This is something else entirely—a level of destruction and suffering that breaks every rule of what we thought wars were. And yet, where’s the action?
It’s time to stop with the empty words and start pushing our governments, rejecting our complicity.
Gaza is a real-life genocide before our eyes and we’re letting it happen and on that note, I urge you to resist in any way you can,
(Thanks for reading as always, please give this post a ❤️ and restack below.)
Yes, unprecedented in all the worst ways.
💯% Beautifully written summary of the horrors of this genocide.