Middle East Press On: Massacre, Gaza, Humanity, Awakening: New Age Islam's Selection, 28 May 2025
By New Age Islam Edit Desk
28 May 2025
The Massacre Of Gaza’s Children: A Stain On Humanity
Humanitarian Aid Serves Violent Interests
Europe’s Rude Awakening On Confronting Israel
My Son Was Killed In My Arms, My Husband Beside Me – A Gaza Mother’s Testimony
Israel Facing Dangerous Shift In Relations With Egypt
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The Massacre Of Gaza’s Children: A Stain On Humanity
By Tasnim Nazeer
May 27, 2025
There are moments in history that burn into the conscience of humanity—so steeped in injustice that to look away is to become complicit. Gaza is one such moment. As we scroll through our screens on social media, the hollow eyes of wounded children in Gaza stare back at us. And the question that haunts me most is this: what are we becoming as a society if we let this genocide continue? Why aren’t world leaders doing more to put an end to this?
I was raised to believe that children are a collective responsibility — delicate lives we must safeguard, no matter the borders, religion, or politics. Yet with each passing day and every child lost in Gaza, it is agonising to witness this tragedy unfold, knowing we remain powerless to physically stop it.
Limbs poking through rubble, the newborns swaddled in hospital beds with no electricity—but how easily they appear on our screens. A child, burned and screaming, scrolls by just before an ad. Among these images is footage of six-year-old Ward Jalal Al-Shaikh Khalil, seen fleeing a burning school in Gaza City after an airstrike reduced it to an inferno. Her tiny frame is engulfed in smoke and chaos, her eyes wide with a fear no child should ever know.
Watching her silhouette go through the ruins of what was meant to be a place of safety, one feels the unbearable weight of a world that has failed her. Ward’s story should be front-page news, not a fleeting video buried between social media posts. She is not an abstraction— she is a little girl whose life was nearly stolen by a war she cannot understand. That she survived that moment is a miracle. That she had to endure it at all is an unforgivable tragedy.
Today, Gaza’s medical professionals face trauma, but on an unimaginable scale. They perform surgeries without anaesthesia, deliver babies in the dark, and are forced to triage life and death by candlelight. Aid workers and parents, too, live through this agony—hearing the cries of children they cannot feed, hold, or save. Just last week the UN said that 14,000 babies could die in Gaza within just 48 hours if Israel did not lift aid blockade. Now children are being killed on mass and burnt alive and entire families wiped out.
What does it do to the rest of us—watching, screaming into a digital void, and seeing no change? The images don’t fade from memory. They carve themselves into our daily lives. I have cried, overwhelmed by the cruelty of knowing that a mother, miles across a border, has no food to offer hers.
This widespread exposure is altering something deep in our societal psyche. For many, it is leading to a profound loss of faith in governments and in many media outlets. There was once a consensus that children should never be victims of war. That seems shattered when it comes to the children of Palestine and this is a stain on humanity.
The worst part is the fear that this outrage is being dulled by repetition. That we are being conditioned into apathy. That the scale of this tragedy—more than 15,600 Palestinian children have been killed according to UNICEF to date —is becoming just another statistic. Politicians may hope that this moral exhaustion will mute our protests. But it will not and we will continue to speak out.
Francesca Albanese, UN Special Rapporteur, recently said:
“I’ve seen the silhouettes of so many people—so many children—burning alive, that I can’t look at fire anymore without feeling sick to my stomach.”
This is a war on children, and those of us with the privilege of peace cannot ignore it. Compassion should not be conditional. If we only care when the victims look like our own children, then our values are not universal—they are tribal.
And yet, I believe we can still choose a different path.
Every voice, every step taken in protest is an act of resistance against the narrative that their lives matter less. We may feel small, but together we can amplify what Gaza’s children cannot say for themselves: We are here. We see you. We will not forget. Ever.
We owe them that much, at the very least.
https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20250527-the-massacre-of-gazas-children-a-stain-on-humanity/
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Humanitarian Aid Serves Violent Interests
By Ramona Wadi
May 27, 2025
Humanitarian aid has become one of the most prominent and shameful means through which international institutions attempt to mitigate the consequences of military aggression. Israel’s purported concept of aid has obviously fared no better. It must be said again that Israel’s designation of the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) can be summarised into: starve and be murdered, or starve, be displaced and possibly murdered.
At the Arab League Summit, Secretary General Antonio Guterres stated that the UN “will not participate in any so-called aid operation that does not adhere to international law and the humanitarian principles of humanity, impartiality, independence and neutrality.” Guterres was referring to Israel’s expansion of its genocide – military operations in UN rhetoric – and which ties directly to the GHF’s role in providing limited humanitarian aid.
The GHF is under scrutiny from Switzerland, after Swiss NGO TRIAL International filed two submissions to investigate the private agency’s compliance with Swiss and international law.
Philip Grant, TRIAL International’s Executive Director, declared, “The planned use of private security companies leads to a risky militarization of aid, which is not justified in a context where the United Nations and humanitarian NGOs have the impartiality, resources and expertise necessary to distribute this aid without delay to the civilian population,” said Philip Grant, Executive Director of TRIAL International.
The resignation of GHF’s Executive Director Jake Woods allegedly occurred for similar reasons. “it is clear that it is not possible to implement this plan while also strictly adhering to the humanitarian principles of humanity, neutrality, impartiality and independence, which I will not abandon,” Woods explained.
Reports in Ha’aretz uncovered a murkier web of private contractors that speaks more of military veterans, business people and former CIA officials, than it does of the actual concerns regarding humanitarian aid. Additionally, Israel’s role is emphasised as actively engaging in the process. According to Israel’s Ambassador to the US, Yechiel Leiter, “Together with the U.S. – mostly the U.S. – we created a company comprised of ex-Green Berets who’ve worked with USAID and distributed humanitarian aid around the world, most recently in Haiti.” A spokesman for GHF stated that the agency is “an independent foundation”, yet the Ha’aretz report states that the GHF would raise funds for the logistics company Safe Reach Solutions, which is tasked with delivering aid in Gaza alongside the private security company UG Solutions.
Obliterating the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) only exacerbated the humanitarian deprivation. At the same time, what did the international community really intend for UNRWA, in the absence of a political solution that would have been based on decolonisation? The humanitarian paradigm was always weak, and for anyone involved in international law violations, that weakness proved a strength for bigger might. Not just for Israel, but also its international accomplices, including the UN.
We have seen starving Palestinians, Palestinians killed while waiting for aid, and the more mainstream and picturesque in a macabre way – photos of Palestinians waiting for their meagre portion of food to be served. This cannot only be attributed to the GHF – as with all other Israeli violations, there are precedents. And the precedent in this case comes from the international humanitarian paradigm that failed Palestinians since its inception. Humanitarian aid is supposed to be temporary, but the international community coerced Palestinians into permanent refugee status and, as a result, permanent recipients of a failed humanitarian plan.
In between UNRWA and private contractors masquerading as humanitarian agencies, humanitarian aid still only serves the designers, not the Palestinian people.
https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20250527-humanitarian-aid-serves-violent-interests/
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Europe’s Rude Awakening On Confronting Israel
Osama Al-Sharif
May 27, 2025
European leaders are undergoing what can only be described as a rude awakening as they wrestle with how to respond to the devastating conflict raging in Gaza and the surge of anti-Israel protests sweeping their nations.
After nearly 19 months of escalating violence, Europe is finally waking up to its collective responsibility — not only as a political union but as individual states and a shared cultural community — to address what has become a deep moral wound in the conscience of humanity.
Israel has long represented a sensitive and vulnerable issue for European nations, shaped not only by the historical trauma of Nazi persecution but also by centuries of European antisemitism and oppression of Jewish communities.
While the UK took on the controversial role of transferring Palestine — the homeland of Palestinians — to the Zionist movement, many other European states failed to challenge this historic and contentious territorial handover.
Here we stand today: Decades after Israel occupied Palestinian territories, displaced millions, created a vast Palestinian diaspora and committed numerous violations against the rightful inhabitants, we now face a conflict that Israeli officials themselves acknowledge could result in millions being killed or expelled from their ancestral homes.
Oct. 7, 2023, marked a watershed moment. Yet Israel’s response to that attack cannot justify the deaths of more than 54,000 people, overwhelmingly civilians. With Israel’s current plans to reoccupy Gaza, tens of thousands more could perish.
European leaders had already shifted from unwavering support for Israel to a more cautious and critical stance regarding its methods and goals. But when Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu imposed a total blockade on humanitarian aid to more than 2 million Palestinians, the dam finally broke. Images of tens of thousands of civilians crowding desperately for scarce food under horrific conditions galvanized millions worldwide into protest.
Europe has long distinguished itself on the global stage as a defender of human rights. Gaza has exposed a glaring vulnerability in that reputation. The EU — Europe’s crowning political achievement, embodying shared values — now finds itself trapped in an almost impossible position.
The EU has chosen to venture into uncharted political territory to uphold its fundamental principles while striving for unified action. Several countries — Spain, Ireland and Norway (though not an EU member) — last year recognized Palestine as a state, bringing the total number of the bloc’s countries acknowledging Palestinian statehood to 10.
More notably, the UK and France now stand on the brink of recognizing Palestine. While this marks significant diplomatic progress, it changes little on the ground. Israel has threatened retaliation against countries that recognize Palestine. Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar warned that if major powers like Britain and France were to formally recognize Palestinian independence, Israel would respond by annexing occupied land in the West Bank. But Israel has already confiscated major portions of the West Bank, with far-right ministers promising continued expansion regardless.
Such Israeli threats were predictable. But Europe can and should go further to reinforce its evolving position. For the first time, European countries are seriously debating sanctions against Israel, including trade restrictions and arms embargoes. Meanwhile, Israel continues to authorize new settlements in the West Bank, repeatedly violating international law.
European nations can pursue three concrete actions: sanction Israel for violating international law in Gaza and the West Bank; recognize Palestinian statehood; and support international investigations into alleged Israeli war crimes and genocide.
Israel will resist all three measures. The most predictable response will be accusations of antisemitism. But such claims today lack credibility. Many Jewish voices have emerged condemning Israel’s actions in Gaza, drawing a clear distinction between historical Jewish suffering and current Israeli policies. Beyond this, the EU as a collective body holds significant leverage to compel changes in Israeli policy. However, the EU must act in unity. Currently, fewer than half of its members recognize Palestinian statehood.
Europe pioneered the recognition of Palestinian rights in the 1980s with the Venice Declaration. Since then, however, the EU has largely deferred to US leadership in the peace process, culminating in the Oslo Accords. Subsequently, the EU has provided billions in aid to the Palestinian Authority but has failed to prevent Israeli violations of those accords or the destruction of EU-funded Palestinian projects.
For the EU and European states to effectively confront Israel today, they must break free from US political dominance. The EU can still champion international bodies that uphold international law. While the US retreats from these legal foundations, the EU can emerge as a defender of the world order, advocating human rights and rules-based governance.
Europe’s rude awakening may not immediately alter the trajectory of violence in Gaza. But it will make a difference. Israel cannot survive as a nation while ignoring international condemnation and the threat of sanctions for its actions. If it seeks to exist as a normal state, it must end its Gaza campaign and recognize Palestinians as equals.
https://www.arabnews.com/node/2602351
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My Son Was Killed In My Arms, My Husband Beside Me – A Gaza Mother’s Testimony
May 27, 2025
My name is Asil Mahmoud Hamad, and I am from Gaza. I had a family of four: myself, my husband, Ahmed Abu Watfa, and our two children—Zakariya, who was 6 years old, and Yahya, who is 4.
We were living a peaceful, beautiful life, but suddenly, war forced us out of our home into an area designated as a humanitarian zone. We took only a bottle of water and a loaf of bread, thinking the situation would last no more than a week. Now, a year later, we are still living in a tent on the street—and it has cost us everything we had.
Our first shock came when we learned that our home had been destroyed. We were constantly facing death, moving from one place to another under heavy bombardment, always fearing for our lives while struggling to find food and water.
On January 21, 2024, around 10 PM, while we were displaced in Mawasi Khan Younis near Al-Khair Hospital, the bombing suddenly intensified, and buildings around us collapsed. My children were sleeping, but they woke up terrified from the blasts. We carried them and rushed to Al-Khair Hospital, believing it would be safer. But unexpectedly, Israeli occupation forces raided the hospital after shelling its gate, and they began shooting indiscriminately.
My sons, Zakariya and Yahya, clung to me tightly, trembling with fear. As I held Zakariya in my arms, a bullet struck his leg—and then another hit his stomach. He breathed his last breath in my arms. He raised his hand, closed his eyes, and passed away.
My blood froze as I held the lifeless body of my son. It felt as though the world had stopped spinning. I couldn’t believe he was gone.
I screamed for my husband, calling, “Zakariya, Zakariya, Ahmed!” but there was no response. I turned and saw my husband, who had been right beside me, lying dead—shot in the head.
In the shock of the moment, I didn’t even realize that I had been wounded in both my legs, and that shrapnel had struck my head. I was paralyzed, holding the body of Zakariya, while my husband lay dead beside me. Blood was dripping from my wounds, and I could see the terror in Yahya’s eyes. What had he done to witness such horror—his father and brother dying in front of him, and his mother bleeding?
Losing them was a massive shock. To this day, I see their deaths replaying before my eyes, in every corner of my mind.
The Israeli forces arrested all the men and forced us, the women, to leave around 1 AM. We were ordered to walk toward Rafah. I carried Zakariya’s body in one arm and held Yahya’s hand with the other. As I left the hospital, I looked back at my husband’s body. My heart shattered as I left him behind.
My legs were bleeding. I was carrying my dead son in one arm, dragging my living son with the other. I could barely carry myself. My steps were heavy. Yahya kept asking, “Why didn’t Dad come with us?” How could I tell him that his father was gone? How could I explain death to a 4-year-old?
We walked through the dark night, amid the bombing and destruction, for hours. I wished for death—but I couldn’t leave Yahya alone. We kept walking until morning, but there were no cars, no one to help us reach a hospital or bury my son. The streets were deserted, filled only with the sounds of gunfire and explosions in the distance.
Around 8 AM, I found a relative who helped take us to a hospital and assisted in burying Zakariya. But my husband—until today—I haven’t been able to say goodbye, or bury him.
A year later, when the ceasefire began, all I could think about was my husband’s body. I thought it would still be in the same place I left it, even after all this time. On the first morning of the ceasefire—on January 19, 2025—I rushed to the site where I had last seen Ahmed.
My heart was racing, haunted by memories of that night. Destruction was everywhere. Every street was in ruins. Not a single house was intact—only rubble, burned shells, and devastation. The sight was unbearable. I kept thinking: How will we live? How can life return? How will Gaza ever be the same?
After hours of walking, I reached the place where I had lived through the hardest moments of my life. But Ahmed was not there. I searched everywhere for a trace—a piece of clothing, a ring, anything to tell me he had still been there.
Ahmed, my husband, my love—I can’t believe you’re not here. I just wanted to bury you beside Zakariya, so you could be together. Yahya and I miss you so much. Yahya keeps asking about you and Zakariya. He says, “Why didn’t you come with us that night?”
How do I answer him? How do I tell him I couldn’t carry you with me? How do I tell him you’re never coming back?
https://www.palestinechronicle.com/my-son-was-killed-in-my-arms-my-husband-beside-me-a-gaza-mothers-testimony/
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Israel Facing Dangerous Shift In Relations With Egypt
By Brigadier General Yitzhak Brik
May 27, 2025
Israeli officials are concerned that Egypt is pulling away from its peace agreement with Israel and aligning with countries hostile to Jerusalem.
As per the peace treaty, Egypt can have one mechanized division and a tank brigade in the Sinai Peninsula, totaling 47 battalions and 300 tanks.
However, Egypt now has approximately 180 battalions in Sinai — nearly four times the treaty’s limit. Meanwhile, the IDF has gotten rid of six combat divisions, thousands of tanks, half of its artillery brigades, numerous infantry and engineering units, intelligence-gathering battalions, and thousands of career soldiers.
In addition, the shortening of mandatory service for men has significantly reduced the number of active-duty combat troops.
As a result, the IDF is no longer capable of deploying sufficient forces to the Egyptian border in times of routine or emergency.
Troops are also deployed far beyond the 60-kilometer limit from the Suez Canal agreed upon in the treaty, with large forces stationed deep in Sinai, including El-Arish and areas near Rafah.
Additionally, satellite images and Egyptian propaganda videos suggest that Cairo could be preparing chemical and biological weapons for use against Israel.
Many had hoped that with IDF Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir's recent appointment, the military would rethink its strategy so that Israel could confidently defend all its borders — from Syria and Turkey in the north, Hezbollah in Lebanon, Iranian-backed terror along the Jordanian border, Egypt and Gaza in the South, and the West Bank.
Egypt's army has also grown by nearly 30%, defense sources estimate.
Relations between Jerusalem and Cairo had deteriorated as a result of the Gaza war after Hamas's October 7 attacks. Egypt recently declined to appoint an ambassador to Israel. In response, Israel has suspended plans to send its own ambassador to Cairo.
Is Cairo distancing itself from Camp David?
While Egypt has not formally renounced the Camp David Accords, Cairo is effectively distancing itself from the treaty.
The IDF is woefully unprepared to confront that possibility should Cairo pivot to open hostilities.
A major part of the threat lies in Israel’s poor intelligence coverage of developments in Egypt, with most of Israel’s top intelligence officers focused elsewhere, leaving Egypt and Sinai largely unmonitored.
There must be an immediate appointment of a dedicated intelligence officer to the Chief of Staff—a permanent IDF intelligence liaison who can maintain daily contact and provide critical, real-time updates on enemy forces and threats, as then-IDF Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi's leadership has focused narrowly on Hamas.
Failure to recognize and respond to Egypt’s military trajectory puts all Israelis at risk.
https://www.jpost.com/opinion/article-855561
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