According to the Gaza Health Ministry, more than 70 percent of Gaza’s hospitals are now non-functional.
For the Palestinians in the besieged coastal enclave of the Gaza Strip, where Israeli bombs fall more frequently than aid, a bitter sentiment echoes in alleyways and overcrowded shelters: the world sees them only when they try to fight back.
Since October 2023, as Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza intensified into one of the deadliest and most prolonged assaults in recent history, the gap between global outrage and selective silence has noticeably grown, especially after as Israel launched a war on Iran.
While Iranian retaliations on Israeli targets elicit swift condemnation, Israel’s months-long destruction of Gaza’s civilian infrastructure, its hospitals, schools, and refugee shelters, barely registers beyond mild expressions of “concern.”
Speaking to The New Arab, Palestinians in Gaza said they feel the world is “treating us as a security problem, not as human beings.”
“When we are bombed, we are told to de-escalate. When we resist, we are labelled terrorists. Meanwhile, Israel is given the privilege to kill and call it self-defence,” Ahmed Sobaih, a Gaza-based Palestinian man, remarked to TNA.
Ten months ago, the Israeli army attacked Sobaih’s house located in Tel al-Hawa neighbourhood in Gaza City and killed five of his siblings.
“My siblings were among tens of thousands who were killed by the army, and my house is among dozens of houses that Israel destroyed. But none of the international community cared about us. Israel is above the whole world,” he said.
Victim, aggressor
From Beit Hanoun town in the north to Rafah in the south, Palestinians believe they are not only enduring an unrelenting war, but also an international narrative that holds the victim responsible for the violence.
This dynamic is not unique to Gaza. When Iran launched missiles at Israel as retaliation for an Israeli airstrike ten days ago, Western governments lined up to demand restraint from Tehran.
“Whether we agree or not with Iran’s politics, it was attacked first, but when it responded, the world suddenly demanded calm just like they do with us. Gaza is bombed, civilians die, and it’s the Palestinians who are told to de-escalate,” Firas al-Daya, a Gaza-based man, told TNA.
The double standard became especially evident earlier this month when Iran claimed it had targeted Israeli military infrastructure housed in Soroka Hospital in Beersheba.
Within hours, Western capitals condemned the Iranian strike in near-unison. The European Union labelled it a “flagrant violation of international humanitarian law,” and the US called it a “potential war crime.”
But in Gaza, hospitals have been bombed systematically for 19 months.
Al-Shifa Medical Complex, the Baptist Hospital, Nasser Hospital, and the Indonesian Hospital have all been hit by Israeli airstrikes or raids. Hundreds of patients, doctors, children in incubators, and displaced families were killed in these attacks. No military targets were independently verified. No urgent condemnations followed.
“When the Baptist Hospital was hit, people were digging their children out of the rubble all night,” Najlaa al-Masri, a local nurse at the hospital, told TNA.
“Not once did we hear the word ‘crime’ from the international community. But when Soroka was hit, suddenly the world woke up,” the 45-year-old mother of four lamented.
According to the Gaza Health Ministry, more than 70 percent of Gaza’s hospitals are now non-functional. Most are destroyed; others have no fuel or medicine. Appeals from the World Health Organisation have mainly gone unanswered.
Up to now, no UN resolution has been passed to protect Gaza’s medical infrastructure. No sanctions, no special tribunals. Just silence.
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War crimes, redefined
“The world treats us as if we are not worthy of protection. If these hospitals were in Israel, there would be emergency summits and war crime investigations. For Gaza, there’s only indifference,” Mohammed al-Attar, a Palestinian man in Beit Lahia, told TNA.
It is not just governments that Palestinians accuse of selective outrage. Western media outlets and major human rights organisations also stand accused of distorting the narrative.
“When an Israeli civilian is killed, we learn their name, their occupation and their story. When a Palestinian family is wiped out in an airstrike, it’s five dead, ten injured, no names, no stories. Our humanity is erased in the reporting itself,” Esmat Mansour, a Ramallah-based political expert, remarked to TNA.
“In Israel, hospitals are sacred, neutral, symbolic of life. In Gaza, they’re constantly framed as suspect sites possibly used by militants. This framing allows the world to accept their destruction as unfortunate, but somehow justified,” he said.
“Even if we entertain Israel’s narrative that militants operate from within hospitals, a claim rarely backed by independent evidence, it does not justify bombing a medical facility full of patients. International law is clear: verification, warning, and safe evacuation are mandatory. What we saw in Gaza was none of that. It was annihilation disguised as necessity,” he added.
Mansour believes that the issue is political, not legal. “Israel is a key Western ally and therefore benefits from a shield of immunity. Iran, on the other hand, is seen as a threat to the international order, so its actions, regardless of context, are immediately vilified,” he said.
“When Soroka was struck, condemnation came in hours. When Shifa was destroyed, with full video documentation and survivor testimonies, we heard only vague appeals for investigation. No accountability. No urgency,” he said.
This contrast, Mansour warns, not only erodes faith in international law but undermines the very concept of justice: “How do you convince a generation of Palestinians that there is such a thing as human rights, when the law seems to only apply to those who are politically convenient?” he questioned.
