When a fragile truce was declared a few days ago, a brief wave of hope washed over Gaza. Families thought they might finally rebuild their shattered homes, search for missing relatives, and sleep without the thunder of jets. However, within days, Israeli warplanes were once again striking the besieged strip. The so-called ceasefire, brokered with international backing, proved to be another chapter in a series of broken promises and shattered faith.

Israel claimed its latest strikes were a “response” to alleged violations by Hamas. Yet, on the ground, the victims were overwhelmingly civilians. Gaza’s health authorities confirmed more than a hundred people killed in the first hours of renewed bombardment. Most of them are women and children. Hospitals, already operating on the brink of collapse, struggled to treat the flood of casualties amid power shortages and dwindling medical supplies.

The truce, meant to bring calm, instead became a cruel illusion. The hum of drones returned, the fear crept back, and families once again fled for survival through rubble-strewn streets. International media outlets described scenes of panic as people searched for shelter, knowing there was none.

Bombardment Under a Banner of Peace

Each new airstrike tears away the thin veil of diplomacy that labels this as a truce. Residential blocks in Khan Younis and Gaza City were flattened, as eyewitnesses described entire families buried under rubble. Aid convoys waiting at Rafah were delayed yet again, leaving tens of thousands of displaced families without food or shelter. Even temporary medical camps reported running out of anesthesia and blood supplies as wounded civilians poured in.

For many Gazans, this ceasefire was never about peace. It was a pause for breath, which means the one that Israel chose to weaponize. As one humanitarian worker told, “Every time they say peace, we prepare for more funerals.” The despair among civilians is palpable, as they question whether the world even listens anymore.

This renewed round of bombings underlines a haunting reality that every so-called truce has become another opportunity for Israel to reposition militarily while Gaza’s people pay with their lives.

Truce Without Trust: The Myth of Protection

The fragility of the ceasefire exposes an uncomfortable truth that there is no enforcement mechanism strong enough to hold Israel accountable. Western governments condemned the bombing with soft statements but continued supplying military aid. The United States, which once called for restraint, quietly approved another arms shipment days before the strikes resumed.

This moral contradiction fuels Gaza’s anguish. Washington preaches human rights yet funds the very machinery that violates them. The European Union speaks of international law but rarely acts when those laws are broken. For ordinary Palestinians, the message is clear that their lives are negotiable, their suffering expendable in geopolitical bargains.

Human rights analysts argue that without credible monitoring, ceasefires will remain political performances rather than pathways to peace. As one UN official said, “If a truce allows bombing to continue, it is not a truce but just a theater.”

The Humanitarian Fallout: Life Amid Rubble

The humanitarian picture is grim. The United Nations estimates over 1.7 million Gazans are internally displaced, living in makeshift tents, classrooms, or under broken walls. Clean water remains scarce, fuel is nearly exhausted, and disease spreads faster than aid. Children draw pictures of bombs instead of butterflies while mothers ration bread to feed hungry infants.

Entire neighborhoods lie in ruins while their residents wait for food deliveries that rarely arrive. The World Food Programme reports that over 90% of Gaza’s population faces acute food insecurity. Hospitals are short on insulin, cancer medicine, and even basic painkillers. In some areas, people boil seawater to drink. Aid agencies have warned that if the siege continues, famine could arrive before winter.

Yet trucks full of aid remain parked just across the border, which is a cruel reminder of political paralysis and global indifference.

Legal and Moral Accountability

Under international law, targeting civilians during a ceasefire violates the Geneva Conventions. Still, Israel acts with impunity, shielded by its Western allies. Human rights groups have repeatedly called for independent investigations, but efforts stall at the UN due to American vetoes. The International Criminal Court’s pending case on alleged war crimes in Gaza remains stalled by diplomatic pressure.

For the people of Gaza, these violations are not abstract. They are lived experiences with the sound of collapsing roofs, the dust in the lungs, the endless funerals of neighbors and friends. Each airstrike deepens a collective trauma that future generations will inherit.

International experts now warn that without accountability, the world risks normalizing war crimes. As Amnesty International stated, “A ceasefire without justice is a countdown to the next tragedy.”

What Lies Ahead

As diplomats gather to discuss the next phase of Gaza’s future, the ground reality remains unchanged. The truce is more fragile than ever, and the people it was meant to protect are once again paying the price. Unless the international community enforces accountability and demands a genuine end to hostilities, this cycle will repeat.

A ceasefire should mean safety, not survival between strikes. For Gaza’s people, peace cannot come from pauses in bombing, but it must come from the world’s moral awakening to their right to live, rebuild, and breathe free. The global community must decide whether it stands for human life or for silence in the face of genocide.

Bread should never be a battlefield, yet in Gaza, parents count the hours between air raids and the next bite, trading sleep for a place in a bread line. This is not misfortune but an outcome of the ongoing genocide. Famine has been confirmed in Gaza after months of siege and bombardment. Moreover, the pattern of atrocities by Israel is tragically quite clear: cut the crossings, choke the fuel, bomb the roads, and the entire food system.

Famine in Gaza

On 22 August 2025, the IPC Famine Review Committee confirmed Famine (IPC Phase 5) in Gaza, warning that conditions could spread south without a sustained surge in aid and safety. The famine is not a metaphor but a technical threshold that means households cannot access enough calories or care to survive without immediate, large-scale relief.

Starvation in a place rarely makes a headline, but it is clearly shown in logistics spreadsheets and cratered roads. It can also be felt in the silence of dead ovens and empty tanks.

As per the UN agencies’ estimate, around five hundred to six hundred trucks per day are the minimum to cover basic needs. However, many days in many areas of Gaza fall far short, as a trickle cannot feed two million people. Moreover, there is an increasing fuel scarcity that is killing the cold chain. With electricity unreliable and fuel scarce, bakeries stop, fridges fail, and water systems sputter. In modern times, the families living in besieged Gaza burn scrap wood to boil lentils.

The movement has also been made quite dangerous as roads are continuously bombarded. Moreover, checkpoints and shelling make a bag of flour a life-or-death decision. Food trucks cannot reliably reach warehouses, and people cannot safely reach distribution points.

Food systems are completely dismantled by Israel as fields and greenhouses are destroyed completely or made inaccessible. Fishing is also crippled, and markets and warehouses are devastated or empty. Even when aid enters, the last-mile network is broken.

The Reality of the Human Toll

Hunger creeps, then crashes. UNICEF’s August screenings found roughly 1 out of 5 children in Gaza City acutely malnourished. This pace is increasing day by day. Children are starving, and they fail to gain adequate weight. Moreover, breastfeeding falters when mothers are undernourished, too. In these conditions, water-borne diseases spread faster in bodies that are already depleted.

Mothers stretch tea and bread into a “meal,” or simply skip eating altogether, so toddlers can share a biscuit. Children, on the other hand, stand in bread lines, and schools that became shelters have no kitchens or fuel. Diabetics and dialysis patients, who need predictable food and water, see their survival routines collapse greatly.

Every siege writes a cruel equation, such as calories in versus calories needed. In Gaza, the inputs have been deliberately depressed. Rations that do arrive are often calorie-inadequate for a displaced population; staples that require long boiling are useless without fuel and clean water. High-energy biscuits keep people alive for days, not months.

International Law and the Line That Was Crossed

International humanitarian law prohibits the starvation of civilians as a method of warfare and requires the rapid, unimpeded passage of humanitarian relief. Human Rights Watch has documented how policies that block water, food, fuel, and safe access amount to using starvation as a weapon, a war crime. Whether by design or through reckless disregard for known consequences, the effect is the same: families are deprived of what they need to live.

What Relief Looks Like in Practice

Ending a heinous famine like this one is not a photo-op at a crossing. Completely ending it is about volume, tempo, and safety. Firstly, you should scale the pipeline to a figure of around five hundred to six hundred trucks per day minimum. Fuel should be reconsidered as a humanitarian commodity, including water and health facilities. For example, prices for cooking gas spiked by 4000% in early 2025 compared to pre-war levels. Therefore, families cannot cook even when they get food.

The mass starvation that is fueled by Israeli atrocities is a clear example of human rights violations. Now, the world must act with a renewed spirit before it is too late. Firstly, a permanent ceasefire is the need of the hour. Protection of civilians is also an important step to be taken.

Then, the perpetrators should face the international criminal organizations, as there are numerous cases to be faced, including one on genocide. Unconditional humanitarian access should be on the agenda. UN Resolutions should be followed in true letter and spirit. Moreover, there must be legal accountability as well as sustained funding to make the people of Gaza breathe again.

Bottom Line

Gaza’s hunger crisis is not a side story but actually “the story.” As long as aid is throttled, fuel is scarce, and farms, bakeries, and boats are broke, famine will spread quickly. The metrics may shift week to week, but the moral calculus doesn’t. Bread should not be contraband. Ending the siege on food, in policy and practice, is the minimum standard of humanity!

Sudan Crisis – The northeastern African nation is on the brink of collapsing as high fighting continues between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF). 

The ongoing collision has affected more than 1 billion people, killed hundreds, and turned Khartoum’s capital into a war zone. The civilians are migrating to the neighboring countries of Chad, Libya, Ethiopia, and Egypt to shelter and protect their lives. 

Under solidarity, the Sudanese Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Forces agreed to allow civilians to leave the war zone. Moreover, they also agreed to allow humanitarian aid to enter and process the relief operations for the injured.  

But what led Sudan to the catastrophic war today? Here’s an explainer:

What made Sudan’s Capitol a War Zone? 

Sudanese people have struggled to establish a democracy after decades under the one-person rule.

Omar al Bashir came into power in the late 1980s after a brutal military coup. He became the country’s president, ruled for 30 years before the populace erupted, and sought his resignation.

Omar al Bashir resigned after the former military coup, and the Sudanese Army took over Sudan. But people didn’t want them to rule or be in charge of Sudan either. So after immense pressure from the protestors, activists, and demonstrators, the Army agreed to share powers. 

The Army led by Abdel Fattah AL-Burhan agreed to share powers with different political groups in the transitional government. It was intended to oversee the shift to a democratic system. However, the people of Sudan’s’ fortune have some time else in their destiny. After two years, the Army removed the new prime minister and seized power again. 

With the Army in power, the people of Sudan seemed trapped and in limbo. With no clear path or trajectory to rule the country, the armed force and political group representatives have been in ongoing talks to make the transition happen again. However, the transition process held up due to underlying revelry between the Army and the Rapid Support Force that became the Second Army. 

Also Read: Threat To Famine In South Sudan

The Friends that Become Enemies 

The effective leader of the country AL-Burhan, and the leader of RSF, General Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo, aka Hemedti, were friends initially. For years both were on the same stage and joined hands after the war in Darfur (2003 civil war). Hemedti led a militia at the time known as Janjaweed; they were used by Al-bushir’s (the former president of Sudan) Army. 

The Janjaweed help the Al-bushier army fight rebels in the Darfur region and protect the upper echelon of the Army and senior commanders. However, they were accused of war crimes in Darfur, and AL-Bashir was charged with committing genocide in 2013. Hence, in 2013 Hemedti led the militia to rebrand themselves as the Rapid Support Forces and worked with the Army on different missions.  

Moreover, al-Burhan and Hemedti joined hands and planned to overthrow Omar al-Bashir, the country’s longtime leader, in 2019. 

Besides, they planned a revolution in October 2021, upending the tenuous transition to civilian administration that had been initiated.

Gen Dagalo has said, in a series of tweets, that Gen Burhan’s government were “radical Islamists” and that he and the RSF were “fighting for the people of Sudan to ensure the democratic progress for which they have so long yearned.”

Though the friendship does not last for long, and Gen Dagalo, aka Hemedti, force becomes more powerful. During the pro-democracy protest against Al-Bashir, the RSF force and Army were accused of killing hundreds of people. 

In the tweets, Hemedti stated: “The international community must take action now and intervene against the crimes of Sudanese General Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan, a radical Islamist who is bombing civilians from the air. His Army is waging a brutal campaign against innocent people, bombing them with MiGs.”

Also Read: The Egyptian Army in Sudan… What are the Reasons?

The War of Power in the Sudan Crisis

Since the killing during the pro-democracy protest, the Hemedti force has acted more independently and grown powerfully. Hemedti forces were able to establish vast investments in the resources within the country and outside, too, especially in gold trading. 

So that brings us to the current Sudan crisis with the realization of the rapid growth of Hemedti force supremacies over Sudan. And expressive political ambition of Hemedti, Gen Al-Burhan led the Army and proposed integrating the Hemedti force into Sudan’s Army. 

However, both heads were unable to agree on the timeline. The Army initially proposed two years of integration, while RSF wanted ten years. 

It is unclear who started the fight, but on April 15, both sides began swapping accusations that they had attacked each other’s bases in Khartoum. 

Slowly, they control the presidential palace, the airport, and the state TV channel. The RSF has no aircraft but a heavy army force with 10,000 men and anti-aircraft weapons. The Army has air power. They have been hitting the RSF residential areas bases in the capitol. 

Both forces are fighting brutally and keep damaging the country’s resources alongside the life of millions of people. There have been plenty of calls to stop the war and take the talk to the table from Sudan’s neighbors. Additionally, despite the efforts of the African Union, the UN, the US, the UK, and the EU, there is no sign of backing up from either side. 

The South Sudanese foreign minister was forced to mediate the war and reach a ceasefire agreement, but violations continued unabated. The two sides say they agreed to hold the talk, but they have repeatedly heard from the Army that conditions are set for these talks. 

However, mass migration is escalating in Sudan with the acceleration in the humanitarian situation. The situation is already out of control; it’s now for big cats to intervene. The UN should take strict action and protect the rights of the people of Sudan. 

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