Every September 11, families gather at the World Trade Center, the Pentagon, and a field near Shanksville to remember 2,977 innocent souls. Their names deserve to be read. Their relatives deserve sympathy, and the crime that took their lives must never be excused.

But remembrance becomes incomplete when it ends there. The United States answered the attack with a military campaign that crossed borders and outlived presidents. Though Muslims were not responsible for 9/11, their families abroad and at home have carried the heaviest consequences of the response for twenty-five years.

One Attack Became Permission for Endless War

The invasion of Afghanistan began less than a month after 9/11. What was presented as a mission against terrorist groups soon became a wider project of occupation and political reconstruction.

The government of Iraq did not carry out the September 11 attacks. Even the 9/11 Commission found no evidence of a collaborative operational relationship between Iraq and terrorist groups. Even so, fear helped the then US administration sell an invasion built around weapons of mass destruction that were never found.

Eventually, the “War on Terror” reached Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia, Syria, Libya and the Philippines through airstrikes, raids and proxy forces. It had no fixed battlefield or clear definition of victory. That made it convenient to expand and almost impossible to end.

The Dead Are Counted in Millions

Brown University’s Costs of War project estimates that post-9/11 wars caused at least 4.5 to 4.7 million deaths. Only part of that total came directly from bombs, bullets, and battlefield violence.

Researchers estimate that 3.6 to 3.8 million people died indirectly. War destroyed hospitals, water systems, farms, and local economies. Children died from malnutrition, patients lost treatment, while families faced disease after sanitation systems collapsed.

Although these figures include people of different faiths, the principal battlegrounds were Muslim-majority countries. Therefore, Muslims bore a vastly disproportionate share of the devastation.

Thirty-Eight Million Muslims Were Driven From Home

An estimated 38 million people were displaced by post-9/11 wars in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, Syria, Libya, Yemen, Somalia and the Philippines.

Some crossed borders and became refugees. Others moved repeatedly as front lines changed. Resultantly, children grew up in camps, and families lost their homes, farmland and livelihoods.

Additionally, Western governments later treated this displacement as a separate migration problem. Many refugees arriving at foreign borders were escaping wars, armed groups, and institutional collapse created or intensified by military intervention.

The Same Language Is Being Used in Gaza

The War on Terror never truly disappeared. Its language now helps Israel defend its genocide in Gaza.

As a result of a Carte blanche to Israel, Palestinians are reduced to “human shields,” homes become “terrorist infrastructure,” and children killed in airstrikes become “collateral damage.” Such terms make civilian deaths appear unavoidable before independent investigators can establish what happened.

Unfortunately, Washington supplies the required backing behind that language. From October 2023 to September 2025, the United States spent $21.7 billion on military assistance to Israel. Moreover, it spent another $9.65 to $12.07 billion on related operations across the wider Middle East.

Though the weapons and leaders have changed since 2001, the permission remains familiar: declare an unlimited fight against terrorism, remove civilians from the centre of the story, and dismiss accountability as support for the enemy.

Muslim Life in the World Came Under Suspicion

The War on Terror also created an internal enemy. Religious practice, immigration history, and political speech became reasons to watch Muslims who had committed no crime.

Under the National Security Entry-Exit Registration System, more than 80,000 men from predominantly Muslim countries had to register with immigration authorities in the United States. Unfortunately, more than 13,000 faced deportation proceedings after complying. The programme produced no terrorism-related convictions.

Moreover, the New York Police Department mapped Muslim neighbourhoods, monitored student groups and sent informants into mosques. Its surveillance reached every mosque within 100 miles of New York. Worshippers began wondering whether newcomers had come to pray or record them.

That suspicion has not disappeared. CAIR received 8,683 civil-rights complaints in 2025 alone, its highest annual number since recording began in 1996. These were complaints rather than court-proven hate crimes, but their scale remains significant.

A 2026 Pew Research Center study found that 59 percent of American Muslims believe Muslims face extensive discrimination. The same percentage said television and films portray them unfairly. Only 34 percent recalled receiving support because of their religion during the previous year.

In a nutshell, remembering September 11 should mean refusing to repeat its horror: the deliberate destruction of innocent life. Those innocent souls killed that day were not a license to invade unrelated countries, torture prisoners, surveil mosques, or punish Muslim families across generations. Twenty-five years later, the War on Terror must be judged not by the fear that launched it, but by the millions of lives it took apart.

For centuries, worshippers entered Gaza’s Great Omari Mosque through a building carrying many eras of the city’s history. However, in December 2023, an Israeli strike left much of it in ruins. Consequently, Palestinians returned to pray beside its broken walls and recover whatever could be saved.

In fact, Israel’s genocide in Gaza has killed innocent families and shattered the places where Palestinian life was recorded. On the other hand, in the occupied West Bank, the assault on history takes another form. At Sebastia, archaeology is being used to seize land and separate Palestinians from their own heritage.

Israel Has Damaged Centuries of Gaza’s History

As of March 24, 2026, UNESCO had verified damage to 164 cultural sites in Gaza. They included religious sites, historic or artistic buildings, repositories, monuments, museums and archaeological sites.

This is a confirmed minimum based largely on satellite images and limited inspections. It does not cover every damaged mosque, family archive or traditional home.

Gaza’s historic centre held evidence of more than 5,000 years of urban life. The city linked Egypt, the Levant and the Mediterranean long before Israel tried to reduce it to rubble.

The Great Omari Mosque Held Many Eras in Its Walls

The Great Omari Mosque was Gaza City’s principal congregational mosque. An ancient sanctuary at the site was followed by a Byzantine church. It later became a mosque and was enlarged under Mamluk and Ottoman rule.

Palestinians prayed, studied, and gathered there daily. Its architecture showed how Gaza preserved its past while giving the site new meaning.

Israel accepted that it struck the mosque deliberately. Palestinians involved in recovery work also expressed deep sorrow over this heinous act. The result is undeniable – a centre of worship, scholarship and memory was blasted apart.

The Loss Extends Beyond Gaza’s Mosques

UNESCO’s list also includes the Saint Porphyrius Orthodox Church complex, Pasha Palace Museum, Al-Qaysariyya Market, Rashad al-Shawa Cultural Centre and Hamam al-Sammara.

The church served Gaza’s ancient Christian community. The market carried its commercial history, while Pasha Palace preserved archaeological collections.

Anthedon Harbour recalled Gaza’s ancient Mediterranean trade. Saint Hilarion Monastery reflected the importance of early Christianity in Palestine and was entered on UNESCO’s World Heritage in Danger list in 2024.

These were places where Palestinians worshipped, worked, learned and understood their relationship with the land.

Palestinians Are Saving What They Can

Palestinian architects, archaeologists and volunteers are searching unstable ruins with few tools. At the Great Omari Mosque, teams have cleared debris and recovered architectural pieces and surviving manuscripts.

In 2025, aid workers moved thousands of archaeological objects from a threatened Gaza City warehouse shortly before Israel destroyed the building. The collection came from more than 25 years of excavations. Saving it protected evidence of Palestine’s deep history.

Sebastia Tells a History Israel Cannot Own

Northwest of Nablus, Sebastia contains more than three millennia of history. Its remains span Israelite, Assyrian, Hellenistic, Roman, Byzantine, Islamic, Crusader and Ottoman periods.

The site is sacred to Muslims and Christians because it is traditionally associated with Prophet Yahya (PBUH), known in Christianity as John the Baptist. A Crusader cathedral was later converted into Nabi Yahya Mosque.

Moreover, Sebastia is also a living Palestinian community. Homes, olive terraces, restaurants and businesses surround the ruins. Local families have conserved buildings and earned income from visitors. Yet the Oslo arrangements placed the town in Area B and much of the archaeological mound in Area C under full Israeli control.

Israel Is Turning Archaeology Into Illegal Annexation

Israel increasingly presents Sebastia through a narrow biblical narrative while weakening its connection to the Palestinian town. In 2023, the Israeli government allocated 32 million shekels to develop what it calls the Shomron National Park.

A later expropriation plan covered about 1,800 dunams, or 445 acres. It includes privately owned Palestinian land, olive groves, homes and businesses belonging to residents of Sebastia and nearby Burqa. Proposed roads and fencing could direct visitors to an Israeli-managed attraction while bypassing the Palestinian community.

In 2025, Israeli authorities issued 60 archaeological-site declarations across the northern West Bank, including 30 new locations. In May 2026, an unfortunate legislation intended to transfer West Bank antiquities to an Israeli civilian authority passed its first Knesset reading.

Additionally, a UN commission found that turning occupied archaeological sites into Israeli tourist attractions constituted unlawful misappropriation. It described the proposed transfer as an act of illegal annexation.

Recognising ancient Jewish history is not the problem. The injustice lies in selecting one historical layer, claiming ownership through it, and excluding Palestinians living beside the site.

In a nutshell, Gaza and Sebastia reveal two parts of the same struggle. One policy destroys the physical record, while the other controls how the surviving record is presented.

Palestine’s heritage belongs to the people who preserved it and built their lives around it. Israel may damage the stones or fence them away, but it cannot turn Palestinian history into Israeli property.

In the occupied West Bank, hunger often begins before a family even reaches the kitchen. A worker is turned back at a genocidal checkpoint. An olive farmer is blocked from his grove, and an employee receives only part of a salary. In this scenario, food may remain visible in shops, but the money needed to buy it has disappeared.

Specifically, the World Food Programme estimates that 900,000 Palestinians in the West Bank are food insecure—more than one-quarter of the population. Food needs have more than doubled since 2023. In fact, Israeli restrictions, land seizures, and settler violence are destroying livelihoods, while funding cuts are removing vital assistance.

Food Exists, but Families Cannot Afford It

Food insecurity means people cannot reliably obtain enough safe and nutritious food. It does not mean that the West Bank is in famine or every market is empty. Here, hunger is driven largely by lost income and restricted access.

WFP found that 76 percent of households had suffered a significant fall in income. Twelve percent had poor food consumption, while one-third of families could not afford a nutritious diet.

Many now choose cheaper food, reduce portions, and skip meals. Others borrow money, delay bills or sell useful possessions. Ultimately, full shelves mean little when customers have lost their work and savings.

A Heinous Checkpoint Can Empty a Kitchen

Israel’s illegal movement system divides the West Bank into disconnected areas. By the end of 2025, OCHA had documented 925 checkpoints, road gates, earth mounds and other obstacles restricting 3.4 million Palestinians—the highest recorded level in two decades.

These barriers stop workers from reaching jobs and delay traders carrying food. Longer routes raise transport costs, while sudden closures can leave fresh produce spoiling.

At least one-fifth of the obstacles restrict access to agricultural land. Ninety-eight Palestinian communities need Israeli military coordination to enter farmland near settlements. Access may be granted only briefly, even when crops and animals require daily care.

Settler Violence Is Taking Away the Harvest

Palestinian farmers face more than gates and permits. Settler attacks increasingly target olive trees, livestock, irrigation systems, water tanks, fodder and agricultural equipment.

By early July, OCHA had recorded more than 1,200 settler attacks during 2026 that caused casualties or property damage—about six attacks each day. Israeli forces are destroying life in the West Bank too.

In August, farmers in Halhul said settlement outposts and Israeli restrictions had limited access to about 14,000 of the 37,000 dunams they own. Much of it is productive farmland. In Deir Sharaf, more than 200 olive trees were found vandalised after Israeli settlers threatened their owners.

Israel Controls Palestinian Incomes Too

Unemployment in the West Bank reached about 30 percent in early 2026, more than twice the pre-crisis level. Poverty rose from 12 percent before October 2023 to 28 percent. More than 60 percent of surveyed households could not meet their monthly expenses.

Israel severely restricted Palestinian access to employment after beginning its genocide in Gaza. Before October 2023, more than 177,000 West Bank Palestinians worked in Israel or Israeli settlements. By late 2025, only about 52,000 did.

Israel also collects Palestinian taxes and import duties. These are Palestinian revenues, not Israeli aid. Their transfer has been suspended since May 2025, forcing the Palestinian Authority to pay partial salaries and reduce social support.

The occupation therefore restricts employment, trade, public wages, and farming that could provide alternative income.

Displacement Pushes Families Further Into Hunger

By early July, Israeli settler attacks and demolitions had displaced more than 3,200 Palestinians in the West Bank during 2026—an average of 17 people each day.

A displaced farming family may lose land, livestock, stored food, tools, and access to water. Money once used for meals must cover rent, transport and replacement belongings. Dependence on relatives and humanitarian organizations eventually grows.

Aid Is Shrinking as Hunger Grows

WFP had been assisting 400,000 vulnerable people through food, cash, vouchers and livelihood programmes. Beginning in September, funding shortages are forcing it to reduce that number to only 200,000.

In fact, needs have doubled, yet the response is being halved. WFP requires another $386 million over six months to assist around two million food-insecure Palestinians across Gaza and the West Bank.

The contrast is stark. The United States remains committed to providing Israel with $3.8 billion in annual military assistance. Meanwhile, the agency helping Palestinians eat must decide which struggling families it can no longer support.

This Hunger Is Being Manufactured

Palestinians have not forgotten how to farm or work. They are being separated from their fields, jobs, markets, and public resources. Donor retreat is removing the final protection available to many families.

Moreover, food assistance can keep someone alive for another month. Only ending Israeli illegal occupation, settler violence, and economic strangulation can give Palestinians lasting food security and a sigh of relief.