The recent update on the Gaza War
By Riley Duignan
As of September 16, 2025. The UN Commission (United Nations Commission) has declared that Israel is committing an active act of Genocide against the Palestinian Gaza Strip. Israel has stated their actions are an act of self-defense against Hamas.
How it began
On October 7, 2023, what would currently be called the “Gaza War” would begin. Hamas, the Palestinian political and military organization, sent a surprise attack on Israel. It killed around 1,200 Israelis, and they took about 240 hostage. In response, Israel responded back with a declaration of war and launched multiple air strikes and ground raids on the Gaza Strip. Their goal was and is to obliterate Hamas. Israel has not taken hostages in return, but they have continued to imprison tens of thousands of Palestinian residents. Around 148 hostages have been returned to Israel.
As it seems, Israel continues to state that their military defense is in self-defense against Hamas. In total, Israel has dropped over 100,000 tons of explosives over Gaza from October 7th, 2023, to May 2025. Hamas has sent over 10,000 missiles into Israeli territory from the Gaza area. This is solely from the Gaza location; any other locations or countries’ defense are not included in this specific count.
Over 67,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli bombing and direct military interference. Around 18,500 of these deaths are reported to be children, and around 17,000 children in the Gaza Strip are unaccompanied or separated from their families. Tens of thousands more children have lost one or both parents and are now labeled “Orphans”. Gaza had a population of around 2.1 million, and currently, around 90% of that population has been displaced since the Gaza War. There is no conclusive estimation of Israeli citizen deaths after October 7, but it is estimated that around 1,900 Israeli deaths have occurred after October 7, and up to September 10, 2025. Many of these are Israeli military troops.
Israel has reportedly restricted food, water, and electricity coming into Gaza; the UN declared that Gaza is currently experiencing a famine. Starting in March 2025, Israel began a 3-month blockade on mandatory goods coming into Gaza.
Though Israel has rejected this claim, according to the BBC, many have claimed to witness Israeli military troops shooting Palestinians at GHF (Gaza Humanitarian Foundation) zones, or ones attempting to get aid. Some 1700 have been killed or shot down in an attempt to find aid, and over 900 have been shot down in the GHF zones.
Israel has also bombed multiple hospitals and aid locations, claiming Hamas is hiding and using these hospital locations as a military base and hiding spots. Accordingly, Israel has committed multiple said war crimes that violate the International Humanitarian Laws, which are simplified, “Laws of War”. According to the 1949 Geneva Convention, bombing hospitals or medical locations are prohibited during war. “Civilian hospitals organized to give care to the wounded and sick, the infirm and maternity cases, may in no circumstances be the object of attack, but shall at all times be respected and protected by the Parties to the conflict.”(IHL Databases)
This is not new
On May 14, 1948, Great Britain and other countries established the state of Israel for the Jewish population after the Holocaust. Israeli land shared Palestinian land, and neither Palestine nor neighboring Arab countries agreed for Israel to become an official state. Since then, Israel has occupied around 77% of Palestinian land. With that came multiple-day wars and many massacres.
Some examples are
Qibya Massacre of 1953
Kafr Qasim Massacre of 1956
Khan Yunis Massacre 1956
Rafael Massacre 1956
1990 Temple Mount killings
Cave of the Patriarchs Massacre of 1994
Six Six-Day War of 1967
And in total, there have been 16 noted massacres since October 31, 2023, strictly in the Gaza Strip.
Still, the Israeli people have faced several attacks and massacres against them from Hamas, acknowledging those people as well.
The UN’s take on Israel’s actions
On the 10th of October, the UN released that they acknowledged that Israel was committing several war crimes as they bombed hospitals, food locations, and other such humanitarian sites. Yet, they said that even though that, Israel is not committing genocide. “Israel has perpetrated a concerted policy to destroy Gaza’s healthcare system as part of a broader assault on Gaza, committing war crimes and the crime against humanity of extermination with relentless and deliberate attacks on medical personnel and facilities, the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory,”(OHCHR).
On September 16, 2025, a little less than a year later, the UN came out and officially declared that Israel was committing genocide against the Gaza Strip and the Palestinian people. “Israel has committed genocide against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and Israel said in a new report today.” (OHCHR).
Additionally, the UN found that Israel was committing four of the five “genocidal acts”. “… concluded that Israeli authorities and Israeli security forces committed four of the five genocidal acts defined by the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, namely killing, causing serious bodily or mental harm, deliberately inflicting conditions of life calculated to bring about the destruction of the Palestinians in whole or in part, and imposing measures intended to prevent births.” (OHCHR)
OCTOBER UPDATE
As we pass 2 years of the Gaza War, Donald Trump has begun to attempt to end the war between Israel and Hamas. Israel and Hamas have agreed on Thursday, October 9th, that Israel will pull back its military from Gaza, as Hamas will return the Israeli Hostages.
Sources:
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/4/3/gaza-faces-largest-orphan-crisis-in-modern-history-report-says
https://www.unicef.org/press-releases/stories-loss-and-grief-least-17000-children-are-estimated-be-unaccompanied-or
https://www.congress.gov/crs-product/R47828
https://apnews.com/article/aid-gaza-starvation-famine-looting-9fc8e7a652c06d9ae505b43e0c399fc8
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-67039975
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/ckgr71z0jp4o
https://education.cfr.org/learn/timeline/israeli-palestinian-conflict-timeline
https://www.ajc.org/news/what-is-known-about-israeli-hostages-taken-by-hamas
https://www.aa.com.tr/en/middle-east/israel-dropped-100-000-tons-of-explosives-over-gaza-wiped-out-2-200-families-media-office/3561614
https://www.cnn.com/interactive/2023/12/world/hostage-israel-hamas-deal-dg/
https://www.jns.org/idf-first-600-days-of-war-saw-nearly-30000-projectiles-launched-at-israel/#:~:text=Nearly%2030%2C000%20projectiles%20were%20launched,past%2012%20months%20to%208%2C345.
https://www.aipac.org/resources/understanding-the-recent-conflict-in-gaza-dhlfm-95xlk-fkphm
https://www.aa.com.tr/en/middle-east/over-18-500-children-killed-by-israel-in-gaza-since-october-2023-health-ministry/3647718#:~:text=GAZA%20CITY%2C%20Palestine%20/%20ISTANBUL,of%20the%20territory’s%20healthcare%20system.
https://www.dci-palestine.org/a_year_of_lost_childhood_palestinian_children_in_gaza_suffer_amid_ongoing_israeli_genocide
https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2025/09/israel-has-committed-genocide-gaza-strip-un-commission-finds
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/ckg4p90z1kxo
https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2025/09/israel-has-committed-genocide-gaza-strip-un-commission-finds
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/4/13/timeline-israels-attacks-on-hospitals-throughout-its-war-on-gaza
https://ihl-databases.icrc.org/en/ihl-treaties/gciv-1949/article-18
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/nov/09/why-israel-palestine-conflict-history#:~:text=Neither%20the%20Palestinians%20nor%20the,the%20founding%20of%20modern%20Israel.
https://www.pcbs.gov.ps/Portals/_pcbs/PressRelease/nakba%2060.pdf
https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2024/10/un-commission-finds-war-crimes-and-crimes-against-humanity-israeli-attacks