Three years.
Three years after October 7, 2023, it is worth looking not only at what has happened to Gaza, but at what the world allowed to happen.
As a response to the attack, in which roughly 1200 people were killed (from which, to be clear, we don’t know how many from the ‘Hannibal’ directive’ and how many from the attacks - the UN itself confirmed that Israel was involved in some of those deaths), Israel responded by annihilating more than 74,000 Palestinians, wounding more than 175,000, and indirectly causing the deaths of around 250,000, by denying medicine and food and aid.
Approximately 82% of the structures in Gaza have been damaged, with roughly 200,000 buildings affected and about two-thirds of those destroyed. Satellite imagery now shows entire neighborhoods reduced to rubble.
A UN-backed assessment estimates $35.2 billion in physical damage and $71.4 billion in reconstruction needs. Nearly all schools have been damaged or destroyed, more than half of hospitals are nonfunctional, around 1.9 million people have been displaced, and Gaza's human-development gains have been set back by an estimated 77 years.
And this did not happen in isolation.
Israel carried out this campaign with extraordinary military and diplomatic backing from some of the world's most powerful states. Brown University's Costs of War project calculates that the United States alone provided $21.7 billion in military aid to Israel during the first two years after October 7—in addition to billions more spent on related U.S. military operations in the region and tens of billions of dollars in future arms-sale commitments. (It has also spent an additional $12.07 billion on military operations in Yemen and the wider region, not to mention the created an unnecessary conflict with Iran). US weapons now account for 78% of Israel's arms imports. One Israeli Air Force official told Haaretz that without US military aid, Israel could not sustain operations in Gaza for more than a few months. Germany and Britain also continued forms of military support and arms transfers, although British approvals fell sharply and European policy became increasingly critical as the war continued. Human Rights Watch argued that continued weapons transfers by the U.S., Germany and Britain despite allegations of serious violations risked enabling further abuses.
This is what makes Gaza so consequential. The destruction of a civilian society on this scale was not simply the action of one government. It occurred while powerful democratic states continued providing weapons, financing and political support, repeatedly invoking Israel's right to defend itself even as the civilian toll and destruction mounted.
And there has been another casualty: the treatment of Muslims and Palestinians in the West.
In early 2024, 70% of American Muslims told Pew that anti-Muslim discrimination had increased since the war began. By 2025, CAIR recorded 8,683 civil-rights complaints, the highest annual total in its three decades of reporting. Multiple investigative journalists have confirmed that the rise of the systematic demonization of Islam, Muslims, the alleged ‘Shariah-takeover’ in the West, and other such crude lies are actually tactics employed by Israel in order to distract from its policies and create a wider support of its policies against the Muslim in Gaza.
Yet, not all is negative news..
People are seeing.
For decades, Gallup found Americans substantially more sympathetic to Israelis than Palestinians. In 2023 the numbers were 54% to 31%. In 2026 they are 36% to 41%—the first time in Gallup's series that Israelis no longer hold the advantage. Among Americans aged 18–34, 53% now sympathize more with Palestinians, compared with 23% with Israelis.
Governments can provide weapons. Politicians can provide justifications. Propaganda can obscure reality for a time. But eventually there is the evidence: the dead, the wounded, the displaced, the orphaned, the ruined hospitals and schools—and satellite images of entire neighborhoods that simply no longer exist.
Three years later, the world is increasingly aware of the sinister reality of the last remaining Apartheid Regime and its brutal, inhumane policies. The dignity and bravery of the civilians of Gaza has opened the eyes of millions around the world, and public polls are showing this at every level of elections.
While nothing justifies what happened to the innocent, we take comfort in our Lord’s decrees and are hopeful that the future is bright.
#Gaza #CeasefireNow #StopArmingIsrael #FreePalestine