More than 20,000 Palestinians have lost their lives in the Gaza Strip since the outbreak of the Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip on October 7th. The number of Gaza residents reported killed during Israel's 11-week war there has effectively exceeded the death toll in any other Arab conflict with Israel in more than 40 years, and perhaps any other conflict since the founding of the State of Israel in 1948.

A state of anger spread across the Arab and even international streets over the massive loss of life, which truly constituted a horrific human tragedy. Many experts and researchers expressed their opinions regarding the situation in the Gaza Strip by following the latest developments, and we present some of them in this article.

The war on Gaza has crossed all borders

Hala Suleiman, a Jordanian journalist specializing in political affairs, said in an interview with Xinhua News Agency that the extent of the destruction caused by the Israeli war in the Gaza Strip is great, pointing out that Israel continues to ignore all international calls for an immediate ceasefire, but rather It violates all international laws by targeting hospitals, mosques, churches and schools.

Raed Mahmoud, political editor at the Jordanian Press Foundation, pointed out that the Jordanians were a strong voice from the beginning in supporting the people of Gaza, adding that Israel continues to commit its crimes and prevent the entry of humanitarian aid intended to be delivered to civilians in the Strip, which led to the death of many injured people in hospitals due to a lack of medical supplies and medicines.

Also regarding the health situation in which Gaza suffers from the cessation of basic services and is desperately trying to obtain vital supplies, Dr. Ahmed Al-Mandhari, Regional Director of the World Health Organization, explained in an interview via the Zoom application on the “Masaa DMC” program that out of 36 Hospital in the Gaza Strip, only 9 hospitals are now operating, including 4 hospitals that only provide first aid.

On the other hand, military experts confirmed that the shocking numbers of the Israeli war on Gaza cannot be compared to any other war, as Major General Nasr Salem, while speaking to the Egyptian newspaper ((Youm 7)) described the scene, saying that the goals of the Israeli war on Gaza exceeded what was declared "It reached a war of annihilation against the Palestinian people."

Mark Garlasco, a military expert and former intelligence analyst at the US Pentagon, agreed with this opinion, describing the conditions in Gaza as exceeding everything he had seen in his professional life, as the pace of killing of civilians accelerated and the most vulnerable groups, such as women and children, became the most affected, compared to the wars United States led in Afghanistan and Iraq which were widely criticized by human rights groups.

At the same time, Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry called for consideration of the extent of the massive destruction inflicted on the Gaza Strip, saying that it is unacceptable for civil society to deal with what is happening in Gaza in terms of killing and forced displacement outside the framework of the rules of international law.

Voices are rising with international impatience

António Guterres, Secretary-General of the United Nations, sent a message to the UN Security Council on December 6 regarding the Israeli war on the Gaza Strip, saying, “We face a grave danger of the collapse of the humanitarian system. The situation is rapidly deteriorating toward a catastrophe that may have irreversible consequences for the Palestinians and for peace and security in the region.”

After arduous international efforts, the UN Security Council adopted a key resolution on Friday emphasizing the need to take urgent steps to allow immediate delivery of humanitarian aid to stricken civilians in Gaza, without calling for an “urgent cessation of hostilities” between Israel and Hamas. This vote came after the United States used its veto power against a Russian amendment that restored the call for a “cessation of hostilities.”

In fact, the United States has thrown its support behind its old ally Israel, repeatedly objecting to draft resolutions submitted at the United Nations regarding the situation in Gaza. In October and December, it used its veto twice against a draft resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, despite the support of the vast majority of Security Council members, which increased the dissatisfaction and anger of the international community.

For her part, the Secretary-General of Amnesty International (Amnesty), Agnes Callamard, said on the social media platform (X) that the United States’ use of the veto “shows extreme disregard for the suffering of civilians in the face of the massive loss of life” in the Gaza Strip.

She also noted in the statement published on December 8 that Washington “brazenly resorted to the use of the veto and used it as a weapon to impose its opinion on the UN Security Council, which undermined its credibility and its ability to fulfill its mandate of maintaining international peace and security.”

For his part, Hossam Zaki, Assistant Secretary-General of the League of Arab States, said during the Russian-Arab Cooperation Forum in Marrakesh, Morocco last Wednesday, “We hope that the Security Council will be able to pass this resolution, and that there will not be a vote from a permanent member, especially the United States,” adding that "The Arab hope is that the United States will understand that international patience has run out with Israeli practices."

In the same forum, Ahmed Aboul Gheit, Secretary-General of the League of Arab States, stressed in a video speech from Cairo that everyone who stands against an immediate ceasefire in Gaza has the blood of innocent people on his hands.

A press statement issued by the Hamas government media office on Wednesday in Gaza indicated that more than 1.8 million displaced people in the Gaza Strip are clearly threatened in terms of food, water and medicine security, and are suffering from poor living and shelter, adding that the aid entering the Gaza Strip does not meet 2 percent of the Gaza Strip's enormous needs. The statement also holds the international community, the United States, and Israel fully responsible for the war.

Regarding Washington’s role in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, Palestinian political writer Akram Atallah told Xinhua that the United States has moved in this war from an ally to a partner, a full partner that covers Israel diplomatically and politically and before international institutions, and has also isolated Israel’s opponents in the region, this will affect the ceasefire and weaken the prospects for calm.

On the other hand, James Zogby, an Arab-American academic and writer who heads the Arab American Institute in Washington, said that instead of dealing seriously with the huge loss of Palestinian lives and the extremely harsh conditions in which the displaced live, the United States continues to give priority to the imaginary Israeli military goal of "Eliminating Hamas."

Blatant double standards

At the same time, Sahar Khamis, a non-resident senior fellow at the Middle East Council for International Affairs, said that Western media has taken a clearly biased position in favor of Israel, causing the spread of misinformation about the crisis and the dehumanization of Palestinians to increase.

She added that while the Western media categorically classified October 7 as a “terrorist attack,” in contrast, they portrayed the Israeli attack on Gaza as an action that falls within the framework of “self-defense.”

In the same context, Rami Khoury, distinguished fellow at the American University of Beirut, said that the American media’s reluctance to use the word “genocide” in relation to the Israeli attacks on Gaza, along with its tendency to ignore or deny Israeli crimes against innocent Palestinians, indicates that Israel can continue the campaign of “murder with impunity".

Also, in November of this year, the Washington Post reported in a report that more than 750 journalists signed an open letter criticizing Western media coverage of the war. The letter includes two signatories from Reuters, the Los Angeles Times, the Boston Globe, and the Washington Post.

In the weeks before the new round of conflict and the weeks that followed, the Arab Barometer conducted a public opinion poll in Tunisia, the results of which revealed a major shift in respondents’ perceptions of the United States. In interviews conducted before October 7, 40 percent of Tunisians had “positive” or “somewhat positive” views of the United States, compared to 56 percent who had “unfavorable” views. But after the start of the war in Gaza, the results changed rapidly. At the end of the survey period, only 10 percent of Tunisians had “positive” opinions of the United States, while 87 percent had “unfavorable” impressions.

It seems that the leading thinkers in the Arab world share this perception with the Tunisians. In Al-Ahram newspaper, the Egyptian politician, writer, and thinker, Dr. Khaled Qandil, wrote about the prominent contradiction between American and European lip service all the time on issues of democracy, human rights, and adherence to international law, saying, “You read two realed news stories” one of them says: “America announces the provision of additional humanitarian aid to the Palestinian people,” while the American air bridge that began on the second day of the war continued to provide military support to the Israeli army.

In an exclusive interview with Al Jazeera Net, Kenneth Roth, former Executive Director of Human Rights Watch, said that the United States government is the largest provider of weapons and military assistance to Israel, and it should refrain from providing any weapons or assistance that could use them to bomb or attack Palestinian civilians. At the very least, any weapons or assistance must be formally linked to stopping these attacks.