For two years, the world watched the destruction of Gaza unfold in real time and chose not to stop it. More than 70,000 Palestinians were killed and much of the Strip reduced to rubble, while the same government rushed to contain other regional wars with empty warnings, sham ceasefires, and aid deals that brought death rather than relief.
Only now, after reaffirming a so-called “ceasefire” that brought little relief on the ground, are they saying they are intervening to help create long-term peace and stability. But their focus is already misplaced. They act as if Gaza is the side in need of stabilization, rather than Israel, a state that has destroyed all forms of stability.
Indeed, world powers, led by the United States, now claim to be working to bring “stable security” to our small and devastated territory through surveillance and control structures built in collaboration with the very actors who perpetrated the genocide.
So, in the aftermath of this new “ceasefire,” Gaza faces a new and insidious form of domination. In the so-called “Kiryat Ghat” settlement, built on the ruins of the Palestinian village of Iraq’s al-Mansheya, about 30 kilometers (19 miles) northwest of the Strip, officials say dozens of countries and organizations are now located within the U.S.-led Civil-Military Coordination Center (CMCC), the foreign-led command center for the Gaza operation that has expanded rapidly in recent weeks. Presented as a concrete first step in U.S. efforts to “stabilize” Gaza, it has become a hub for foreign officials to monitor the strip from afar and begin shaping a model for governing its future.
But if these stability builders are so passionate about Gaza’s future, why don’t they step inside Gaza and walk among its people? Are they afraid of the devastated survivors they claim to be helping? Or do they know that their safety from Israeli bombing cannot even be guaranteed once they enter Gaza? What is clear is that by aligning themselves with the Israeli military, they have chosen to cooperate with the perpetrators and turn the promise of peace into yet another means of control.
I have seen these foreign “stability” missions long before Gaza became the center of world attention.
I still remember the first time I saw a photo of UNIFIL’s white armored vehicle as a child. I was surprised to learn that the Peaceful United Nations, whose worrying statements were aimed at silencing guns, actually supported gun ownership in the name of peace. Their white color looked reassuring, as if behind these armored beasts stood a savior who would finally bring them safety. At the time, I truly believed that every time Israel tried to bomb us, the United Nations peacekeepers in those white cars, or “peacekeepers,” would one day protect us.
But as I grew up, I learned differently. I realized that an army that cannot even protect itself from Israeli attacks will never be able to protect anyone else. They were not saviors. They were bystanders watching the atrocities unfold, powerless or unwilling to intervene.
And as I grew up, I saw that the supposed peacemakers not only failed to protect us, but began to enable the killing of Israel in the most “humanely creative” ways.
The U.S. Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), a U.S.-run program established to manage and distribute aid after Israel tightened its blockade, has clearly demonstrated how foreign involvement can directly fuel Israeli violence. The group said we have a moral obligation to “feed” after Israel escalated hunger by halting food deliveries on the pretext that aid was “not reaching the right people.” Then a GHF murder trap ensued, with over 2,600 Palestinians massacred by Israeli artillery fire while American officers oversaw the Hunger Games they helped create.
Now, Washington has returned with more partners, pledging to form an “international stabilization force” to not only “deliver aid” but also protect Gaza’s future overall. Its new mission, once again clothed in the language of peace, looks less like relief and more like another post-genocide laboratory experiment in which Gaza is reshaped to fit an outsider’s vision of “stability.” This force needed only international legitimacy. This precondition, with US support, was much easier to secure than any resolution in the Security Council aimed at stopping Israeli genocide.
Any remaining sense of security in Gaza has disappeared. Not only because of the constant Israeli shelling, but also because those who tried to maintain the fragile local order were branded “terrorists.” Israel bombed them and in return empowered criminals to impose their own vision of what “security” should be for us. The result was a mess of man-made genocide in which sacks of flour became coveted treasures, much of which still continues today.
It is horrifying to see this imposed “security” play out as people suffer. As international “peace planners” debate how to provide food rather than lift the siege, there can be no real security if even food remains weaponized. Every basic need of life is still treated as a privilege, and we must prove ourselves worthy and convince the “peacekeepers” that we are worthy of it. Only then, perhaps, will they beg our guards to lift the chains of the blockade.
Survival itself is not guaranteed. The future promised to us has already arrived in the era of the so-called “ceasefire.” Israeli bombing never really stopped. More than 340 Palestinians have been killed since the “ceasefire” began. It should come as no surprise to us that Israel continues to bomb us even under a “ceasefire,” but the real danger now is that these massacres will unfold before the eyes of new self-styled “peace watchers” who dare not intervene or even acknowledge the new bloodshed by Israel. The level of dehumanization we face is frightening. We are reduced to creatures that can be killed, starved, and erased while being observed. We are confined like beasts in cages with only tightening bars, punished for crimes we never committed by guards who make no attempt to hide the true nature of our crimes.
Israel, internationally condemned for genocide, has committed every conceivable crime, waged a series of unwarranted wars, and continues to hold an entire population hostage, even though Gaza has been framed as the one in need of “stabilization.” Yet it continues to operate unchecked, enjoying its role as a beloved host to the very peace brokers appointed to “stabilize” Gaza. While the world stands ready to send troops to watch over Gaza’s children struggling to fill buckets of water under siege, an army whose soldiers proudly call themselves the “Vampire Empire” is already withdrawing to freedom, shedding the blood of Gaza’s children.
Over the past two years, the people of Gaza have endured the most extreme form of collective punishment. And now these new “peace” efforts feel as if the world wants to further punish Gazans for enduring and surviving Israel’s genocide.
The hands that warmly embraced Israeli leadership, equipped fighter jets with signed bombs, and repeatedly vetoed efforts at the United Nations to end this massacre will never bring peace to Gaza. The eyes of the world, which has been observing Israeli terrorism and choosing to turn a blind eye, cannot escape Israel’s complicity even if it suddenly pretends to strictly monitor Gaza. Their focus must be on containing the true root of instability: the insane state-sponsored violence that proudly attacks the essence of humanity on every screen. Rather than portraying the Palestinians as a threatening force, the world must hold accountable those who use real power to disrupt daily life.
Our Gaza deserves space to survive, rather than being framed as an isolated enclave in a land undergoing ethnic cleansing, or as an “unstable” side in need of foreign oversight. Gaza is Palestinian and inseparable from the land and its people. There is no Palestine without Gaza. The visible oppression that our people have endured for more than a century defies words, while the world’s dehumanizing lens treats our suffering like a spectacle.
We look forward to the moment when justice will be served, but how can that happen if every consequence that would be meted out to the oppressor is a new punishment imposed on us?
There can be no stability in Gaza, wider Palestine, or the region as long as unjust occupiers are shielded from accountability and allowed to act with impunity. Stability is only possible when the world confronts Israeli violence, not those who survive it.
The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera’s editorial policy.
