‘Israel’s erasure of Palestinian humanity, identity made genocide possible’
Israeli human rights group B’Tselem says that erasure continues today, as does Israel’s occupation and apartheid policies against Palestinians.
“The same foundation that enabled Israel’s crimes in Gaza and the West Bank over the past two years remains intact: the total disregard for Palestinian life and dignity in the name of Jewish supremacy,” BTselem wrote in a social media post.
“The occupation and apartheid continue at full force, and although Israel has stopped most of its bombings in Gaza, people are still being killed.”
The group also warned that key details of Trump’s Gaza plan remain unclear, while the agreement “includes no element of accountability for the crimes committed”.
“It’s a moral duty to resist dehumanization and stand with the victims. We must demand accountability and reject the complicit silence that enables Israel’s ongoing violence and systematic violations of international law,” B’Tselem said.
After two years of near constant bombardments, destruction and fear, the ceasefire brings long-overdue hope for children and families in Gaza.
To continue protecting and prioritizing children’s lives and futures, UNICEF calls for three critical things: maintain the ceasefire,… pic.twitter.com/IAoLhqdjQ1
— UNICEF (@UNICEF) October 18, 2025
Restoring Palestinian agency critical to healing in Gaza: Expert
Gwyn Daniel, a UK-based psychotherapist, explains that Palestinians in Gaza have been subjected to “unbearable” conditions for more than two years amidst Israel’s war on the enclave.
While the ceasefire should have presented a moment of hope, Daniel said the tens of thousands of Palestinians who have been able to return to their homes – particularly in Gaza City – have instead met total destruction.
“The idea of how to recover any kind of life, how to have hope for your life, is so fragile,” she told Al Jazeera. “And it’s made much more fragile by … the sheer punitiveness and sadism visited on the people of Gaza – continually visited on them – by the Israeli army.”
Daniel noted that mental health workers have been providing services to people in Gaza throughout the war. “But overall, interventions to individual families are not enough,” she said. “The only thing that is really going to help Gaza heal, if it’s possible … is the restoration of some sense that people can have agency.
“One of the worst parts of trauma is feeling powerless,” Daniel added. “Powerlessness is eroding and soul-destroying. And of course, the aim of this genocide is to enter into the soul and destroy the soul of Palestinians, and destroy their collective identity and their ability to act as a community, which has always been very strong in Gaza.”
