Bodies fused to their bones by phosphorus bombs, children pulled from the rubble in pieces and their limbs stuffed into bags, babies left to die and whose bodies were not allowed to be touched until they were devoured by vultures, bodies buried in mass graves by bulldozers, thirst, hunger...
We have witnessed unimaginable cruelty due to the genocide that has been ongoing in Gaza for nearly two years. The leader of these barbarians can attempt to legitimize an attack on Iran by beginning his speech with an address to the civilized world. The leaders of the U.K., the U.S., France and the EU can also invoke “Israel's right to self-defense.”
The most aggressive actor in the Middle East, without a doubt, has been Israel since its inception. With its unilateral nuclear power advantage, it has acted with impunity in this region, both politically and militarily. Behind every bomb it drops and every execution it carries out lies the same confidence: the silent West.
The destruction Israel initiated in Gaza was not a military operation but a systematic campaign of annihilation. Since October 2023, over 55,000 people have lost their lives. At least 26,000 of them were civilians, thousands of whom were children. The bombardment Israel launched under the pretext of “fighting terrorism” targeted schools, hospitals and refugee camps. Gaza's infrastructure, water, electricity, roads and livelihoods were deliberately destroyed. This was not a war, but an extermination operation.
In the West Bank, people were taken from their homes in night raids. Those arrested either disappeared forever or were shot in the streets. Official figures are insufficient, but the crackdowns, which resulted in hundreds of deaths and thousands of arrests, created an illegal occupation regime.
Attacks launched in Lebanon under the pretext of targeting Hezbollah rained down on civilians. More than 4,200 people lost their lives. More than 2,800 of them were civilians. Villages were razed to the ground. Even U.N. observation points were hit. Israel directly targeted civilian areas as well as military targets. It disregarded international law. Silence was also complicit in this crime.
The air operations carried out in Syria not only target military facilities. In 2024, Iran's Consulate in Damascus was hit. Diplomatic immunity was shattered by an airstrike. Revolutionary Guard commanders lost their lives in this attack. That year, approximately 390 people were killed in Israeli attacks across Syria. Some of them were Iranian soldiers, but dozens of civilians also lost their lives under the bombs.
The operations carried out in Iran were more insidious. Nuclear scientists were killed one by one. In the last two weeks alone, 14 Iranian scientists were murdered. Some were assassinated in their cars, others in their homes. In 2024 and 2025, Iran's territory was targeted by direct airstrikes. On June 13, 2025, alone, 78 civilians lost their lives. More than 300 people were injured. These attacks carried out in Iran amounted to a clear declaration of war.
Yemen was also targeted. In attacks on ports controlled by the Houthis, 14 civilians were killed in July 2024. Over 90 people were injured. Every blow to food and medicine supplies was aimed at punishing civilians. Israel turned hunger into a weapon.
Israel's five-year record of aggression includes tens of thousands of deaths, hundreds of thousands of injuries and millions of displaced people. Behind these numbers are children buried under rubble, young people taken from their homes in the middle of the night, fathers, mothers and doctors who never returned. Each one is a life, each one a violation of the law.
All these attacks took place under the shadow of a nuclear power. As the only nuclear state in the Middle East, Israel is not subject to any oversight. Its nuclear arsenal is not officially recognized but exists in practice. This advantage fuels its aggression. Every bomb, every assassination, every act of sabotage is protected by this shield of impunity.
If international law were a reality, it would protect the victim, not the aggressor. This distorted rhetoric both undermines the law and renders the suffering of hundreds of thousands of civilians invisible.
Israel may be protected today, but this state of immunity is dragging it into an increasingly deep isolation and a more fragile future. Every cry that is silenced will return in the future at a much greater cost.
