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Palestinian children are seen under dire humanitarian conditions despite the ceasefire signed with Israel in Khan Yunis, Palestine on April 03, 2026. [Doaa Albaz – Anadolu Agency]
On Palestinian Children’s Day, the reality for children in Gaza reflects a profound humanitarian crisis, with tens of thousands growing up without parents amid ongoing war and devastation.
Recent data indicates that the number of orphans in the Gaza Strip has reached approximately 64,616 children, most of whom have lost one or both parents during the latest Israeli aggression. The figure underscores the scale of the social catastrophe affecting an entire generation and is expected to rise as the consequences of the war continue to unfold.
Before the war, the number of orphans in Gaza did not exceed 22,000, highlighting the unprecedented increase in a short period.
Amid ongoing destruction, children in Gaza face a daily reality marked by loss, displacement, and deprivation. In shelters and displacement camps, many are seen waiting in aid lines or sitting silently among the ruins of their homes, having lost the families that once provided stability and protection.
The crisis extends beyond immediate humanitarian needs, posing a long-term societal challenge that requires not only relief efforts but also sustained support to rebuild lives and communities.
For many children in Gaza, orphanhood is not only the loss of a parent, but also the loss of security, stability, and a sense of normal childhood, with lasting psychological and social consequences.
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Keir Starmer explains that UK is actively supporting Israel’s genocidal expansion and repeats his previous quotation that he supports Zionism “without qualification”. Keir Starmer said “I said it loud and clear – and meant it – that I support Zionism without qualification.” here: https://www.jewishnews.co.uk/keir-starmer-interview-i-will-work-to-eradicate-antisemitism-from-day-one/Donald Trump calls for help from NATO allies in securing the Straight of Hormuz despite saying on 7 March 2026 that they don’t need people to join wars after they’ve already won. He’s challenged with the claim that he lies as much as the IDF.
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World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus in Geneva on 27 May, 2024 [FABRICE COFFRINI/AFP via Getty Images]
Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has warned of catastrophic consequences following the targeting of Iran’s Bushehr Nuclear Power Plant, amid escalating conflict in the region.
In a statement posted on X, the Director-General of the World Health Organisation said he shares the concerns of the International Atomic Energy Agency regarding the safety of nuclear facilities in Iran.
He stressed that any attack on a nuclear site could trigger a nuclear accident, warning that such an event would have long-term and far-reaching health consequences.
“The recent attack on the Bushehr nuclear plant is a stark reminder,” Tedros said, adding that the risks are increasing with each passing day of the ongoing war.
He called for urgent de-escalation, stating that peace remains “the best medicine” to prevent further deterioration.
The Bushehr facility was reportedly targeted on Saturday, marking the fourth such attack since the start of the US-Israeli offensive against Iran on 28th February.
Since then, Israel and the United States have been waging a war against Iran that has resulted in thousands of deaths and injuries, while Tehran has responded by launching missiles and drones toward Israeli-controlled areas.
Iran has also targeted what it describes as American sites and interests in Arab countries; however, some of these attacks have caused deaths, injuries, and damage to civilian infrastructure, drawing condemnation from the affected states.
The escalation comes despite reports that Iran had been making progress in negotiations with Washington regarding its nuclear program, with mediation efforts involving Oman.
The United States and Israel accuse Iran of pursuing nuclear and missile programs that threaten regional security, while Tehran maintains that its nuclear program is peaceful and not intended for weapons development.
Keir Starmer explains that UK is actively supporting Israel’s genocidal expansion and repeats his previous quotation that he supports Zionism “without qualification”. Keir Starmer said “I said it loud and clear – and meant it – that I support Zionism without qualification.” here: https://www.jewishnews.co.uk/keir-starmer-interview-i-will-work-to-eradicate-antisemitism-from-day-one/Donald Trump calls for help from NATO allies in securing the Straight of Hormuz despite saying on 7 March 2026 that they don’t need people to join wars after they’ve already won. He’s challenged with the claim that he lies as much as the IDF.
This work by Middle East Monitor is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Smoke rises from the targeted sites after the Israeli army carried out eight airstrikes on the Dahieh district in the south of the Lebanese capital, Beirut, on April 05, 2026. [Ethem Emre Özcan – Anadolu Agency]
More than 1,460 people have been killed in Lebanon since Israeli attacks began on March 2, the country’s Health Ministry said Sunday, Anadolu reports.
In a statement, the ministry said the death toll has reached 1,461, with 4,430 others wounded over the same period.
It added that 39 people were killed and 136 injured in the past 24 hours alone.
The ministry also mentioned that 129 of those who lost their lives were children and 97 were women.
At least 54 health care workers were killed, and 145 others were injured in Israeli attacks, added the ministry.
Israel has carried out airstrikes and a ground offensive in southern Lebanon since a cross-border attack by the Lebanese group Hezbollah on March 2, despite a ceasefire that took effect in November 2024.
Hezbollah has fired barrages of rockets into Israel since early March, saying the attacks are in response to continued Israeli strikes on Lebanon, as well as the killing of Iran’s then-Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in a joint US-Israeli airstrike on Feb. 28.
Keir Starmer explains that UK is actively supporting Israel’s genocidal expansion and repeats his previous quotation that he supports Zionism “without qualification”. Keir Starmer said “I said it loud and clear – and meant it – that I support Zionism without qualification.” here: https://www.jewishnews.co.uk/keir-starmer-interview-i-will-work-to-eradicate-antisemitism-from-day-one/
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Israeli settlers, under the protection of Israeli forces, raid the Old City of Hebron in the southern West Bank on January 31, 2026. [Amer Shallodi – Anadolu Agency]
“A people that oppresses another cannot itself be free” -Friedrich Engels –
Zionism is racism. I state this plainly, not as a slogan designed to provoke, but as a conclusion drawn from history, lived reality, and the political structure that has emerged in what is now called Israel. I am not interested in diluting this claim to make it more comfortable, nor in softening its edges to invite polite debate. Some ideas demand clarity, not compromise.
Zionism presents itself as a movement for Jewish self-determination. In isolation, that principle sounds reasonable—every people should have the right to shape their political future. But no political project exists in isolation.
Zionism did not emerge in an empty land, and it did not unfold without consequence. It took root in a place where another people already lived, and its realization required their displacement, their fragmentation, and their continued subordination.
The events of 1948 are not a tragic misunderstanding or an unfortunate byproduct of state-building. They are central. Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians were expelled or fled from their homes, entire villages were destroyed, and a society that had existed for generations was systematically dismantled. Palestinians remember this as the Nakba – “the catastrophe”—and that name is not rhetorical exaggeration. It is an accurate description of a foundational rupture that continues to shape every aspect of Palestinian life.
What followed was not a temporary injustice but the consolidation of a system. Land laws, citizenship structures, and state policies were crafted in ways that privileged Jewish identity while marginalizing Palestinians, whether they remained within the borders of Israel or lived under military occupation in the West Bank and Gaza. This is not incidental. It is the logical outcome of a state built to maintain a demographic and political majority for one group over others.
Supporters of Zionism often argue that it is not racism but national liberation—a response to centuries of persecution culminating in the Holocaust. That history is undeniable and horrific.
The genocide of European Jews stands as one of the greatest crimes in human history. But historical suffering does not grant moral exemption. It does not justify the dispossession of another people, nor does it transform inequality into justice.
If anything, it should deepen the commitment to universal rights, not narrow them.
To point this out is not to deny Jewish history or identity. It is to reject the idea that safety for one people must be built on the exclusion or subjugation of another. A political ideology that enshrines ethnic or religious preference into law – especially in a land shared by multiple communities—cannot be reconciled with genuine equality. When rights are distributed based on identity, discrimination is not a flaw in the system; it is the system.
This reality is visible not only in historical events but in present-day structures. Palestinians in the occupied territories live under military rule, subject to restrictions on movement, access to resources, and basic civil liberties. Within Israel itself, Palestinian citizens face systemic inequalities in areas such as land allocation, housing, and political power. The fragmentation of Palestinian identity – into citizens, residents, refugees, and those under occupation – is not accidental. It is a method of control.
Language often obscures these realities. Terms like “security,” “conflict,” and “disputed territories” create the impression of symmetry, as though two equal sides are engaged in a balanced struggle. But the lived experience tells a different story: one of power and dispossession, of a state with overwhelming military and political dominance over a stateless people. Naming that imbalance matters, because without it, injustice can be reframed as inevitability.
There are those who challenge this system from within. Voices like Miko Peled—an Israeli raised within the Zionist establishment—have come to reject the ideology precisely because they see its consequences. Their critiques are not born of ignorance or hostility but of proximity and reflection. They demonstrate that opposition to Zionism is not synonymous with hostility toward Jews; it is a political and ethical stance against a specific system of power.
Critics of this position often respond by labelling it extreme or unfair. They argue that Zionism has multiple interpretations, that it can be reformed, or that it simply expresses the desire of a people to live in safety. But the question is not what Zionism claims to be in theory. The question is what it has produced in practice. And in practice, it has created and maintained a reality in which one group’s rights and freedoms are structurally elevated above another’s.
If we apply the same moral standards we claim to uphold elsewhere – opposition to segregation, to ethno-national supremacy, to systems that privilege one group over another—then the conclusion becomes difficult to avoid.
When a state defines itself in ways that systematically advantage one identity while disadvantaging others, it enters the realm of discrimination. When that discrimination is entrenched in law, policy, and daily life, it is not incidental. It is foundational.
This is why I say that Zionism is racism. Not as an insult, but as a description. It names a system in which identity determines rights, in which history is used to justify inequality, and in which the pursuit of one group’s security has come at the cost of another’s freedom.
There is a tendency to treat such statements as beyond the bounds of acceptable discourse, to insist that they are too harsh, too absolute, too divisive. But discomfort is not the same as inaccuracy. If anything, the resistance to naming the problem reflects how deeply normalized the system has become.
Conclusion: No system built on inequality can endure without resistance, and no injustice has ever been resolved by refusing to name it. If we believe in dignity, equality, and freedom as universal principles, then they cannot stop at the borders of Palestine, nor be conditional on identity. The choice is not between politeness and truth – it is between maintaining a system of domination or confronting it honestly. I choose honesty. And honesty demands that we say it without hesitation, without dilution, and without apology: Zionism is racism.
The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Monitor.
This work by Middle East Monitor is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Donald Trump calls for help from NATO allies in securing the Straight of Hormuz despite saying on 7 March 2026 that they don’t need people to join wars after they’ve already won. He’s challenged with the claim that he lies as much as the IDF.Keir Starmer explains that UK is actively supporting Israel’s genocidal expansion and repeats his previous quotation that he supports Zionism “without qualification”. Keir Starmer said “I said it loud and clear – and meant it – that I support Zionism without qualification.” here: https://www.jewishnews.co.uk/keir-starmer-interview-i-will-work-to-eradicate-antisemitism-from-day-one/
A view of a civilian vehicle caught fire as people gather around it after the Israeli army, violating the ceasefire, targeted it on Salah al-Din Street in central Gaza Strip, Palestine, on April 04, 2026. [Screengrab – Anadolu Agency]
Around 20 boats preparing to join the Global Sumud Flotilla’s “Spring Mission 2026” are set to depart from the southern port city of Marseille, France, as part of an initiative aimed at delivering humanitarian aid to Gaza and challenging the ongoing Israeli policy, with vessels readied for weeks at L’Estaque Port by the France Campaign coalition, including the Thousand Madleens to Gaza movement and the Freedom Flotilla Coalition, on April 03, 2026. [Esra Taşkın – Anadolu Agency]
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Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi in Tehran, Iran on November 30, 2025. [Ahmet Serdar Eser – Anadolu Agency]
The Iranian foreign minister said Saturday that “radioactive fallout will end life in GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council) capitals, not Tehran,” following the US-Israeli airstrikes that hit Iran’s Bushehr nuclear plant, Anadolu reports.
“Remember the Western outrage about hostilities near Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant in Ukraine?
“Israel-U.S. have bombed our Bushehr plant four times now. Radioactive fallout will end life in GCC capitals, not Tehran,” Abbas Araghchi said through US social media company X.
Attacks on Iranian petrochemical facilities also reveal “real objectives,” Araghchi argued.
Earlier in the day, US and Israeli strikes hit Iran’s Bushehr nuclear plant, killing one person.
The attack came as regional tensions have escalated since the US and Israel launched a joint offensive on Iran on Feb. 28, killing over 1,340 people to date, including then-Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.
Tehran has retaliated with drone and missile strikes targeting Israel, as well as Jordan, Iraq, and Gulf countries hosting US military assets.
This work by Middle East Monitor is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Donald Trump calls for help from NATO allies in securing the Straight of Hormuz despite saying on 7 March 2026 that they don’t need people to join wars after they’ve already won. He’s challenged with the claim that he lies as much as the IDF.Keir Starmer explains that UK is actively supporting Israel’s genocidal expansion and repeats his previous quotation that he supports Zionism “without qualification”. Keir Starmer said “I said it loud and clear – and meant it – that I support Zionism without qualification.” here: https://www.jewishnews.co.uk/keir-starmer-interview-i-will-work-to-eradicate-antisemitism-from-day-one/
A view of a civilian vehicle caught fire as people gather around it after the Israeli army, violating the ceasefire, targeted it on Salah al-Din Street in central Gaza Strip, Palestine, on April 04, 2026. [Screengrab – Anadolu Agency]
Around 20 boats preparing to join the Global Sumud Flotilla’s “Spring Mission 2026” are set to depart from the southern port city of Marseille, France, as part of an initiative aimed at delivering humanitarian aid to Gaza and challenging the ongoing Israeli policy, with vessels readied for weeks at L’Estaque Port by the France Campaign coalition, including the Thousand Madleens to Gaza movement and the Freedom Flotilla Coalition, on April 03, 2026. [Esra Taşkın – Anadolu Agency]
