Note from the editor: For months Refaat Ibrahim has been writing for P&I from the centre of Gaza in unimaginable conditions. Today I add the note he sent with the piece, so you can see the sacrifice he makes every day.

Dear John and Catriona,

I’d like to share this article with you, which reflects on the anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and draws a connection to the ongoing genocide in Gaza.

This article was supposed to be completed and published yesterday, but due to the harsh conditions, I wasn’t able to. I couldn’t sit in my tent to write because the inside felt like an inferno, and I couldn’t sit by the roadside as I usually do because the temperature outside had exceeded 35°C. In both cases, severe hunger was taking its toll on me.

That’s why I’m sending this piece a little late.

Hiroshima wasn’t the end of violence… it was its nuclear beginning

On 6 August 1945, the US dropped the first atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima, killing tens of thousands instantly and leaving behind massive destruction that extended far beyond Japan’s borders, searing itself into the memory of humanity. That bomb wasn’t just a weapon of war; it was a resounding moral collapse, and a stark embodiment of the idea that brute force is the ultimate solution to conflict.

From that moment forward, the world entered an endless spiral of armament and violence. Rather than becoming a turning point toward peace, Hiroshima became the starting line for a terrifying global arms race, one led by the same power that used the nuclear bomb and continues to expand its arsenal and military dominance.

Although Washington later supported international institutions and helped establish human rights bodies, in practice it never abandoned the logic of force. So how can the world trust the calls for peace from a country that not only deployed nuclear weapons but continues to empower its allies with unchecked military support? The question remains unanswered… except for this: the logic of domination still rules.

Gaza: an ongoing genocide under global silence

Since October 2023, Gaza has been enduring an ongoing genocide, one that in many ways surpasses the horror of Hiroshima, not in the speed of destruction, but in its prolonged, systematic, and all-encompassing brutality. While Hiroshima was devastated in an instant, Gaza has suffered for more than 21 consecutive months, under constant bombardment that has spared neither people, hospitals, schools, nor even humanitarian aid centres.

According to the Palestinian Ministry of Health, as of May 2025, more than 61,000 people have been killed, while independent investigative reports suggest the real number may exceed 100,000, including thousands of women and children. Additionally, more than 145,000 have been injured, and more than a million displaced are now living in catastrophic conditions.

Reports confirm that Israel has dropped more than 100,000 tons of explosives on Gaza, equivalent in destructive power to five nuclear bombs. These figures are not exaggerations, but documented facts illustrating the scale of annihilation, all of it carried out with direct support from the US, which continues to supply Israel with weapons, political protection, and diplomatic cover at the UN and beyond.

This genocide is not an isolated incident. It comes after nearly two decades of blockade, starvation, and isolation. Since 2007, Gaza has been under a suffocating siege, deprived of fuel, electricity, movement, and even basic healthcare, conditions that have turned life into a daily nightmare.

Gaza is not an exception… it’s the result of decades of abandoned rights

To understand what’s happening in Gaza today, one must revisit the historical context of the Palestinian struggle. The genocide we are witnessing is not a sudden anomaly, but the continuation of a long, painful history of dispossession, displacement and systematic denial of rights, beginning with the Nakba of 1948, through the 1967 occupation, and continuing with wars, settlement expansion, land confiscation and military oppression.

Although the Palestinian Authority signed the Oslo Accords more than 30 years ago, which were meant to lay the groundwork for an independent Palestinian state within a clear timeframe, Israel has consistently stalled, reneged and unilaterally imposed facts on the ground. Settlements have consumed more than a third of the West Bank, while walls and checkpoints have entrenched a system of apartheid and isolation.

In Gaza, Israel’s so-called “disengagement” in 2005 was nothing more than a strategic redeployment. Since 2007, Israel has enforced a hermetic siege on more than two million people, collectively punishing them for their democratic choices. It has weaponised food, fuel and medicine, and during every military offensive, it bombards the population into rubble, then obstructs reconstruction and international aid.

Meanwhile, the international community has utterly failed, or refused, to hold Israel accountable or compel it to honour its obligations under international law. Despite the Palestinians joining numerous global treaties and the UN recognising the state of Palestine, the people remain stateless and unprotected, abandoned to face one of the world’s most powerful military machines alone.

Thus, the ongoing genocide in Gaza is the result of a historic failure to implement international resolutions, a failure of will and a testament to the double standards that have long plagued the so-called “rules-based international order”. At its core, it is a tragedy created not only by the bombs, but by the silence, indifference and complicity of the global system.

A technologically advanced world… but ethically bankrupt

Eighty years have passed since Hiroshima. The world has made astonishing scientific progress. We live in the era of artificial intelligence and space exploration, and technological breakthroughs are happening daily. Yet, despite all this, we have failed to build a just global system capable of preventing wars, stopping atrocities, or protecting civilians.

The failure in Gaza isn’t just about an inability to stop the killing. It’s about the absence of political will to take meaningful action. International law has been ignored. War crimes go unpunished. Humanitarian aid is blocked or delayed. Civilians are denied even minimal protection.

The US, always quick to champion human rights in rhetoric, has become the main obstacle to any international effort aimed at accountability or justice for Gaza. It has vetoed countless resolutions, armed Israel to the teeth and provided moral justification for war crimes. Many European countries, despite signing the Geneva Conventions, have remained shamefully silent, or even complicit.

The truth is, the world never moved past Hiroshima. It simply reinvented its horrors in new forms. And every time a criminal state is left unpunished, every time civilians are bombed with impunity, we are reminded that nothing has truly changed.

Conclusion: Is there still hope?

What’s happening in Gaza today is a mirror reflecting the deep flaws of the current world order, its moral hypocrisy, its political cowardice and its loyalty to force over justice. If this genocide isn’t enough to awaken the world’s conscience, then what is?

From Hiroshima to Gaza, eight decades have passed yet humanity’s wounds remain unhealed. Those who hold power still lack the will for peace. Those who call for justice often empower tyrants. And those who mourn past tragedies are now complicit in new ones.

Perhaps we can’t change everything. But we have our voices. We can document. We can speak. We can resist silence.

The true disaster is not only in the deaths of the innocent… but in the indifference of the world.

Let us reject that indifference. Let us write. Let us expose.

And perhaps, just perhaps, that might mark the beginning of the end of this repeated human downfall.

The views expressed in this article may or may not reflect those of Pearls and Irritations.