It has been two years since Hamas’s October 7 blitz in response to what it said were near-daily Israeli attacks on Al Aqsa Mosque, illegal settler violence in the occupied West Bank and to put Palestine’s question “back on the table.”
The blitz and the Israeli military’s haphazard response, coupled with its controversial Hannibal Directive, led to the deaths of some 1,200 people, many of whom were Israeli soldiers and civilians.
Subsequently, an unrelenting Israeli genocide transformed Gaza — besieged by Israel from land, sea and air since 2005 — into a devastating landscape, witnessed by a shocked global audience.
The besieged enclave lies in ruins, its infrastructure shattered and civilian life all but destroyed. Hospitals, schools, and water systems are shattered.
Officially, Israel has killed more than 67,000 Palestinians, many of them women and children. The actual death toll is presumed to be much higher.
International Court of Justice, the principal judicial body of the United Nations, found it plausible that Israel’s acts could amount to genocide, while the International Association of Genocide Scholars, the world’s leading body of genocide scholars, has formally declared that Israel had committed genocide in Gaza.
A recent UN report also confirmed that Israel was committing genocide of Palestinians in Gaza.
The International Criminal Court has already issued an arrest warrant for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former defence minister.
Six vetos to shield Israel
Throughout the catastrophe that has befallen Palestinians, the US has stood behind Israel.
Critics argue that while officials in Washington often express concern about the situation in Gaza, those words have not translated into limits on the supply of arms to Tel Aviv.
At the UN Security Council, the US has used its veto six times since October 2023 to block resolutions aimed at ending Israel’s genocide in Gaza or guaranteeing humanitarian access in Gaza.
The latest veto came in September 2025, when Washington rejected calls for an immediate ceasefire. Each veto has led to criticism that Israel is being shielded from global accountability.
This diplomatic shield has helped, observers note, to normalise Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu’s onslaught in Gaza. His policy has involved heavy urban warfare, mass expulsions, and the flattening of entire neighbourhoods.
Since October 2023, American military assistance to Israel has totalled at least $21 billion. The funding has covered munitions, artillery shells, and missile defence systems that have sustained the genocide.
Last year, Washington approved a massive arms deal including advanced fighter jets and precision-guided bombs, on top of the annual $3.8 billion package guaranteed under long-term agreements.
During this time, food shortages have affected all of Gaza’s over 2 million residents, with nearly half the population at risk of famine and malnutrition.
As hospitals struggle with critical shortages of blood, insulin, and medical supplies, leaving the injured without care, the scale of the tragedy almost blinds one to the events of the past two years.
Flow of arms continued
In late January 2024, five-year-old Hind Rajab was killed in Gaza City after Israeli forces fired hundreds of bullets on her family’s car. She had pleaded for help over the phone to the Red Crescent, trapped beside the bodies of her relatives. Rescuers sent to find her were also found killed.
UN experts called the incident a potential war crime, emblematic of the wider pattern of civilian targeting by Israel.
Just weeks later, on February 29, Israeli troops opened fire on a crowd gathered around aid trucks in northern Gaza, killing at least 118 people, with more than 760 were wounded.
The UN called it a massacre and linked it to Israel’s use of starvation as a weapon of war.
The outrage grew in April, when an Israeli air strike on a World Central Kitchen convoy killed several international aid workers, including nationals of the US, UK, and Australia.
World leaders condemned the attack as a clear breach of international law, forcing several humanitarian organisations to suspend operations in the besieged enclave.
David Gibbs, noted author and professor of history, said: “The problem for many is trying to justify massive US economic and military aid to Israel, subsidised by the US taxpayer, which has been ongoing since the early 1970s. This has always been hard to justify, considering that Israel is a high-income country, and is using the money to enable its illegal occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip.”
Despite such criticism, the weapons pipeline expanded.
In August 2024, Washington approved the sale of up to 50 new F-15IA fighter jets from Boeing, upgrades for existing aircraft, and thousands of AIM-120 AMRAAM air-to-air missiles.
By the end of that year, Israel also received more than 32,000 tank cartridges, 50,000 mortar rounds, and dozens of heavy vehicles and tank trailers.
The US authorised emergency transfers of JDAMs, Hellfire missiles, and Caterpillar D9 bulldozers used in Gaza’s urban operations.
Shifting public mood
Yet public attitudes within the US have shifted sharply over the two years since the war began.
Sympathy for Israel, once taken for granted across the political mainstream, has eroded, particularly among younger Americans and Democrats.
A Gallup poll in August 2025 found that only 32 per cent of Americans approved of Israel’s actions in Gaza, down from 50 per cent in late 2023. Sixty per cent disapproved.
A separate New York Times/Siena survey from September 2025 found that 53 per cent of respondents opposed additional aid to Israel, and 40 per cent believed Israel was deliberately targeting civilians.m
“The horrific visuals are key,” said US foreign policy scholar David Levine.
“But among college students, there has long been at least nominal support for Palestinians as part of progressive campus culture. When the world started seeing those awful images, it reinforced that instinct and made protest almost inevitable.”
The shift is most visible among those under 35. The latest Pew data has found that 70 per cent of young Americans hold unfavourable views of Israel, while more than half sympathise more with Palestinians.
A Brookings study noted similar patterns, with disillusionment spreading across party lines.
“Many young Republicans are becoming hostile toward the pro-Israel agenda, especially the subsidy aspect,” said Gibbs.
“People on both sides of the political aisle can see with their own eyes the horrible videos of what Israel is actually doing in Gaza.”
All eyes are now on negotiations regarding Trump’s 20-point plan to end the genocide in Gaza.
While Hamas has agreed to parts of the deal, Israel, which has sabotaged previous truce agreements, continues to bombard Palestinians and their neighbourhoods, despite Trump’s order for it to halt the strikes.
