As Palestinians and the world mark the second anniversary of Israel’s genocide in Gaza following Hamas’ October 7, 2023 blitz on Israeli military and settlements, the US has used the occasion to acknowledge only the victims of one side.
In a statement on Tuesday, the US Secretary of State Marco Rubio acknowledged 1,200 Israeli and dual citizen victims — many of them reportedly killed in Israel’s Hannibal Doctrine reaction — but omitted the over 67,000 Palestinians killed by Tel Aviv in the besieged enclave.
“Today marks two years since the attacks of October 7, when Hamas murdered more than 1,200 innocent men, women, and children — including 46 Americans — in the most brutal terrorist attack in Israel’s history. Alongside these killings, Hamas took 254 hostages, among them 12 Americans,” the statement said.
Currently, Rubio’s statement said, 48 hostages remain captive by Hamas, “including the remains of US citizens Itay Chen and Omer Neutra.”
“The United States reaffirms its unwavering support for Israel’s right to exist, to defend itself, and to ensure the safety of its people. As the United States marks this tragic anniversary and honours the victims, we renew our resolve to prevent such evil from ever taking place again,” it said.
The omission of Palestinian casualties in Rubio’s statement appears to be a deliberate choice to highlight the suffering of Israelis only while downplaying the plight of Palestinians.
Since October 7, 2023, Israel’s air strikes and ground incursions in the occupied West Bank and other areas have resulted in tens of thousands of Palestinian casualties.
Palestinians have documented the killings of more than 67,000 people and reported nearly 170,000 injuries.
According to UN and Palestinian estimates, Israel killed over 28,000 women and girls in Gaza. According to Gaza’s Health Ministry, Israel also killed over 20,000 children.
Some 11,000 Palestinians are feared buried under the rubble of their annihilated homes. Another 10,000 have been abducted by Israel and dumped in Israeli jails and torture chambers.
Reports suggest the current death toll may be understated, with some experts estimating the true figure could reach 200,000.
Withholding Palestinian bodies and causing starvation
Indirect deaths — from starvation, disease, expulsion — have not been included in the main totals but could add tens of thousands more Palestinians.
The famine in Gaza, caused by Israeli siege, has resulted in over 460 confirmed deaths due to starvation, with projections indicating widespread malnutrition affecting millions.
Palestine’s official figures suggest that Israel is currently holding the bodies of more than 1,500 Palestinians from Gaza since October 2023, being held at the Sdei Teiman torture camp.
Since 2015, Israeli forces have retained 726 Palestinian bodies in refrigerators and “cemeteries of numbers”, according to the National Campaign for the Recovery of Martyrs’ Bodies. Palestine states that this includes the remains of 67 children and 10 women.
The UN has said that more than 1,760 Palestinians have been killed while trying to reach food, nearly 1,000 of them near so-called aid sites managed by Israel and the US.
The two-year genocide also became the deadliest for journalists in modern history, after Israel killed nearly 300 journalists and media workers from various networks and outlets.
Israel didn’t even spare aid workers, and according to the UN, killed at least 383 of them.
In the last two years, Israeli military has wiped out families in Gaza, pulverised neighbourhoods, dug up mass graves, destroyed cemeteries, bombed shops and businesses, flattened hospitals and morgues, ran tanks and bulldozers on dead bodies, tortured jailed Palestinians with dogs and electricity, subjected detainees to mock executions, and even raped many Palestinians.
Exhibiting sadistic behaviour during the genocide, Israeli soldiers taunted Palestinian prisoners by claiming they were playing football with their children’s heads in Gaza.
Israeli troops live streamed hundreds of videos of soldiers looting Palestinian homes, destroying children’s beds, setting homes on fire and laughing, wearing undergarments of displaced Palestinians and stealing kids’ toys.
In their mission to erase Palestine, Israeli troops have killed a record number of babies, medics, athletes, and journalists — unprecedented in any war in this century.
Recently, a UN commission, chaired by Navi Pillay, found that Israel committed genocide in Gaza.
UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories, Francesca Albanese, has repeatedly described Israel’s actions in Gaza as genocide.
In January 2024, the International Court of Justice found that genocide allegations were “plausible” and issued provisional measures ordering Israel to prevent genocidal acts, ensure humanitarian aid, and preserve evidence.
The International Criminal Court is investigating potential war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide in Gaza, with a witness asserting in October 2024 that Israel’s actions constitute these offences. It has already issued an arrest warrant against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and others.
Amnesty International, leading Israeli human rights organisations such as B’Tselem, and Physicians for Human Rights Israel, alongside experts — including Holocaust and genocide scholars like Omer Bartov from Brown University and the Lemkin Institute for Genocide Prevention — have all described Israel’s actions in Gaza as constituting genocide.
The US statement, however, omits Palestinian casualties and pain and disregards Israeli atrocities while reaffirming America’s “unwavering support for Israel’s right to exist, to defend itself, and to ensure the safety of its people.”
“As the United States marks this tragic anniversary and honours the victims, we renew our resolve to prevent such evil from ever taking place again,” Rubio’s statement adds.
The statement touted US President Donald Trump’s 20-point plan to end Israel’s genocide in Gaza, saying ,”America is leading the effort to secure the release of all hostages, end Hamas’ rule in Gaza, and advance a durable peace that ensures not only Israel’s security, but generational peace and prosperity for the region.”
“This vision of stability, security, and a future free from terror is at the heart of the President’s 20-point plan.”
Statement skips Islamophobia, highlights anti-Semitism
Israel’s genocide in Gaza also fuelled rise in Islamophobic incidents worldwide.
The Council on American-Islamic Relations reported a record 8,658 complaints of anti-Muslim discrimination in 2024 alone. Similarly, its 2023 report described a “resurgence of anti-Muslim hate,” with incidents skyrocketing after October 7, including a 15 percent share involving fatal or violent acts.
Some alarming US incidents since late 2023 include the fatal stabbing of a 6-year-old Palestinian American boy in Illinois, the attempted drowning of a 3-year-old Palestinian American girl in Texas, the stabbing of a Palestinian American man in Texas, the beating of a Muslim man in New York and a Florida shooting of two Israeli visitors whom a suspect mistook to be Palestinians.
Since October 2023, the European Commission has reported a rise in racism and Islamophobia across Europe, alongside an increase in hate crimes.
Reports indicate a surge in Islamophobia within the UK, with recorded cases doubling since 2022 to almost 6,000 in 2024, according to monitoring groups.
In 2024, Germany witnessed over 3,000 Islamophobic incidents, a sharp rise including verbal and physical assaults.
A Canadian report noted a post-October 7 “surge in Islamophobia”, intensified by anti-Arab and anti-Palestine racism.
However, Rubio’s statement highlighted the rise in anti-Semitism, while overlooking the equally concerning increase in anti-Muslim sentiment in the US and globally.
“Since October 7, 2023, we have also witnessed a troubling surge in anti-Semitism threatening Jewish communities worldwide. As I have said, there can be no compromise with anti-Semitism,” it said.
“We continue to condemn all acts of terrorism and anti-Semitism against Israel, and we call on the international community to stand with Israel during this painful anniversary.”
