.There are too many people who are quick to claim that any criticism of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s conduct of the war in Gaza is antisemitism. However, the clear evidence shows Israel’s continued blocking of food and aid to the people of Palestine by the prime minister has inflicted starvation on men, women & children. The undeniable fact is that since the war began on October 7, 2023, following Hamas’s attack on Israel, Israel imposed a full siege on Gaza, cutting off food, water, fuel, and electricity. Israel has caused access for humanitarian aid to be extremely limited and inconsistent, especially in northern Gaza, where conditions have become dire. The fact is that UNICEF and the World Food Programme have documented children dying of malnutrition and dehydration. Aid groups like Doctors Without Borders and Oxfam report massive food insecurity, with some families surviving on grass or animal feed. Save the Children (May 2025) reported that 93% of Gaza’s children (approx. 930,000) are at critical risk of famine. Families are resorting to eating grass, expired flour, and animal feed. One father described: “I don’t know how to feed my family… My wife is going to lose our unborn child.” More than 100 international humanitarian organizations warned that Israeli restrictions on aid are endangering the lives of doctors and aid workers.

Even worse, crowds seeking food being distributed have been killed by the Israeli military. Israel controls almost every part of the aid distribution process.  Thousands of aid trucks loaded with lifesaving food, water, and medical supplies are lined up outside Gaza, and hundreds more are inside the border. A few miles away, a third of Gaza’s population is facing starvation, and a growing number are dying of malnutrition.  The trucks are prevented from supplying the food and supplies to the desperate crowds by the Israeli military. The Israeli military says it has allowed an average of 70 trucks a day since May, but claims the United Nations and other aid agencies have failed to distribute it. The aid agencies deny these claims. But, even this number is already far fewer than the hundreds of trucks needed to feed the population, and this is only after a three-month total blockade. In addition, more than 1,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces since May while trying to get food in the Gaza Strip, the U.N. human rights office said. The Israeli military has killed at least 67 people waiting for UN aid lorries in northern Gaza, the territory’s Hamas-run health ministry says.  The UN World Food Programme said its 25-truck convoy “encountered massive crowds of hungry civilians, which came under gunfire”, soon after it crossed from Israel and cleared checkpoints. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said that it had “fired warning shots” to remove “an immediate threat”. It disputed the number of reported deaths. Causing the deliberate or unnecessary starvation of men, women, and children by unwarranted blocking of available food and aid is unquestionably inhumane and universally condemned as a means of war. America has tolerated Netanyahu’s refusal to remedy this immediate human emergency while at the same time providing billions of dollars and war supplies to Israel. This is morally and ethically wrong on our part, and the administration should act now.

In another part of the world, Ukraine, which became an independent country in 1991 after the collapse of the Soviet Union, has been working to forge closer ties with the European Union and NATO, which has escalated the tensions with Russia. Under the direction of Russia’s President Vladimir Putin, in 2014, Russia illegally annexed the Crimean Peninsula and began backing pro-Russian separatists in parts of eastern Ukraine. Eight years of fighting have resulted in the deaths of over 3,000 people, forced more than 850,000 people from their homes, and left almost 3 million in need of aid. Eight years later, the conflict escalated into a war. Since that time, bombs and shelling continue, damaging homes, hospitals, schools and other civilian infrastructure. Over 3 million people are displaced inside Ukraine, while over 6 million have fled to seek safety.

The primary means of attacking Ukraine under President Putin in recent times has been with Iranian-made Shahed drones and cruise missiles. They have been used to strike cities far from the front lines and target power stations, hospitals, schools, and apartment buildings. These drone attacks occur during nighttime or civilian rush hours, causing psychological terror and casualties. The attacks have killed thousands of civilians since 2022. They have damaged or destroyed essential infrastructure (water, electricity, medical services) as well as disrupted winter heating, especially during sub-zero temperatures. Between February 2022 and April 2025, short-range drone attacks killed at least 395 civilians and injured 2,635, according to the UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine (HRMMU). Their data indicates a sharp increase in civilian casualties from short-range drones throughout 2024, with a particularly alarming spike in the last six months. This last December, Russia launched an “inhumane” attack on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure on Christmas Day, with explosions reported across the country. That was the thirteenth time this year Russia has carried out a major attack on Ukraine’s power grid, according to DTEK, the country’s largest energy provider, leaving it in a precarious position while the war grinds into a third winter. Half a million households were left without heating in the Kharkiv region in temperatures of 37 degrees Fahrenheit. Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said preliminary data indicated that Russian forces used North Korean missiles in the Kyiv strike. He described Russia, North Korea, and Iran, which have provided drones to Russia, as a “coalition of murderers.”

More recently, Russia fired more than 700 attack and decoy drones at Ukraine in one night, topping previous nightly barrages for the third time in two weeks, part of Moscow’s intensifying aerial and ground assault in the three-year war. The largest children’s hospital in Ukraine was directly hit by a missile. A maternity hospital was later damaged too. Multiple residential buildings and several substations of the main energy company were completely destroyed. Russia targeted Ukraine’s childcare, medicine, and treatment of children with cancer, and attacked children.

Russia’s drone bombing of Ukrainian civilians—particularly in Kherson—is described by UN investigators, human rights organizations, and world leaders as inhumane, illegal, and constituting war crimes and crimes against humanity. Both Human Rights Watch and the UN Commission conclude these attacks amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity. The deliberate targeting of civilians and civilian infrastructure—including homes, ambulances, grocery stores, and utility services—constitutes intentional violations of international humanitarian law.

The invasion by Russia of Ukraine is widely considered an illegal act of aggression under international law. Under international humanitarian law, hospitals enjoy special protection. Children are never and can never be a legitimate target; they must be protected at all times. When Russian forces attack civilians, their homes and businesses, their hospitals and cultural sites, these attacks are a violation under all civilized and accepted international law.

Prime Minister Netanyahu and President Putin are both responsible for the inhumane conduct of the conflict we have witnessed, causing noncombatant human suffering and death. America has done little to take action. Perhaps that’s because the Trump Administration is busy concentrating on constructing more detention centers for immigrants they are arresting for deportation. The action is identical to that followed by the Nazi Gestapo in arresting and confining the German Jews in World War II.