FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
August 24, 2025
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Washington, D.C. | The American‑Arab Anti‑Discrimination Committee (ADC) condemns Israel’s violent invasion and ground assault on Gaza City and surrounding towns. Tanks and warplanes have pounded neighborhoods including Zeitoun, Shejaiya, and Sabra as Israeli leaders vow to seize the city, even as international agencies confirm famine conditions there. This invasion is tearing through a population already pushed to the brink by displacement, siege, and starvation– a gross violation of U.S. and international law and a moral catastrophe of historic scale.
Famine, mass displacement, and bombardment are converging on a population trapped without safe exit or care. Israel claims it targets fighters, not civilians. Yet, a joint investigation based on Israel’s own internal military intelligence database confirms that 83% of those killed in Gaza are civilians, a figure that exposes the enormity of this atrocity and contradicts repeated official claims. Despite the Gaza Health Ministry recording over 62,000 deaths and more than 157,000 wounded, credible research—including analysis published in The Lancet—warns the true toll is far higher, with tens of thousands of bodies still trapped under rubble and unaccounted for.
In leaked audio aired on Israel’s Channel 12, Aharon Haliva, former head of military intelligence, chillingly declared: “The fact that there are already 50,000 dead in Gaza is necessary and required for future generations. For each [victim] on 7 October, 50 Palestinians have to die … There’s no choice, they need a Nakba every now and then to feel the consequences.”
These admissions reveal not just reckless disregard for human life but an intentional policy of ethnic cleansing. ADC has long affirmed that, since the Nakba of 1948, Israel’s central objective has been the systematic elimination of Palestinians—an agenda made possible only through continued U.S. support and complicity. This staggering civilian death rate places Gaza among the worst genocides in modern history, a deliberate campaign of mass killing and starvation against a besieged population.
The invasion of Gaza City is the latest development in their unabetted extermination campaign. Israel’s leaders have made clear this genocide is the deliberate destruction of Palestinian life. Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich openly demanded harsher measures against Palestinians who remain, stating: “Whoever doesn’t evacuate [Gaza City], don’t let them. No water, no electricity – let them die of hunger or surrender. This is what we want, and you’re [IDF] capable of doing it.”
These chilling words expose the genocidal intent behind Israel’s actions.
Since Israel tightened its blockade on Gaza in March, Palestinians on the ground have consistently reported widespread famine—yet only now have so-called ‘reputable’ international bodies acknowledged it. This delay is a true travesty. On Friday, the world’s leading food crisis ‘authority,’ The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), finally declared a phase 5 catastrophic famine in Gaza. Nearly one-third of Gaza’s population, 641,000 people, face starvation, destitution, and death, while another 1.14 million are in phase 4 emergency conditions. Food supplies have collapsed: 87% of UN aid trucks were intercepted in July, bakeries shuttered, wheat flour prices have soared 3,400% since February, and families are scavenging through rubble for food. The IPC’s Famine Review Committee warns this crisis is “entirely man-made” and that avoidable deaths will rise exponentially without a ceasefire.
ADC calls on President Trump to use the full weight of U.S. power to end this genocide immediately; we demand an immediate halt to all U.S. military aid to Israel, because there can be no meaningful ceasefire while weapons continue to flow; we insist that all crossings and points of entry be opened at once so UN‑managed humanitarian assistance can move freely and at scale to every part of Gaza; and we demand full accountability, under U.S. and international law, for every official and entity responsible for this genocide and for those enabling it– an eternal stain on the United States and on all who support this genocide.
Americans have had enough of their taxpayer dollars funding this horrific genocide – we must hold accountable every official who has supported Israel’s actions. ADC, together with our hundreds of thousands of members, will work to ensure these individuals never return to power.
U.S. complicity must end now.