Israeli forces continue to pound Gaza with airstrikes, killing hundreds, wounding thousands, and displacing even more. Just weeks after Human Rights Watch finally labeled Israel an apartheid state, Israel is doing its best to prove the designation amid widespread war crime accusations.

Gaza is not a state at war with Israel. A narrow strip of land subjected to a brutal siege for more than fifteen years, Gaza is alternately called the world’s largest refugee camp and the world’s largest open-air prison. UN reports describe it as “unlivable.” The majority of its two million people live in cramped refugee camps.

The bitter irony is that the dire situation in Gaza was created by Israel itself in the heat of war.