We do not need to wonder what the Israeli military’s next move will be. Israel’s government has made its intentions clear: as Israeli minister of defense Yoav Gallant promised this week, “We are imposing a complete siege on Gaza. No electricity, no food, no water, no fuel.” Attempting to justify such cruelty against Gaza’s civilian population, Gallant added, “We are fighting human animals, and we will act accordingly.” Dr Raz Segal, an associate professor of Holocaust and genocide studies at Stockton University, says of the Israeli government’s threats and ongoing military assault, “Indeed, Israel’s genocidal assault on Gaza is quite explicit, open, and unashamed.”

As of this moment, in the week and a half that’s passed since Hamas’s shockingly brutal attacks killed 1,400 Israeli civilians in southern Israel and took approximately 199 Israelis hostage, the Israeli military has already killed over 2,800 Palestinians in Gaza. Thousands more Palestinians are on the brink of death as a result of the siege, which is depriving Gaza’s hospitals of fuel and critical supplies to operate. Horror is expected to unfold imminently as Israel is poised to initiate a ground invasion in Gaza at any moment. When Israeli troops last launched a summer 2014 ground assault in Gaza, a war that lasted for over a month, it became what was then Israel’s deadliest war in Gaza yet. The bloodshed of this past week alone has already far surpassed the civilian casualties of the 2014 war.