As thousands of Palestinian children across Gaza face starvation two months into Israel's most recent complete blockade on humanitarian aid into the enclave, members of the Israel Defense Forces allegedly used one recent attack on a residential area as a prop in their celebration of one soldier's impending fatherhood.
In a video posted to social media on May 5—with the soldiers reportedly sharing it on their own accounts—the IDF members can be heard cheering and laughing as a building in a civilian area is leveled by an Israeli bombing, leaving blue smoke rising from the rubble in the distance.
The smoke signified that the soldier's expected child is a boy—and the troops, members of the military that's often called by Israel and its allies "the most moral army in the world," gave no indication that they were thinking of any civilians who could have been in the bombed area as they laughed loudly at the "gender reveal."
"We have reached the stage of genocidal fervor where new Israeli life is literally celebrated through the destruction of Palestinian life," said Heidi Matthews, a law professor at York University in Toronto.
Another observer, Daniel Lambert—manager of the outspoken Irish hip hop trio Kneecap, which has condemned Israel's bombardment of Gaza—called the video "the most depraved thing you'll ever see."
"As other babies starve they welcome their kid with a war crime and cheers," Lambert said.
According to Gaza's Health Ministry, the death toll in Gaza has surged past 52,000 since Israel began attacking the enclave—and blocking the entry of nearly all humanitarian aid—in October 2023 in retaliation for a Hamas-led attack.
Israel and its top international military funder, the U.S., have repeatedly insisted that the IDF is targeting Hamas—even as reporting has revealed mass graves filled with women and children, some of whom appeared to have been buried alive or with their hands tied behind their backs; and attacks like those that killed 15 paramedics who were in clearly marked vehicles and seven World Central Kitchen workers who were distributing food to Palestinians.
Israel has killed more than 17,400 children in Gaza—and many more are presumed dead and buried under rubble.
Five out of every 100 children in the enclave have been orphaned, and Israel's bombardment has left Gaza with the highest number of child amputees in the world—and with dwindling capacity to care for them as repeated bombings and the blockade have led to the near-total collapse of the healthcare system.
Despite the growing consensus among international rights groups that Israel is committing a genocide in Gaza, just 94 out of 535 voting members of the U.S. Congress have demanded a permanent cease-fire in the enclave—and speaking out against Israel's attacks has proven dangerous in the U.S., with numerous foreign students detained and threatened with deportation for organizing protests.
"While the Israeli government slaughters and starves Palestinian babies in Gaza—with the full support of our own government—its occupation forces are now blowing up buildings to stage 'gender reveal' events in celebration of the birth of their own children," said the Council on American Islamic Relations. "The inhumanity of such acts clearly demonstrates once again the brutal nature of Israel's genocidal war on Gaza and on the Palestinian people. The Israeli government must be stopped."
