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Today, the #WelcomeWithDignity campaign expressed its disgust with Customs and Border Protection's treatment of Haitian people seeking asylum at Del Rio, Texas.
Today, the #WelcomeWithDignity campaign expressed its disgust with Customs and Border Protection's treatment of Haitian people seeking asylum at Del Rio, Texas. The campaign joined dozens of other national organizations and expressed steadfast solidarity with Haitian communities and Haitian-led organizations including #WelcomeWithDignity partner Haitian Bridge Alliance. The campaign called on the United States to immediately halt expulsions to Haiti, end the misuse of Title 42, and examine the pattern of unconscionable abuse of Black asylum seekers by CBP. Human Rights First and the Haitian Bridge Alliance released a fact sheet today on the Biden administration's dangerous Haitian expulsion strategy and the U.S. history of illegal and discriminatory mistreatment of Haitians seeking safety in the United States.
"The cruelty rooted in hate, white supremacy, and xenophobia that shaped US immigration policies for years continue to brutally harm and oppress millions of people today," said Denise Bell, researcher for refugee and migrant rights at Amnesty International USA. "The Biden administration has had months to reshape how the United States treats and welcomes people and time and time again, it has failed. People seeking safety deserve much better than this from an administration that promised humanity and dignity. It's well past time for the US to uphold the right of all people to seek safety in this country and center the dignity and humanity of Haitians seeking safety."
"The abuse we are witnessing right now against Haitian asylum seekers in Del Rio is abhorrent. The images of Border Patrol officers on horseback chasing and whipping Black Haitians looking for safety following a devastating earthquake and political crisis in Haiti clearly demonstrates the direct linkage between our modern policing institutions and slave patrols - and is a condemnation of the U.S.' continued investment in the militarization of our southern border which has enabled such violence against primarily Black and Brown migrants and families," said Fernando Garcia, executive director of the Border Network for Human Rights. "Seeking asylum is a legal right, and the Biden administration is violating that right by deporting Haitian asylum seekers en masse without due process. We demand that President Biden and Secretary Mayorkas conduct an investigation into the events in Del Rio against Haitian migrants, and hold Border Patrol and all involved parties accountable. Additionally, we call on Congress to ensure these horrors at our border never happen again by enacting legislation on Border Patrol accountability to stop abuses and protect the rights of all migrants, regardless of their race or country of origin."
"Ramping up expulsions after a federal court ruled the Title 42 policy illegal is outrageous," said Blaine Bookey, Legal Director at the Center for Gender & Refugee Studies (CGRS) and co-counsel in the Huisha-Huisha v. Mayorkas case. "Sending Haitians back to a place where many will face violence, homelessness, and even death without so much as asking whether they have a fear of return is unlawful and unconscionable. CGRS has been working closely with Haitian civil society groups for over two decades. Our partners on the ground report that conditions have never been so dire, even in post-coup periods. President Biden has chosen to embrace the anti-refugee, anti-Black agenda of the Trump administration, and Haitians and their allies will not forget it."
"What is happening in Del Rio right now will go down in history as a shameful symbol of racist and inhumane U.S. border policies designed to expel, divide and exploit people in search of safety," stated Ian Philabaum, Program Director with Innovation Law Lab. "The Biden Administration can either continue down its path to a legacy of racist border enforcement or halt deportation flights to Haiti and welcome people with dignity."
"The Biden administration's treatment of our Haitian neighbors lacks a moral compass. We are horrified by the administration's cruel and inhumane treatment of Haitians seeking refuge in the United States," said Meredith Owen, Director of Policy and Advocacy for Church World Service. "Faith communities are shocked by the administration's resumption of deportations and expulsions of Haitian asylum seekers and immigrants, without regard for the life-threatening consequences, and strongly oppose unlawful Title 42 expulsions that persist. We urge the administration to immediately halt removals to Haiti, end all Title 42 expulsions and restore asylum protections, and hold CBP accountable for its abuses against Haitian migrants."
"The Biden administration's misuse of Title 42 to expel people to danger and refusal to restart asylum aren't just moral stains on the administration's record, they directly violate and subvert U.S. refugee law and international treaties," said Eleanor Acer, Senior Director of Refugee Protection at Human Rights First. "From its horrific treatment of Haitians at the border to its pursuit of a policy that public health experts have confirmed is a xenophobic ploy rooted in racism, the Biden administration continues to wage, not wind down, President Trump's all-out war on people seeking protection and the U.S asylum system."
"We cannot and will not stop shining the spotlight on this administration for its horrific treatment of Haitian people seeking asylum," said Jonathan Goldman, Executive Director of the Student Clinic for Immigrant Justice. "This is what you get from a system built on a history of white supremacy. Too few people realize the first immigration laws enacted by the US were to ensure citizenship for free white people. When we have a system built on racism, it doesn't just go away with time. We must transform our immigration system and hold the government accountable for its actions. The Biden administration must immediately suspend removals to Haiti and end Title 42 once and for all."
"The deportation of individuals from Haiti is heartbreaking to watch, and reminiscent of the cruel and illegal policies of the previous administration. It is unacceptable and we implore the Biden administration to halt Title 42 expulsions immediately and keep its earlier promise to restore protection pathways to the US," said Nili Sarit Yossinger, Executive Director of Refugee Congress.
"The brutal mis-treatment of Haitians at Del Rio and their expulsion to a country in crisis is a human rights catastrophe and represents America at its worst, said Yael Schacher, Senior U.S. Advocate at Refugees International. "The flights to Haiti must stop and we must treat Haitians seeking refuge at the border with dignity and due process."
"For an administration that has stated that Black lives matter to them, the photos that circulated the media yesterday point to a different reality. That is the reality that this administration continues to view Black & Indigenous bodies as disposable" said Dr. Jessica Hernandez, Climate Justice Policy Strategist for International Mayan League. "The administration should call those officers shown in the photos beating Haitain refugees into question--this should also be grounds for asylum because those officers violated their human rights. No person should be subjected to this malicious treatment or policing. The administration should also remediate the violence Haitain climate refugees and asylum seekers experienced by halting the deportation flights. They should come through as an administration that stands for Black lives and do just by our Haitain relatives. The International Mayan League was deeply hurt by those photos and those photos only captured seconds of all the horrendous austracities our Haitain relatives were facing at the hands of this administration. Shame on any political leader who does not use their voice to speak against this."
"The Biden Administration should be ashamed of its reprehensible, racist treatment of Haitian refugees fleeing political turmoil and environmental disaster," said Adela de la Torre, deputy director of Justice Action Center. "President Biden must end the double speak and finally follow through on his campaign promises to end Title 42 and treat all immigrants with dignity. We join Black, immigrant-led groups in demanding the administration cease all deportation flights to Haiti, grant humanitarian parole and assistance to Haitian asylum seekers, and investigate CBP's violence against Haitians in Del Rio, Texas."
"This is a clear moment, where we have a choice in how we welcome some of the world's most vulnerable people fleeing the effects of climate change and political instability, said Nicole Melaku, executive director of the National Partnership for New Americans. The expulsion of thousands of Hatian migrants without the opportunity to process their claim for asylum or other protected status is a moral failure of our nation and the continued use of TItle 42 is simply reprehensible at a time when this administration should be seeking to undo the immeasurable harm of this racist policy from the last administration. We cannot inch our way toward welcoming Black migrants and turn our heads to ignore the horrific conditions and humanitarian crisis unfolding before us.
"CLINIC condemns the Biden administration's unconscionable decision to increase the deportation of thousands of Haitian asylum seekers arriving at the U.S. border pleading to save their lives," said Anna Gallagher, CLINIC executive director. "This decision is bad domestic, bad foreign policy, immoral and inhumane. It is hypocritical to redesignate Temporary Protected Status for Haiti, based on the conclusion that it is too dangerous for people to return to Haiti pre-earthquake, and now take this decision to expedite deportations to even worse conditions. CLINIC wishes to make clear to every Black asylum seeker and immigrant that we see you and your lives matter. To our Black immigrant partners - we stand in solidarity and action with you at this horrific moment and for as long as it takes to eradicate anti-Black racism and policy from the U.S. immigration system."
"It is unconscionable and unfathomably cruel that the Biden administration is ramping up removal flights to Haiti at a time when the country is reeling from the aftermath of a catastrophic earthquake and the assassination of its president," said Laura St. John, Legal Director at the Florence Immigrant & Refugee Rights Project. "Despite the fact that the Biden administration has designated Haiti for Temporary Protected Status and a court last week ruled that expelling families under Title 42 is illegal, the administration nevertheless appears determined to slam the doors to the United States shut to Haitians seeking safe refuge. We strongly urge the administration to immediately reverse course, halt all planned deportation flights, and allow Haitians seeking asylum the opportunity to exercise their right to request safety and protection here in the United States."
Carolina Martin Ramos, Esq., Co-Executive Director, Comunidad Maya Pixan Ixim, stated: "The world watches as U.S. immigration authorities, reminiscent of slave patrols, whip Black refugees at the southern border. How many times will we watch news of Black and Brown bodies subjected to violence and death at the hands of CBP? Besides Federal Indian Law, U.S. immigration policies are some of the most obvious examples of white supremacy under U.S. settler colonial law and policy. It is 2021 and under the Biden administration, we are still seeing horrific images of Black bodies subjected to state violence. We stand with our Black and African descent relatives to demand that our Haitian relatives seeking asylum are treated with dignity and respect. We cannot ignore these serious human rights violations by the U.S. government on Indigenous stolen lands. U.S. political interventions along with corporate business interests have created the conditions that continue to displace African descent and Indigenous peoples from places like Haiti and Guatemala. U.S. foreign policies effectively force us to seek asylum in the U.S. and then U.S. immigration officials brutalize us when we seek to assert our rights to seek asylum under international laws. These human rights abuses are delegitimizing the United States in the world's eyes and showing that the U.S. has never really stood as a beacon for human rights. We stand adamantly in our commitment to fight for the dignity and human rights of our Black and Haitian relatives and CMPI stands with all our relations to decry all violence and suffering caused by settler colonialism and white supremacy on stolen lands."
"The inhumane brutality exercised at the southern border by CBP officials using horse whips to attack and terrorize Haitian migrants brings to light the xenophobic and white supremacist foundations of our immigration system. An investigation must take place immediately to hold those involved accountable. The administration must look long and hard at these images and recommit to a complete rehaul of our asylum system starting with ending Title 42, immediate suspension of deportation flights to Haiti, and increased parole for Haitian migrants. DHS must address the appallingly toxic culture of CBP immediately. By ignoring the demands of Haitian-led organizations like Haitian Bridge, the administration is choosing to perpetuate anti-blackness. We will not stand idly by and allow this to happen to our Haitian community." - Joyce Noche, Legal Services Director, Immigrant Defenders Law Center
Michele Garnett McKenzie, Deputy Director of The Advocates for Human Rights, stated: "The Advocates for Human Rights is outraged by the physical assaults and verbal abuse of Haitians by U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers in Del Rio. This conduct violates the fundamental human right to seek asylum and runs counter to our values as a nation. DHS must take immediate action to investigate and hold individuals accountable for these human rights violations. DHS also must fix the systemic failures and toxic organizational culture which allows abuses like this to occur. The United States must commit to a migration system that recognizes and holds people accountable for ensuring human dignity."
"We are appalled by the cruel treatment we've seen from U.S. border officials towards Haitians along the U.S.-Mexico border. To expel Haitian families and adults back to a country suffering multiple crises, when even Haitian government officials have said they cannot accept people, is unconscionable. A federal court has already ruled that the Title 42 policy is illegal, it's time to end it. We urge the Biden Administration to immediately halt removals of Haitians and instead utilize humanitarian parole to process them fairly, ensuring that all those who seek protection can do so humanely. We can do better as a country and extend a welcoming hand to our Haitian neighbors. This is not who we are," states Daniella Burgi-Palomino, LAWG Co-director.
"It is reprehensible that Haitian families seeking safety amidst political violence and a devastating earthquake at home are met with anti-Black violence and no real opportunity to seek protection at the U.S. border," said Katharina Obser, director of the Migrant Rights and Justice Program at the Women's Refugee Commission. "That the administration is choosing to respond to Haitians seeking safety by increasing removal flights full of families, including children, back to Haiti continues its morally indefensible and unlawful deterrence tactics and denies those legally seeking safety any meaningful chance to do so. We urge the Biden administration and Secretary Mayorkas to enact desperately needed accountability for what is happening along the border, and to once and for all ensure Haitian migrants can exercise their legal right to seek asylum with dignity."
"We demand a full and immediate reversal by the Biden Administration on its approach to this situation," said Efren Olivares, deputy legal director of the SPLC's Immigrant Justice Project. "Without one, and without holding federal officers accountable for abusing Haitian immigrants and asylum seekers, the U.S. will abdicate any remaining hopes of retaining moral legitimacy on human rights issues. At this point, the U.S. is not only flouting its legal obligations to asylum seekers but also perpetuating anti-immigrant and anti-Black racism."
"Seeking asylum is a fundamental human and legal right. Yet, thousands of Haitians who survived devastating natural disasters and political violence are being dehumanized, denied due process, and violently and forcibly returned to the very conditions they fled," said Marielena Hincapie, executive director of the National Immigration Law Center. "This is legally and morally unacceptable. President Biden was elected on a campaign promise to undo the harm of four years under the Trump administration, which decimated the systems set up to protect people seeking safety. Instead of striving to keep that promise, the Biden administration has instead doubled down on a failed and inhumane strategy of deterrence and exacerbated the harm to vulnerable communities. We urge the Biden administration to immediately stop all deportations to Haiti and end all policies that deprive people of their rights at the border. The administration must chart a different course to welcome those seeking safety with dignity and humanity."
"Jesuit Refugee Service/USA is deeply concerned about the U.S. decision to ramp up deportation of Haitian migrants, particularly after the courts deemed Title 42 illegal, said Joan Rosenhauer, Executive Director of JRS/USA. Disturbing images of CBP officers committing terrible acts of violence against Haitian migrants only highlight the abuse some defenseless migrants face in the process of deportation. The U.S. must offer protection to those seeking safety at our border and work towards rebuilding the U.S. asylum system. The Biden Administration needs to stop deporting refugees based on a Trump-era policy that has no scientific basis and only places migrants and refugees in harm's way."
"We stand in solidarity with our partners in condemning the horrific treatment of Haitian asylum seekers and calling out the long history of discrimination against Black migrants," said Carmen Maria Rey, U.S. Legal Services Director of the International Refugee Assistance Project (IRAP). "The Biden administration must be held accountable for continuing, and in some cases, expanding, the hateful policies of the previous administration. Seeking asylum is legal. Brutally denying migrants their human rights is not. The Biden administration must immediately end Title 42 expulsions and suspend deportations to Haiti."
"Yesterday 45 children were reportedly deported to Haiti. 45 children. What about the dangers of return in the midst of political turmoil, an earthquake disaster, hunger and a Covid-strained medical system? Are returnees even tested, or are we exporting Covid? There are 4 flights scheduled to Port-au-Prince today. How many of those deported are families, mothers, babies?" said Thomas Cartwright, Leadership Team at Witness at the Border. "The images of CBP on horseback running down migrants delivering food to the hungry are disgusting and disturbing. We need to stop expelling migrants back to danger. And we need to stop pretending that Title 42 is about public health; it's merely another tool to say, 'Don't come.' Let them in!"
Amnesty International is a global movement of millions of people demanding human rights for all people - no matter who they are or where they are. We are the world's largest grassroots human rights organization.
(212) 807-8400"Trump explicitly threatened to use the state to target anyone he and MAGA scapegoat for Kirk's murder," said New Republic writer Greg Sargeant.
White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller vowed Friday that he and President Donald Trump would use this week's assassination of Charlie Kirk to "dismantle" the organized left using state power.
In a rant on Fox News, Miller—the architect of Trump's mass roundups and deportations of immigrants—shouted that the best way to honor Kirk's memory was to carry out a political purge against the left, which he called a "domestic terrorism movement in this country."
Miller provided few details on what specific left-wing figures or groups he believed were stoking this violence. He claimed the left was waging "doxxing campaigns" against right-wing figures, though he cited no specific examples.
He did, however, cite many examples of harsh, but nevertheless First Amendment-protected, speech that he considered an incitement to violence, including that "the left calls people enemies of the republic, calls them fascists, says they're Nazis, says they're evil," and claimed that many people online were "celebrating" Kirk's assassination.
"The last message that Charlie Kirk gave to me before he joined his creator in heaven," Miller said, was, "that we have to dismantle and take on the radical left organizations in this country that are fomenting violence, and we are going to do that."
"Under President Trump's leadership," Miller vowed to shut down these unspecified leftist groups.
"I don't care how," he said. "It could be a RICO charge, a conspiracy charge, conspiracy against the United States, insurrection. But we are going to do what it takes to dismantle the organizations and the entities that are fomenting riots, that are doxxing, that are trying to inspire terrorism, that are committing acts of wanton violence."
RICO refers to the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, which the government has traditionally used to prosecute organized crime groups. Trump later said one of his targets for these charges may be the billionaire liberal donor George Soros, the owner of the Open Society Foundations nonprofit, whom Trump accused of funding "riots," a charge Soros denied.
Miller did not limit his call to destroying those who commit crimes. He also spoke of those "spreading this evil hate," telling them, "You will live in exile. Because the power of law enforcement under President Trump's leadership will be used to find you, will be used to take away your money, to take away your power, and if you've broken the law, to take away your freedom."
An official White House account on X reposted a clip of Miller's comments calling for the "dismantling" of left-wing organizations:
"Trump signaled he intended to use Kirk's shooting as a pretext for a broad crackdown on the left," said Jordan Weissman, a journalist at The Argument. "Here's Stephen Miller being much more explicit. He's talking about RICO and terrorism charges, echoing right-wing influencers."
Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, a senior fellow at the American Immigration Council, meanwhile, pointed out the irony of the threat coming from Miller, noting that he "routinely slanders his political opponents with vile language that treats disagreement as if it’s treason."
Little is still known about what, if any, political ideology precisely motivated Kirk's alleged shooter, 22-year-old Tyler Robinson, who was apprehended in Utah on Friday. Robinson was not affiliated with any political party, and the scrawlings he left behind at the scene of the crime contain a mishmash of hyper-online but only vaguely political symbols and phrases.
But even before the suspect had been identified or apprehended, efforts had begun on the right to use Kirk's murder as an excuse to crack down on their left-wing enemies. In an ominous speech Thursday night, Trump blamed the shooting on the "radical left," saying it was “directly responsible for the terrorism that we're seeing in our country today, and it must stop right now."
On Fox News Friday, Trump indicated that he was extending this dragnet to anyone who has expressed harsh words for figures on the right. The president said:
For years those on the radical left have compared wonderful Americans like Charlie to Nazis. This kind of rhetoric is directly responsible for the terrorism that we’re seeing in our country and must stop right now. My administration will find each and every one of those who contributed to this atrocity and to other political violence, including the organizations that fund it and support it, as well as those who go after our judges and law enforcement officials.
(Graphic by The Economist, data from the Prosecution Project)
The portrayal of the left as a unique "national security threat" is not borne out by data. On Friday, The Economist published an analysis of data from the Prosecution Project, an open-source database that catalogues crimes that seek "a socio-political change or to communicate."
The findings reaffirm what has been found in previous studies: That "extremists on both left and right commit violence, although more incidents appear to come from right-leaning attackers."
During the same Fox interview, when a host noted the prevalence of right-wing extremism, Trump said: "I’ll tell you something that’s going to get me in trouble, but I couldn’t care less. The radicals on the right oftentimes are radical because they don’t want to see crime. They’re saying, ‘We don’t want these people coming in. We don’t want you burning our shopping centers. We don’t want you shooting our people in the middle of the street.’”
Trump concluded: “The radicals on the left are the problem.”
Meanwhile, virtually all prominent figures and groups on the left—from politicians like Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), and New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani to writers for left-wing publications like Jacobin or The Nation to activist groups like Public Citizen, MoveOn, the ACLU, and Indivisible—have unequivocally condemned violence against Kirk, even while repudiating his views.
"Trump explicitly threatened to use the state to target anyone he and MAGA scapegoat for Kirk's murder," said New Republic writer Greg Sargeant. "We really could see Stephen Miller and Kash Patel use the FBI for 60s-style domestic persecution."
Citing US President Donald Trump's anti-climate executive actions, Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin on Friday unveiled a proposal to end a program that requires power plants, refineries, landfills, and more to report their emissions.
While Zeldin claimed that "the Greenhouse Gas Reporting Program is nothing more than bureaucratic red tape that does nothing to improve air quality," experts and climate advocates emphasized the importance of the data collection, which began in 2010.
"President Trump promised Americans would have the cleanest air on Earth, but once again, Trump's EPA is taking actions that move us further from that goal," Joseph Goffman, who led the EPA Office of Air and Radiation during the Biden administration, said in a statement from the Environmental Protection Network, a group for former agency staff.
"Cutting the Greenhouse Gas Reporting Program blinds Americans to the facts about climate pollution. Without it, policymakers, businesses, and communities cannot make sound decisions about how to cut emissions and protect public health," he explained.
As The New York Times reported:
For the past 15 years, the Greenhouse Gas Reporting Program has collected data from about 8,000 of the country's largest industrial facilities. That information has helped guide numerous decisions on federal policy and has been shared with the United Nations, which has required developed countries to submit tallies of their emissions.
In addition, private companies often rely on the program's data to demonstrate to investors that their efforts to cut emissions are working. And communities often use it to determine whether local facilities are releasing air pollution that threatens public health.
"By hiding this information from the public, Administrator Zeldin is denying Americans the ability to see the damaging results of his actions on climate pollution, air quality, and public health," Goffman said. "It's a further addition to the deliberate blockade against future action on climate change—and yet another example of the administration putting polluters before people's health."
Sierra Club's director of climate policy and advocacy, Patrick Drupp, stressed Friday that "EPA cannot avoid the climate crisis by simply burying its head in the sand as it baselessly cuts off its main source of greenhouse gas emissions data."
"The agency has provided no defensible reason to cancel the program; this is nothing more than EPA's latest action to deny the reality of climate change and do everything it can to put the fossil fuel industry and corporate polluters before people," he added. "The Sierra Club will oppose this proposal every step of the way.”
Margie Alt, director of the Climate Action Campaign, similarly said that "the Trump administration's latest pro-polluter move to eliminate the Greenhouse Gas Reporting Program is just another brazen step in their Polluters First agenda."
Responding to the administration's claim that the proposal would save businesses up to $2.4 billion in regulatory costs, Alt said that "under the guise of saving Americans money, this is an attempt on the part of Trump, Lee Zeldin, and their polluter buddies to hide the ball and avoid responsibility for the deadly, dangerous, and expensive pollution they produce."
"If they succeed, the nation's biggest polluters will spew climate-wrecking pollution without accountability," she warned. "The idea that tracking pollution does 'nothing to improve air quality' is absurd," she added. "If you don't measure it, you can't manage it. Hiding information and allowing fossil fuel companies to avoid accountability are the true goals of this rule."
The Trump admin is now proposing to kill the Greenhouse Gas Reporting Program, which since 2010 has required 8,000+ coal plants, refineries, and factories to report their climate pollution.Without it, polluters get a free pass.No reporting = no accountability.
— Climate Action Now (@climateactapp.bsky.social) September 12, 2025 at 7:04 PM
BlueGreen Alliance executive director Jason Walsh declared that "the Trump administration continues to prove it does not care about the American people and their basic right to breathe clean air. This flies in the face of the EPA's core mission—to protect the environment and public health."
"The proposal is wildly unpopular with even industry groups speaking against it because they know the value of having this emissions data available," he noted. "Everybody in this country deserves to know the air quality in their community and how their lives can be affected when they live near high-emitting facilities."
“Knowledge is power and—in this case—health," he concluded. "The administration shouldn't be keeping people in the dark about the air they and their neighbors are breathing."
This proposal from Zeldin came a day after the EPA moved to reverse rules protecting people from unsafe levels of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), often called "forever chemicals," in US drinking water, provoking similar criticism. Earthjustice attorney Katherine O'Brien said that his PFAS decision "prioritizes chemical industry profits and utility companies' bottom line over the health of children and families across the country."
"Looking forward to the contortions of people whose paychecks are dependent on denying that any of this is the case," said one observer.
Belying persistent efforts by Israel and its defenders to deny the staggering number of Palestinians killed during the 23-month Gaza genocide, the general who led the Israel Defense Forces during most of the war acknowledged this week that around 220,000 Palestinians have been killed or wounded.
Former Israel Defense Forces Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi—who stepped down in March after leading the IDF since January 2023—told residents of Ein Habor in southern Israel earlier this week that "over 10%" of Gaza's population of approximately 2.2 million "were killed or injured" since October 2023.
"This is not a gentle war, we took the gloves off from the first minute" Halevi said, adding that "not once" has any legal authority "limited" his wartime conduct.
Following the October 7 attack, the IDF dramatically loosened its rules of engagement, effectively allowing an unlimited number of civilians to be killed when targeting a single Hamas member, no matter how low-ranking.
The IDF’s use of massive ordnance, including US-supplied 1,000- and 2,000-pound “bunker buster” bombs capable of leveling entire city blocks, and utilization of artificial intelligence to select targets has resulted in staggering numbers of civilian deaths, including numerous instances of dozens or more people being massacred in single strikes.
Halevi insisted that "we are doing everything in accordance with international law."
The International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague disagrees, having issued warrants for the arrest of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for alleged crimes against humanity and war crimes including forced starvation and murder. Israel's conduct in the war is also the subject of an International Court of Justice (ICJ) genocide case filed by South Africa and supported by around two dozen nations.
Halevi's admission tracks with official Gaza Health Ministry figures showing at least 228,815 people killed or wounded by Israeli forces in Gaza. GHM also says that around 9,000 people are missing and presumed dead and buried beneath rubble. Experts—including the authors of multiple peer-reviewed studies in the prestigious British medical journal The Lancet—assert that the actual death toll in Gaza is much higher than reported.
The remarks by Halevi come less than a month after a joint investigation by Israeli journalist and filmmaker Yuval Abraham of +972 Magazine and Local Call and Guardian senior international affairs correspondent Emma Graham-Harrison revealed that, as of May, 5 in 6 Palestinians—or 83%—killed by the IDF through the first 19 months of the war were civilians. The report, which drew from classified IDF intelligence data, blew the lid off of Israeli government claims of a historically low civilian-to-combatant kill ratio.
Responding to Halevi's admission, Drop Site News national security and foreign affairs reporter Murtaza Hussain said on social media that he is "looking forward to the contortions of people whose paychecks are dependent on denying that any of this is the case."
Israeli officials and media, along with their supportive US counterparts during both the Biden and Trump administrations, have generally cast doubt or outright denied GHM figures—which have been found to be reliable by the IDF, US officials, and researchers—by linking them to Hamas. This comes in addition to widespread Israeli and US denials of Israel's forced famine and starvation deaths and IDF war crimes in Gaza.
However, there have been rare instances of frankness, including when Barbara Leaf, a senior State Department official during the Biden administration, said that Gaza casualties could be "even higher than are being cited." Biden-era State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller also admitted that the Gaza death toll "could very well be more" than GHM reported, even as he lied to the public about who was thwarting ceasefire efforts.