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military aid
Lancet Study Shows Over 3 Million Years of Human Life Lost in Israeli Assault on Gaza
"To speak of 3 million years of human life erased is to confront the true scale of this atrocity—generations of children, parents, and families wiped out," said the head of a US advocacy group.
Nov 03, 2025
As Israeli forces continued to violate a fragile ceasefire agreement with Hamas, killing more people in the Gaza Strip on Monday, the largest Muslim civil rights group in the United States renewed calls for cutting off military aid to Israel, citing a new study in The Lancet.
"This new Lancet study offers more evidence of the catastrophic human cost of Israel's genocidal campaign against the Palestinian people," Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) national executive director Nihad Awad said in a statement.
The correspondence published Friday by the famed British medical journal was submitted by Colorado State University professor Sammy Zahran, an expert in health economics, and Dr. Ghassan Abu-Sittah, a British Palestinian surgeon teaching at the American University of Beirut in Lebanon.
Zahran and Abu-Sittah provided an estimate of the number of years of life lost, based on an official death toll list published by the Gaza Ministry of Health at the end of July, which included the age and sex of 60,199 Palestinians. They noted that the list is "restricted to deaths linked explicitly to actions by the Israeli military, excluding indirect deaths resulting from the ruin of infrastructure and medical facilities, restriction of food and water, and the loss of medical personnel that support life."
The pair calculated life expectancies in the state of Palestine—Gaza and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem—by sex for all ages, using mortality and population data from the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs for 2022. They estimated that a total of 3,082,363 life-years were lost in Gaza as a result of the Israeli assault since October 7, 2023.
"We find that most life-years lost are among civilians, even under the relaxed definition of a supposed combatant involving all men and boys of possible conscription age (15–44 years)," the paper states. "More than 1 million life-years involving children under the age of 15 years... have been lost."
CAIR's Awad said, "To speak of 3 million years of human life erased is to confront the true scale of this atrocity—generations of children, parents, and families wiped out. It is a deliberate effort to destroy a people."
Israel faces a genocide case at the International Court of Justice over its conduct in Gaza, and the International Criminal Court last year issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant.
"The United States and the international community must end their complicity by halting all military aid to Israel and supporting full accountability for these crimes under international law," Awad argued.
A report published last month by the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft and the Costs of War Project at Brown University found that the Biden and Trump administrations provided at least $21.7 billion in military aid to Israel since the start of the war.
Federal law prohibits the US government from providing security assistance to foreign military units credibly accused of human rights abuses. The Washington Post last week reported on a classified State Department document detailing "many hundreds" of alleged violations by Israeli forces in Gaza that are expected to take "multiple years" to review.
With President Donald Trump seeking a Nobel Peace Prize, the US helped negotiate the current ceasefire, which began on October 10, after over two years of devastating retaliation for the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel. The head of Gaza's Government Media Office said Monday that Israeli forces have committed at least 194 violations of the agreement.
As of Sunday, the ministry's death count was at 68,865, with at least 170,670 people wounded. Previously published research, including multiple studies in The Lancet, has concluded that the official tally is likely a significant undercount.
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Prominent Jewish Figures Call On World Leaders to 'Refuse' Complicity in Israeli Crimes in Gaza, West Bank
The United Nations and member states must "use relevant leverage, including targeted sanctions on governmental bodies and individuals responsible for violations of international law," reads a new letter.
Oct 22, 2025
With the Palestinian news agency in Gaza reporting that Israel has violated the 12-day-old ceasefire agreement with Hamas at least 80 times and killed at least 80 people in the exclave, more than 460 prominent Jewish artists, writers, rights advocates, and policymakers on Wednesday called on world leaders—including at the United Nations—to intensify the international pressure that helped push Israel to sign the fragile truce deal.
"It was international pressure that helped to secure this ceasefire, and it must be sustained to guarantee that it endures," reads a letter organized by Jews Demand Action. "The ceasefire must be the beginning, not the end. The risk of reverting to a political reality of indifference to occupation and permanent conflict is too great. This same pressure must be continued to deliver a new era of peace and justice for all—Palestinians and Israelis alike."
The letter was initiated by former Israeli Knesset Member Avrum Burg, former Israeli peace negotiator Daniel Levy, Israeli-American activist Libby Lenkinski, Belgian former Member of European Parliament Simone Susskind, US columnist and journalist Peter Beinart, and UK activist Em Hilton.
The signatories said that they "deplore the fact that Israeli leaders have repeatedly taken to the world stage to declare" that their bombardment of Gaza—which has killed more than 68,000 Palestinians and decimated nearly all housing units across the exclave along with hospitals, schools, and other civilian infrastructure—has been "committed in the name of the Jewish people."
"As Jews and as human beings, we declare: Not in our name," reads the letter, which was also signed by actor and writer Wallace Shawn, British filmmaker Jonathan Glazer, Israeli journalist Yuval Abraham, and actor Hannah Einbinder. "Not in the name of our heritage, our faith, or our moral tradition. The monumental scale of the killing and destruction, the forced displacement, the deliberate withholding of life-sustaining necessities, and the ongoing criminal actions in the West Bank must end and never be repeated."
"It is time to do everything possible to definitively end the Israeli government’s collective punishment of the Palestinians and to pursue peace for the sake of both peoples."
Among the letter's demands is one calling on UN Secretary-General António Guterres and other world leaders to "refute false accusations of antisemitism that abusively deploy our collective history to tarnish those with whom we stand together in the pursuit of peace and justice."
Calls to destroy Palestinian life "are not Jewish values nor are they guided by the lessons we draw from our peoples’ history," they wrote. "Instead we see in many of those standing up for Palestinian rights a reflection of the people who stood with Jews in our times of need. Our solidarity with Palestinians is not a betrayal of Judaism, then, but a fulfillment of it. When our sages taught that to destroy one life is to destroy an entire world, they did not carve exceptions for Palestinians."
The group called on other Jewish people to sign the letter.
The letter notes that the ceasefire signed on October 10 "makes no reference to the West Bank," where more than 3,200 Palestinians have been injured in attacks, including by Israeli settlers, this year. Israeli leaders have promoted the creation of the E1 settlement, which would cut off East Jerusalem from the rest of the illegally occupied territory and make it impossible for Palestinians to establish a state with the city as its capital.
Masked settlers in recent days attacked Palestinians civilians who were harvesting olives in the town of Turmus Ayya, with one clubbing a 55-year-old woman named Umm Saleh Abu Alia, who had to be hospitalized.
The letter was addressed to Guterres and other world leaders and representatives of UN member states as the International Court of Justice ruled that Israel must provide for the "basic needs" of Palestinians in Gaza and allow aid into the exclave. In 2024 the ICJ issued a nonbinding opinion saying the occupation was illegal—in keeping with long-established international law—and calling on settlers to leave the West Bank.
The signatories affirmed their "belief in the universality of justice and the fair and equal application of international law," writing: "We have not forgotten that so many of the laws, charters, and conventions established to safeguard and protect all human life were created in response to the Holocaust. Those safeguards have been relentlessly violated by Israel."
"Accountability for the Israeli leadership’s grievous violations of international law is necessary," they wrote. "It is time to do everything possible to definitively end the Israeli government’s collective punishment of the Palestinians and to pursue peace for the sake of both peoples."
The European Union's foreign ministers paused sanctions against Israel in response to the ceasefire agreement, a decision that was criticized by rights advocates this week.
"That is the last thing that we should be doing, because this is exactly the moment when you need to keep the pressure on. Because we all know that it’s certainly not a foregone conclusion that this plan will be implemented," Nathalie Tocci, a former adviser to two EU foreign policy officials, told The Guardian. “I fear that... European governments and institutions will be... reverting back to the sort of old, familiar patterns."
The letter sent on Wednesday called on the UN and member states to:
- Respect and abide by the decisions of the International Court of Justice, apply arrest warrants issued by the International Criminal Court, and resist efforts to unduly pressure and influence and prevent the workings of both courts;
- To refuse any complicity in continued crimes and violations of international law against Palestinians by Israel, including by ending the provision of arms and other relevant goods and services, and to use relevant leverage, including targeted sanctions on governmental bodies and individuals responsible for violations of international law; and
- To ensure that humanitarian assistance reaches all Palestinians in Gaza at the scale that is commensurate to their vital need, that the blockade is lifted and materials for reconstruction enter, and that there is a full Israeli military withdrawal.
Al Jazeera reported on Wednesday that Palestinians in Gaza "are still going hungry" despite the ceasefire. In August, the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) declared famine in parts of the exclave, and more than 450 people have starved to death as a result of the near-total blockade Israel began imposing in October 2023.
There is now only one entry point open for aid trucks at the Karem Abu Salem crossing, reported Al Jazeera.
"When it comes to the northern part of Gaza, none of the crossings have been opened. For more than 50 days now, the Israeli military has imposed a complete blockade on these crossings, and none of the trucks are coming to this area," wrote Hani Mahmoud, a correspondent in Gaza City. "It continues to be very difficult for people here, particularly those returning to their homes in Gaza City and the northern areas. Apart from the fact that they are lacking access to water, there’s no access to proper food.
"Whatever is available is from business owners, the traders, who have been given permits from the Israeli military to get commercial items into the Gaza Strip," Mahmoud reported. "Despite the illusion that aid is 'pouring' into Gaza, the reality on the ground is different, and people are still going hungry, unable to access food and water."
Levy said that "Israel's actions against Palestinians are antithetical to the Jewish heritage we hold dear."
"We must end this shame and reclaim a better future for Jews and Palestinians alike," he said. "We are calling on world leaders to reject complicity in the status quo of occupation, apartheid, and Israel's genocidal doom-loop towards the Palestinians, and ensure respect for international law and an end to impunity. That is the only path towards hope and sustainable peace.”
The signatories added that despite the ceasefire, they "shall not rest" until the agreement "carries forward into an end of occupation and apartheid."
"We write in the hope that this initiative further emboldens a moment of renewed Jewish commitment to act with conscience and compassion," they wrote. "We vow to work urgently to achieve equality, justice, and freedom for Palestinians and Israelis."
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Israel's Destruction of Gaza Over Last 2 Years 'Would Not Have Been Possible' Without $21.7 Billion From US
“Our research highlights numbers, but we must never lose sight of this key fact: What we’re talking about is human suffering."
Oct 07, 2025
Tuesday marked two years since the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel that killed more than 1,100 people and provoked the Israeli military's slaughter of over 67,000 Palestinians in Gaza, and a new report provides an accounting of the United States' support for the latter—support that made possible the mass destruction and killing that Israel continues to carry out across Gaza, as one analyst said.
"The devastating damage the current Israeli government has done to Gaza and its people would not have been possible without US financing, US-supplied weapons, and US assistance with spare parts and maintenance,” said Bill Hartung, a senior research fellow at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft and author of a new report published by the organization along with the Costs of War Project at Brown University.
The report—published alongside another analysis that details the human toll of Israel's US-backed bombardment of Gaza—finds that the Biden and Trump administrations provided at least $21.7 billion in military aid to Israel since the start of the war on October 7, 2023.
Over the same period, the US has also spent at least $9.65 billion on military operations in Yemen, Iran, and the wider region.
In the first year of the war, when President Joe Biden was in office, the US provided $17.9 billion. Another $3.8 billion has been sent to the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) since October 2024. Some of the military aid that's been allocated to Israel is set to be supplied in the coming years.
The Costs of War Project emphasized that there are also billions of dollars in arms sales agreements that are set to be paid for in the years to come and are not included in the figure.
The Biden and Trump administrations have financed the IDF even as Israeli officials have spelled out their intention of killing civilians as well as Hamas combatants—and as Israeli soldiers have said they've been directed to target civilians. Their funding of Israel's military has also been in violation of US laws including Section 6201 of the Foreign Assistance Act, which prohibits the US from transferring weapons or military aid to countries that block humanitarian assistance, as Israel has done since October 2023.
As the US has sent more than $8 billion in military financing, $725 million in "offshore procurement" to support Israel's own arms industry, $4.4 billion in weapons, $801 million in ammunition procurement, and more to the IDF, the near-total blockade on humanitarian aid had pushed Gaza into a famine.
More than half a million people in the Gaza Strip were facing "catastrophic conditions characterized by starvation, destitution, and death" in August when the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification declared that famine had taken hold in the exclave.
"Without U.S. support, the Israeli government would have no combat aircraft to drop bombs and many fewer bombs."
At least 453 people, including 150 children have starved to death in Gaza since Israel first began blocking humanitarian aid, with many dying in recent weeks.
At least 67,173 Palestinians have also been killed and 169,780 have been injured, according to the Gaza Ministry of Health, which does not distinguish between militants and civilians. Out of the approximately 2.2 million people who were living in Gaza in July 2023, more than 10% have either been killed or injured. The Costs of War Project said that while some supporters in Israel have claimed the Ministry of Health's numbers are an "exaggeration"—including Biden in the first weeks of the war—"they are likely an undercount."
Another report released Tuesday by Neta Crawford, co-founder and strategic adviser at the Costs of War Project, detailed The Human Toll of the Gaza War, including:
- 1,048 people who have been killed and 10,320 people who have been injured by "direct violence" in the West Bank;
- The forced displacement of approximately 90% of Gaza's population;
- The killing of at least 554 aid workers;
- The killing of 248 journalists, according to the United Nations Human Rights Office;
- Bombings of hospitals such as Nasser Hospital, the only remaining healthcare center in southern Gaza, where 20 people including five journalists were killed on August 25;
- The killing of more than 18,000 children under the age of 18;
- The destruction of 90% of housing units and at least 78% of all buildings and structures;
- The creation of the world's "largest orphan crisis," with at least 39,000 children having lost one or both parents; and
- The creation of the world's largest population of child amputees, with many having lost limbs and had surgeries "without even anesthesia," as UN Secretary-General António Guterres said earlier this year.
"For well over a decade, the Costs of War Project has shed light on the costs of the so-called US 'War on Terror'; now we’re examining the devastating costs of US military spending and operations in the post-October 7 wars—which in the case of Gaza, many experts call a genocide,” said Stephanie Savell, director of the Costs of War Project. “Our research highlights numbers, but we must never lose sight of this key fact: What we’re talking about is human suffering. This research shows that the suffering is unthinkably vast."
Savell said the group's aim is for its research to "inform efforts to stop the mass killing and displacement, move beyond the war paradigm, and explore true solutions towards peace.”
The reports were released as Hamas and Israel began the latest indirect peace talks in Egypt, with US representatives expected to join the negotiations in the coming hours. Hamas and Israel have both expressed willingness to move forward with the release of Israelis and Palestinians who have been held captive and imprisoned, a key point in a peace plan proposed by President Donald Trump last week. Since the plan was announced and Trump called on Israel to halt its bombing of Gaza, the IDF has continued attacking parts of the exclave, killing at least 104 people.
Despite Israel's dependence on the US for military aid, said Hartung, since October 2023, "neither former President Joe Biden nor current President Donald Trump have used Israel's reliance on US weapons as a tool to pressure Tel Aviv to change its conduct.”
To be effective, said the report released Tuesday, "any U.S. government effort to impede Israel’s military operations in Gaza and beyond must include a ban on new sales, a suspension of arms in the pipeline that have been committed but are yet to be delivered, and a cut off of spare parts and support for the maintenance of Israeli weapons systems already in use."
"Without U.S. support, the Israeli government would have no combat aircraft to drop bombs and many fewer bombs," the report reads. "An increasing share of Israel’s arsenal would be down for maintenance without US government or US contractor mechanics and spare parts. In addition, Israel’s government could not have built a military of its current size and sophistication without US financial backing."
"Thus far," it adds, "the US government has not acted to stop the killing by cutting off military aid."
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