Some parts of Gaza City lay in ruins after an Israeli bombardment on Dec. 8, 2023. Courtesy | Unsplash

We have all seen images of the war: food truck lines spanning miles, parents mourning dead children, and entire communities reduced to mounds of rubble.

Since Hamas attacked Israel Oct. 7, 2023, Israel has launched a retaliatory invasion of the Gaza Strip, backed by immediate and unconditional U.S. military support. While Israel claims to only target Hamas militants, it is overwhelmingly Palestinian civilians who have borne the consequences of Israel’s operations.

Israel has a right to exist and defend its people from Hamas. But that right does not extend to the collective punishment of an entire civilian population. The suffering of innocents in Gaza cannot be morally justified, and the U.S. should not continue providing military aid that enables it.

Despite the obvious humanitarian crisis in Gaza, the U.S. has given $21.7 billion in military aid to Israel since the war started — not including the tens of billions of dollars in arms sales agreements that are set to continue in the coming years. Although Israeli officials repeatedly claim to only use U.S. military aid to target Hamas militants and terrorists, Gaza itself stands as evidence to the contrary.

Since October 2023, the war has left more than 60,000 people dead. Although the number of casualties is from the Hamas-controlled Gaza Ministry of Health, which does not distinguish between civilian and combatant deaths, some research authorities, such as Brown University, find that the amount of civilians make up 80% of all deaths in Gaza. Thousands more bodies are feared to be buried under the rubble of destroyed buildings, and fighting has displaced an estimated 1.9 million Palestinians, according to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency. Airstrikes indiscriminately wiped out entire cities and communities, mostly affecting civilians. U.N. reports describe Israeli soldiers torturing health workers and killing journalists. Israel has deliberately blocked off aid routes to Gaza, causing the most vulnerable — children, pregnant women, and the elderly — to suffer from malnutrition and famine. 

These actions are not merely accidental, unintended side effects of a war that Israel has waged solely against Hamas militants. At best, they are negligent atrocities committed against civilians while attempting to target Hamas and free Israeli hostages. But at worst, they are intentional, calculated efforts by Israel to suppress and destroy the Palestinian people. Although the Israeli government has flatly denied allegations of genocide and famine, international authorities such as the United Nations, the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, the Red Cross, and several other nations find otherwise. Israel has indeed admitted some errors in targeting civilians, such as the August 2025 strike on Nasser Hospital. But the facts of the war speak clearly: Israel must be held accountable.

While some U.S. politicians often refer to Israel as “America’s greatest ally in the Middle East,” the humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza has laid bare the consequences of Washington’s military support. The long-standing alliance and history between the two countries cannot excuse America’s silence in the face of mass civilian suffering.

The recent U.S.-brokered peace plan is a strong start — enforcing a hostage and prisoner exchange and ensuring that hundreds of aid trucks can enter Gaza — but it is nowhere near enough. As Israel’s largest arms supplier, the U.S. has unparalleled leverage over how Israel wages war — and with it, a responsibility to uphold basic principles of human dignity and international law.

Both Israelis and Palestinians have a right to exist without threat of erasure, annexation, or illegal occupation, and the right to self-defense. But when one nation grossly oversteps the line between self-defense and unchecked aggression, the U.S. should not support it. America’s military funds have, for far too long, been an asset in thousands of civilian deaths and atrocities in Gaza. By cutting aid, Washington could send a clear message to our Middle Eastern ally and the entire world: no more blank checks for Israel.

Elijah Guevara is a sophomore studying the liberal arts.