In the not-so-distant future, our generation will be held accountable for what transpired in the world, but failed to act with justice and mercy when it was in our ability to do something.

It’s clear the banality of Israel’s war in Gaza has reached new and heartless lows. A total siege and unrelenting attack on the narrow enclave along the Mediterranean coast has laid waste to the home of 2 million Palestinian people. Isolated from the rest of the world under the oppression of Israel and Gaza’s own militant resistance movement, Hamas, scores of people are suffering on a humanitarian scale that is almost unimaginable. The pictures and stories that manage to surface show nothing less than an apocalyptic existence where starvation is widespread and death exists on every corner amid the rubble of concrete buildings.

In the attempt to alleviate political and public pressure of these horrifying scenes, a plan was devised to feed the residents of Gaza the bare minimum of food rations needed for survival. Rather than trusting the proven humane distribution program long-established and operated by the United Nations that is known to save lives and restore hope in conflict zones, a chaotic system was established by an American nonprofit start-up, the Gaza Humanitarian Fund.[1] Funded by the United States through the State Department, operated by armed American private contractors, and coordinated with the Israeli military, the United States and Israel are acting as coconspirators in one of the world’s most cruel, inequitable, and deadly food distribution programs administered by a democratic global superpower in history.

The firsthand account by National Public Radio producer, Anas Baba, who lives and reports from the Gaza Strip, provides a sobering reality where desperation and injustice collide on a daily basis. He describes a scene of relentless gunfire on crowds of Palestinians rushing to a food distribution site in the middle of the night, prior to its 2 a.m. opening. When the gates finally opened, “thousands of people — a human blender — were swirling around the food boxes, fighting each other to take as much food as possible.”[2] In the end, 200 people were injured and 26 killed doing the most essential human activity—feeding their families. This is not humanitarian aid; it’s cruelty and perversion.

To regard and treat other people as less than human is an act of hate and injustice against them and a judgement upon ourselves. Seeing others as fellow human beings and members of a single, global family is the beginning of growing compassion, mercy, and justice for everyone, everywhere. Nothing is ever lost when we humanely and lovingly care for the suffering among us; only gained.

By actively upholding the dignity of others, we are extending salvation—the restoration of the whole person in mind, body, and spirit in communion with self, others, and God—while securing it for ourselves. This is not a distinctively Christian or religious act, but a human one. To do otherwise is to judge ourselves as less-than human, vulnerable to injustices when we are no longer the privileged, but the oppressed. It’s an endless cycle in the absence of hope and goodness.

We all need salvation in our suffering. As members of One human family, no one is more or less deserving of it. Even in the aftermath of the October 7, 2023, barbaric surprise attack on Israel that left hundreds kidnapped and murdered, salvation—the restoration of the whole person—is how peace and justice are ultimately achieved. Feeding the hungry and demonstrating restraint, including toward our perceived enemies, is how we practice and secure it.

Today, hundreds of thousands of people in Gaza remain without food. And for the dozens who attempted to survive another day, they did not live to see the next. Instead, they were left lying in hospitals “covered by the same empty sacks—once filled with flour given out as international aid—that they had taken with them, in the hopes of filling them up with food.”[2]

The Palestinian people are worthy of dignity and salvation. Feed them. Heal them. Restore them. Save them. By doing so, we’ll also be saving ourselves.

Then Jesus called his disciples and told them, “I feel sorry for these people. They have been here with me for three days, and they have nothing left to eat. I don’t want to send them away hungry, or they will faint along the way.”
…They all ate as much as they wanted. Afterward, the disciples picked up seven large baskets of leftover food. There were 4,000 men who were fed that day, in addition to all the women and children. (Matthew 15:32,37-38)

Hope and Justice For All

If you’re like me, you’re looking for compassionate hearts and rational minds in our chaotic world. Hope, change, and justice for everyone, everywhere require thoughtfulness, dedication, and courage to values-based living and leading. I believe that for myself—and for you. Will you join me in this consequential cause? You won’t find ads, paywalls, partner links, or random emails from me. I’m not for sale, and neither are you. However, this work does require support, and with your help, can remain accessible and uninterrupted. Please consider making a donation to keep weekly insights for hope and change available to you and others. Thank you!

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Gaza_Humanitarian_Foundation&oldid=1299379539 

[2] https://www.npr.org/2025/07/06/g-s1-75874/gaza-food-hunger-ghf