Voices from the Genocide
Amer Mohammed Rabea was 14 years old. He was a U.S. citizen. On 7 April 2025, he was shot and killed by Israeli forces in the occupied West Bank city of Turmus Ayya. There was no warning. No investigation. Just a bullet, a body and a silence so deep it threatens to swallow justice whole.
The killing of a child should rupture the world. Instead, Amer’s death joined a growing ledger of erased Palestinian lives, tallied but never mourned by those in power. There was no state department briefing. No congressional statement. No public grieving for a child born under two flags, killed under a third. Even in death, Amer was made stateless.
Since October 2023, at least 17,000 Palestinian children have been killed in Gaza. The UN now confirms that at least 100 children have been killed or injured every single day since Israel resumed its offensive in March 2025....
But this war is not just about death. It is about the systematic erasure of Palestinian life—its rhythms, its generations, its futures. It is, as one UN official warned, the creation of conditions of life incompatible with the continued existence of Palestinians as a group....
Starvation is slow violence, and collectively starving 2 million further proves Israel’s genocidal intentions. Starvation begins with fatigue and confusion and ends with organ failure and silence. It kills children first, because their bodies have less to lose. And in Gaza, that silence is growing....
Even in death, Palestinian children are punished. Bodies are withheld. Burials restricted. Flags banned. Schools interrogated. Grief criminalized....
The U.S. funds Israel’s military to the tune of $3.8bn a year. The bombs that collapse Gaza’s homes are American. The bullets that pierced Amer Rabea’s chest are American. And still, there is no accountability. No consequence. Only more weapons, more blank checks, more diplomatic cover.
To kill a child is to erase a future. When a child dies, a world ends. This is not just about bodies. It is about memory. About denying Palestinians the right to imagine tomorrow. What is left of a people who cannot bury their dead, teach their children or name their grief?
Israel knows this. It bombs archives and universities. It targets schools and hospitals not just because they house people, but because they carry meaning. A population deprived of memory and future is easier to govern. Easier to erase….
Amer had a name. He had a smile. He was loved. He was real. And now, he is gone.
We owe him more than silence. We owe Gaza’s starving children more than silence.
Have you been silent?
Excerpts from “Israel is annihilating Palestinian children. Amer Rabea was one of them,” by Ahmad Ibsais, a first generation Palestinian American, law student, and poet who writes the newsletter State of Siege
