Israel is reportedly using illegal and horrific thermobaric weapons against Palestinians
By THE EDITORIAL BOARD — opinion@theaggie.org
Since Oct. 7, 2023, mainstream media outlets have largely painted an inaccurate picture of the livelihoods and suffering of the Palestinian people. A genocide has been livestreamed and simultaneously mislabeled right before our eyes, with some — including supporters, benefactors and governments — trying to convince us that we have been seeing something that we’re not. This level of violence is consistently overlooked, legalized under domestic and international law and, worst of all, endorsed — by world leaders, by the administration of the United States and by companies with unchecked global and financial power.
Mass media outlets finally began to call the genocide a genocide far too late; once they did, many acknowledged and discussed it — but Palestine has somehow again faded from the main conversation. Numerous proposed United Nations resolutions have been vetoed by the U.S., with the latter being the only vote against a ceasefire in September 2025. Notably, Israel has violated the most recent ceasefire proposition at least 1,620 times between Oct. 10, 2025 and Feb. 10, 2026.
Now, in the “second stage” of the ceasefire deal, not even the points proposed in the first stage have been followed. Humanitarian aid is still being restricted, attacks have not halted by any means and Israel has not withdrawn from the “yellow line” drawn throughout the Gaza Strip territory.
U.S. President Donald Trump has also created a Board of Peace without the inclusion or involvement of Palestinians to determine the future of their land. The Board is proposing an eerily similar approach to past organizations that have also worked from the top down, excluding Palestinians from their own narrative and perpetuating a system of apartheid.
This genocide has a history extending back well over a century; the current apartheid system in Israel has stripped Palestinians of their legal rights, along with the human right to exist peacefully. Palestinians live under constant surveillance; drones incessantly buzz above their heads, while videos show music teachers turning it into a melody to calm their students. Everyday acts of resistance by Palestinians serve as a reminder of the frustration we should feel over our inability to effectively defend their right to autonomy.
Men, women, children and entire families — 2,700 families, to be specific — have been martyred and erased from Palestine. The “ceasefire” in the territory is continuing in full force, and Israel has only just acknowledged that it has killed more than 70,000 Palestinians, 20,000 of them children. More journalists have been killed in Palestine since October 2023 than in any modern conflict — at least 260 have been reported dead as of 2026. The accepted total is approximately a one-tenth estimate of numbers put forward by researchers last year, estimating that up to 680,000 Palestinians have been killed since 2023. These numbers, which were released September 2025, are likely still largely underestimated.
In the meantime, new weaponry created by Israel and largely funded by the U.S. continues to end lives through some of the most violent means imaginable. Recent investigations show that up to 3,000 Palestinians have been evaporated by U.S.-supplied thermobaric weapons: weapons that obliterate matter through enormous amounts of heat.
Dr. Munir al-Bursh, the director general of the Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza, explained the biological impact of such extreme heat on the human body to Al Jazeera.
“The boiling point of water is 100 degrees Celsius [212F],” al-Bursh said. “When a body is exposed to energy exceeding 3,000 degrees combined with massive pressure and oxidation, the fluids boil instantly. The tissues vaporise and turn to ash. It is chemically inevitable.”
As lawyer Diana Buttu, a lecturer at Georgetown University in Qatar, pointed out, the supply chain in itself of weapons like these are evidence of worldwide complicity.
“We see a continuous flow of these weapons from the United States and Europe,” Buttu said. “They know these weapons do not distinguish between a fighter and a child, yet they continue to send them. […] The world knows Israel possesses and uses these prohibited weapons. The question is why are they allowed to remain outside the system of accountability.”
The use of weapons that do not distinguish between combatants and noncombatants is a war crime, according to international law. However, time and time again, these identifiers designed to ensure justice and peace ultimately amount to nothing.
Complicity, unfortunately, exists everywhere. The British Museum recently removed the word Palestine from many of its exhibits, citing it as “inaccurate.” Israeli athletes are still permitted to compete under their flag in the Winter Olympics, unlike Russian and Belarusian athletes who participate as individual neutral athletes in part due to the ongoing war in Ukraine.
Universities are still questioning students and staff who advocate for Palestine under the guise of “investigating antisemitism” on college campuses. Anti-Zionist groups are stripped of funding on campuses, including University of California schools, for not holding “viewpoint-neutral stances,” while Zionist groups are not expected to do the same.
As Israel continues to act with no consequences, its ambitions will only continue to expand. New land regulations proposed for the occupied West Bank aim to resume “settlement of land title” processes, which would allow only Israeli-approved documentation of land ownership to be deemed legitimate.
Israel has also proposed the legalization of executions by hanging. The Israeli Prison Service announced that it wants to dedicate an entire facility to carrying out executions, where prisoners are unable to be visited by family or legal counsel until the late stages of proceedings. It is currently being deliberated. Ramzi Odeh, a professor of international law and head of the International Academic Campaign Against Occupation and Apartheid, cited this as “apartheid legislation,” because it differentiates punishments between Palestinians and non-Palestinians.
As the genocide in Palestine continues, we must strive to keep Palestinians in the conversation. These are merely a few examples of the ongoing Israeli occupation that has crippled Palestinians’ rights for over a century. They have the right to their land, the right to have a say in how their land is rebuilt and the right to sovereignty.
Written by: The Editorial Board — opinion@theaggie.org
