We Are Missing 680,000 Souls: Gaza, the Most Public Hidden Genocide

By Claudia Aranda

20 Sep 2025 – Francesca Albanese, UN Special Rapporteur for the Occupied Palestinian Territories, has issued one of the most severe and painful denunciations in recent years: the real number of deaths in Gaza exceeds 680,000, more than ten times the officially reported figure. Of those victims, roughly half would be children and 75% women and minors. These figures are staggering, yet they represent a cruel truth that demands to be heard and fully understood.

How can one explain this abyssal gap between official figures and what appears to be reality? The answer is simple and devastating: Gaza is almost entirely destroyed. More than 66% of its infrastructure lies in ruins, and in Gaza City, that destruction reaches 70–75%. Homes, buildings, hospitals, schools, roads—the essential service network has been shattered by bombings that reduced entire neighborhoods to rubble. With the strip hermetically sealed, with no access for international observers or technically trained and calm rescue teams to remove remains, a physical count of corpses is impossible.

Thus, the figure of 65,000 dead that circulates officially corresponds only to those recovered and registered in hospitals or morgues. What is missing—what truly hurts—are those left beneath the rubble, bodies the world has not yet been able to count or even bury with dignity. And when comparing that figure with the 1.5 million internally displaced persons out of the 2.2 million who inhabited Gaza at the start of the siege, whose movement can be tracked, the conclusion is chilling: we are missing 680,000 souls.

Violence has struck mercilessly even those who work to save lives and tell the story. Albanese details that 1,581 health workers, 346 UN employees—mainly from UNRWA—and 252 journalists attempting to document the tragedy have died in Gaza, a record figure in any conflict. These numbers reveal a systematic campaign not only of civilian extermination but also of silencing and erasing those able to bear witness.

Despite all this, the international community has failed to act with the urgency needed to stop the tragedy. Albanese highlights three countries that, far from condemning or suspending support, continue backing Israel, particularly with weapons: the United States, the United Kingdom, and Germany. These states not only maintain military trade but also enable the constant replenishment of the arsenal used to carry out this genocide.

In addition, the rapporteur warns that more than 10,000 Palestinians are being arbitrarily detained under inhumane conditions, subjected to torture and starvation, and that 75 prisoners have died in Israeli custody over the past 710 days. The level of dehumanization is total: deaths in the West Bank also continue to rise, alongside forced expulsions and the advance of Israeli annexations, which further exacerbate the Palestinian crisis regionally.

It is impossible to imagine that these people have simply fled; Gaza is sealed off like a concentration and extermination camp, where the population has no safe routes and no possible escape. Children, women, and men, all trapped under a genocide that cannot be concealed and yet is systematically denied by its perpetrators and their international allies.

Not even the most horrific natural disasters, such as the Southeast Asian tsunami, exemplify this scale of mass human destruction under constant exclusion, blockade, and oppression. Comparing the numbers with that natural tragedy provides clarity: in both cases, victims disappeared under rubble or waters made it impossible to physically count each victim, yet the demographic devastation remains glaring.

With 710 days of accumulated horror, and those more than 1,500 humanitarian workers dead—let me underline this point—the 252 journalists killed while trying to recount the catastrophe, and the thousands of prisoners tortured or killed in detention, Francesca Albanese stresses that this is a story that can no longer be ignored or minimized.

As an editorialist, I dare to say there is no possible neutrality in the face of this human catastrophe. We are missing 680,000 souls, and their names must be spoken, their lives honored with justice, not with an imposed silence. The international community bears the urgent responsibility to act not merely with words but with decisive measures to stop this genocide and repair, insofar as possible, the damage inflicted.

Today, Gaza speaks to us not only with numbers and statistics, but with the absence of its dead—mothers, children, the elderly who still have no rest. And it is that call for memory and justice that must echo in every corner of the world.

22 September 2025

Source: transcend.org

https://just-international.org/articles/we-are-missing-680000-souls-gaza-the-most-public-hidden-genocide

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Francesca Albanese and the Lonely Road of Defiance

https://chrishedges.substack.com/p/francesca-albanese-and-the-lonely?publication_id=778851&post_id=182980748&isFreemail=true&r=q32pq&triedRedirect=true

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When the World Sleeps

When the World Sleeps is a courageous testimony of the harsh reality that Palestinians face. It raises critical questions about the past, present, and future of Palestine- What are the consequences of the occupation? Where is a refugee’s home? In what conditions do Palestinians live? And now that the end of the war seems to be getting closer, will there be a Palestinian state? Will Palestinians have the right to self-determination, and will they be able to live in peace, free at last from the coercion of Israel?

The first woman to serve as United Nations Special Rapporteur for the Occupied Palestinian Territory conveys the spirit of a people through 10 unforgettable stories of resilience and humanity.

Francesca Albanese is the most lucid voice against Israel’s apartheid policies in Gaza and the West Bank, a voice that has been heard around the world when it comes to speaking the truth about the Palestinian genocide. In the wake of October 7, 2023, and Israel’s retaliatory war, the renowned Italian jurist has become a lightning rod for her staunch defense of human rights.

Reflecting on her years living in Jerusalem and her personal and professional journey toward understanding the Palestinian struggle, Albanese pays tribute to 10 people whose profoundly affecting stories opened her eyes, from Hind Rajab, a young Palestinian girl killed by Israeli forces, to the remarkable Jewish scholars who acted as Albanese’s mentors- forensic architect Eyal Weizman, trauma expert Gabor Mate, and Holocaust historian Alon Confino.

Buy this book to support her hard work: https://www.booktopia.com.au/when-the-world-sleeps-francesca-albanese/book/9781635426038.html