MAN AND WOMAN OF THE YEAR

The Men and Women of Gaza

The Continuing Abomination – The Gaza Genocide

This year, The Muslim 500’s Man and Woman of the Year are the collective men and women of Gaza who have endured unimaginable horrors, yet continue to live with humanity. They pray over and bury their loved ones with dignity, share their meagre resources, risk their lives to treat the wounded, and document the truth for which they are targeted and killed. Their stories are a testament to the strength of the human spirit and its natural and unyielding desire for justice and its legitimate resistance to oppression.

Between 2023 and 2025, the people of Gaza have endured one of the gravest humanitarian catastrophes of recent times. The Israeli occupying power, in violation of international humanitarian law, has devastated every aspect of civilian life in this besieged enclave.

Over 100,000 tonnes of explosives—the equivalent of nearly seven Hiroshima bombs—have been dropped on Gaza thus far, an area of just 365-square kilometres. Civilian infrastructure has been systematically targeted: homes, schools, hospitals, mosques, water facilities, and much more have been reduced to rubble. Food aid distribution points have become scenes of massacre, where civilians are killed while seeking the most basic means of survival.

Israel is intent on rendering Gaza uninhabitable, forcing the displacement of its 2.3 million residents. Israel has deliberately produced famine, outbreaks of disease, and the collapse of all essential services.

The death toll of 60,000 – 200,000 residents is expected to be multiplied several times once the bodies under the rubble have been counted. The number of murdered children, over 20,000, is sickening enough without contemplating the countless others injured, orphaned, or having limbs amputated, often without anaesthesia. Today, Gaza is home to the largest cohort of child amputees in the world.

Global Organisations Label it Genocide:

The following organisations and entities have termed Israel’s actions in Gaza a genocide, citing intent to destroy Palestinians through killing, starvation, and displacement:

UN Special Committee to Investigate Israeli Practices (November 2024): Cited mass killings and starvation as genocidal acts.

Amnesty International (August 2025): Described deliberate starvation and destruction as genocide.

Médecins Sans Frontières (2025): Labelled attacks on civilians and healthcare as genocidal.

B’Tselem (2024): Called the campaign genocide due to infrastructure destruction and displacement.

Physicians for Human Rights–Israel (2024): Identified genocidal acts in healthcare targeting.

International Federation for Human Rights (2024): Accused Israel of genocide via mass killings and blockades.

Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor (November 2023): Noted bombing intensity and intent as genocidal.

South African Government (December 2023): Filed an ICJ case, with a January 2024 ruling finding it a plausible genocide.

Lemkin Institute (2024): Highlighted sexual violence and other genocidal acts.

Scholars in Genocide Studies (December 2023): Over 55 scholars, including Uğur Ümit Üngör and Norman Finkelstein, labelled it genocide, citing leaders’ statements and actions.

A 2024 Brookings survey found 34% of 758 Middle East scholars called it genocide, with an additional 41% calling it “major war crimes akin to genocide”.

Live-Streamed Genocide

The Gaza genocide is the first instance of genocide being broadcast in real time, with Gazans and even Israeli soldiers posting raw footage of destruction and slaughter. From Hind Rajab’s final pleas to images of emaciated children, these visuals have exposed Israeli brutality—hospitals flattened, entire families wiped off the civil register, and aid seekers shot. Gazan journalists, risking death, ensure the world sees this, posting, “We are still here, still fighting to live on our land.”

Global Protests: A World United

Millions worldwide have protested Gaza’s genocide, echoing Gazans’ resilience. From London to Jakarta, protests have condemned the live-streamed atrocities, with social media amplifying images of starving children and bombed homes, galvanising global solidarity with Gazans’ fight to stay on their land.

Voices of Heroism

The Gazans’ resilience and steadfast commitment to their ancestral land and dignity has been a humbling experience for those who have helplessly watched it unfold in real-time on their screens. The unfathomable suffering of the men, women, and children has moved the hearts and minds of millions across the globe and has triggered world-wide outrage in the form of activism, protests, marches, encampments, freedom flotillas and even films and songs.

Gazans have refused to abandon their homeland. Families like that of Jamil Mughari in Maghazi, who lost 30 kg scavenging for food to keep his children alive, remain in their shelled neighborhoods, declaring, “This is our land; we will die here before leaving.”

In Deir al-Balah, Abu al-Abed, a father of five, described his family’s hunger and fatigue but vowed to stay, saying, “Our roots go deeper than their bombs.”

Even as 90% of Gazans—1.9 million people—were displaced, often multiple times, they clung to Gaza’s shrinking “safe zones”, refusing permanent exile. In July 2025, when Israel issued mass evacuation orders in Khan Younis, thousands returned to rebuild tents amid rubble, defying orders to flee south. This steadfastness is not mere survival but an act of resistance against ethnic cleansing, as Gazans assert their right to exist in their homeland. Communal efforts underscore this resilience.

The Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS), with 1,600 staff and volunteers, distributed 1.6 million relief items and provided medical care to over 100,000 people by August 2025, despite losing workers to Israeli strikes. In Gaza City, a new clinic opened in August 2025, staffed by malnourished doctors who refused to abandon their patients.

Grassroots initiatives, like soup kitchens run by local women in Rafah, feed hundreds daily, with organisers like Umm Mohammed stating, “We feed our people to keep them strong, to keep them here.” Gazan journalists and social media activists, risking death, have live-streamed their struggle, ensuring the world sees their refusal to be erased. A young Gazan, posting on X in July 2025, wrote, “They bomb our homes, starve our children, but we will rebuild. Gaza is ours.”

Gaza’s men and women have endured a darkness few could imagine, yet from that darkness they have been a profound light to the world. Their voices, carried through shattered streets and over broken airwaves, have affirmed life against death and dignity against humiliation. In the end, they stand not only as victims of one of the most devastating atrocities in the last two centuries, but as symbols of unyielding courage, dignity, and grace under fire. Their steadfastness in the face of annihilation has illuminated the conscience of humanity, reminding the world that justice cannot be silenced, nor a people erased. By honouring them as The Muslim 500’s Man and Woman of the Year, we affirm that their struggle is not theirs alone, but belongs to all who believe in human dignity, freedom, and the right to live on one’s land. Their resistance—rooted in faith and love for family, community, and homeland—will remain an enduring testament to the resilience of the human spirit and a rallying call for generations to come.