TEHRAN – Israel’s genocidal campaign against the Palestinians, coupled with efforts to drive them from their homeland, continues unabated.

On Saturday alone, the Israeli occupation army killed eight Palestinians and injured several others in two separate attacks on Gaza City.

Haaretz reported on Friday that Israel continues to kill children in Gaza as a “matter of routine.”

The newspaper added that more than 21,000 children have been killed in Israeli attacks since Oct. 7, 2023.

Haaretz also highlighted Gaza’s deepening humanitarian crisis, reporting that homes remain in ruins and around 1.7 million people are still living in tents without electricity, running water, or adequate sanitation.

Clearly, Israel has created such a situation to make life unbearable in the Gaza Strip.

Rats and mosquitoes are widespread, infectious diseases are spreading, and tens of thousands of people are suffering from skin infections amid intense heat and the harsh conditions inside the tents, the newspaper added.

The relentless brutality has been accompanied by the displacement of Palestinians from Gaza. Israel is expanding the area under its occupation east of Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip.

Israeli War Minister Israel Katz last week renewed his push to establish illegal settlements in northern Gaza.

“I intend to establish three Nahal outposts, which are also a military entity, in those places that were in northern Gaza,” Katz told Channel 14, referring to bases that combine farming with an armed presence in an effort to consolidate control over territory.

Katz’s remarks echoed a recent statement by Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who said that “the groundwork to establish three settlements in the North Gaza area” had been completed. Smotrich, who also holds responsibility for the “settlement administration” portfolio in the Ministry of War, has repeatedly called for the full occupation of the Gaza Strip.

“This is their ideology. They want the Gazans out of Gaza and they want to settle there like they settle in the West Bank,” former Israeli diplomat Alon Liel told Al Jazeera.

Taken together, these actions and statements point to an effort to depopulate Palestine of its native Palestinian population. They also fuel speculation that Israel may have viewed the Oct. 7 attack as an opportunity to advance long-standing territorial objectives.

While much of the international community, including Israel’s Western allies, continues to support the establishment of a Palestinian state alongside Israel, ultra-hardline Israeli figures advocate taking control of all of Palestine in pursuit of what they describe as a “Greater Israel” project, which they believe extends into parts of neighboring Arab countries.

Israel has made no secret of this objective. In early 2025, the Netanyahu government announced the creation of an agency to oversee what it described as the “voluntary migration” of Palestinians from Gaza under a plan proposed by Katz.

This so-called “voluntary migration” has, in practice, become forced displacement through killings, constant fear, starvation, the deprivation of healthcare and basic sanitation, and other inhumane practices.

Issam Younis, a prominent Palestinian human rights defender and director of the Al Mezan Center for Human Rights, said he was not surprised by Katz’s latest remarks.

“It was very clear from day one in the genocide that the main goal was to make life impossible in Gaza by destroying everything,” he told Al Jazeera. “It’s a race against time – take over land, starve Gaza and deny it any chance at life, then expel the population and build settlements.”

Younis added, “Dehumanizing statements by senior Israeli officials reaffirmed this: calling Palestinians in Gaza ‘human animals’, saying that there are no civilians in Gaza, then saying clearly that the objective was to expel the population and create settlements in the Gaza Strip.”

Digital campaign debunks Israel’s narrative about Gaza ceasefire

Meanwhile, activists launched a digital campaign under the hashtag, “They Lied to You,” in an effort to bring the suffering in the Gaza Strip back to the forefront of global attention.

They stressed that the decline in international media coverage of events in the territory does not mean that the genocidal war has ended or that the suffering of its residents has stopped.

The campaign, launched in Arabic and English on July 16, included journalists, humanitarian workers, children from Gaza and Arab and foreign supporters.

Through video clips and written posts, activists sought to bring renewed attention to scenes of Palestinians being killed by Israel and to the multiple forms of suffering caused by starvation, displacement and disease.

Their aim was to challenge the widespread impression that the ceasefire agreement in Oct. 2025 had ended the war and the humanitarian tragedy.

The campaign coincided with an escalation in Israeli attacks on Gaza, including bombardments and assassination operations that killed and wounded dozens of Palestinians, among them children and women.

The escalation on the ground was accompanied by continuing displacement, hunger and a lack of adequate medical treatment. The conditions worsened as Israel failed to fulfil obligations stipulated in the ceasefire agreement, including reopening the crossings and allowing the agreed quantities of food, relief and medical aid to enter.

Activists urged the world to act to save what remains of Gaza as Israel increased the pace of destruction and expanded its occupation of the territory to 70% of its total area, contrary to the agreement.

“They lied to you when they said there was a ceasefire in Gaza. What kind of ceasefire is this when children are still being killed, homes are being bombed, tents are being targeted, and families are grieving every day?” said Civil Defense spokesperson Mahmoud Basal, who took part in the campaign.

“A genuine ceasefire means that the killing stops, the bombardment falls silent, children sleep without fear, and people return to their lives. But in Gaza, the air strikes are continuing and civilians are still paying the price day after day, despite all the talk of calm,” he wrote on X, Middle East Monitor reported.

He urged people not to allow “misleading news to obscure the truth.”

Under the same hashtag, a staged video by an activist circulated widely.

The activist appeared to have been punched in the face, had his mouth covered with black tape, and held a sign that read: “The war is over.”

Seconds later, he removed the tape from his mouth and turned the sign around, revealing the hashtag “They Lied to You” on the other side.

“They lied to you. They said the scene was over, that Gaza had disappeared from the news, and that the sound of bombardment had faded. But the reality we are living is different,” Palestinian activist Osaid al-Kahlout said in a widely shared video.

“The sounds of explosions continue, along with the signs of destruction, the suffering of families, and the fear of children who are still living amid war, devastation, bombardment, and artillery fire,” he said. “The story is not over. Gaza is not a number in a news bulletin, and its people are not a passing headline. The truth remains present, no matter how long the silence lasts. They lied to you, and some of you believed the narrative. The world must wake up.”

“The problem is not that they lied to you. The problem is that you wanted to believe them,” Palestinian activist Ghazi Muhi wrote on X.

Palestinian activist Ahmed Murtaja also condemned repeated media references to a ceasefire in Gaza. “Families are still losing their children, and children are still being pulled from beneath the rubble. How can anyone say the war is over?” he said.

Children also participated in the campaign with videos reflecting their suffering, in an attempt to make their voices heard around the world.

“They lied to you and said the war was over. There is still war, hunger, destruction, bombardment, and the loss of loved ones and neighbours,” said a Palestinian child connected to medical tubes in a hospital, published by the Palestinian Information Center. “Those who say the war is over are liars.”

“‘They Lied to You’ is a campaign hashtag challenging the claim that the war on Gaza has ended. The genocidal war continues, so we must continue supporting Gaza,” Moroccan writer Hassan Bennajeh wrote on X.