In recent weeks, the world’s attention has been drawn once again to Gaza, not only by the devastation on the ground, but also by the shifting narratives and political maneuverings playing out in the global media and diplomatic arenas. A comprehensive new study, the lived experiences of Palestinians like Wasim Said, and the latest high-stakes diplomatic moves in Washington and Riyadh all converge to paint a picture of a region—and a story—at an inflection point.
According to a sweeping analysis by the Media Bias Meter initiative, Western media coverage of the war in Gaza has displayed a systematic pro-Israel bias. The study, which scrutinized 54,449 articles from eight leading North American and European news organizations over a 100-week period beginning October 7, 2023, found that the framing and language used by these outlets overwhelmingly favored Israeli narratives while marginalizing Palestinian perspectives. For instance, The New York Times was found to mention Israel in headlines 186 times more frequently than Palestine, a disparity that speaks volumes about visibility and focus.
The study also highlighted the near-erasure of key concepts like "occupation" and the "illegal" status of Israeli settlements. The BBC, for example, used the term "illegal" in less than 7% of the instances where it reported on settlements. References to the ongoing blockade of Gaza since 2007 were rare, while the events of October 7, 2023, were heavily emphasized. This selective context, critics argue, distorts the public's understanding of the conflict's roots and realities.
Perhaps more troubling, the study documented the repeated publication of unverified claims—such as the widely reported but unsubstantiated allegations of beheaded babies—by several major outlets. These stories often remained uncorrected, further muddying the waters of public discourse. The phrase "self-defense" was used hundreds of times across publications like The New York Times, Der Spiegel, The Globe and Mail, and the BBC to describe Israeli military actions, reinforcing a narrative that critics say legitimizes the violence. At Le Monde, up to 69% of coverage was filtered through a "terrorism" lens, which, according to the study’s authors, creates a language that normalizes the scale of the military campaign in Gaza.
Against this backdrop of contested narratives, the voices of ordinary Gazans struggle to be heard. On November 22, 2025, Al Jazeera published the harrowing story of Wasim Said, a 24-year-old Palestinian man displaced by the war. Living in a tent with no protection from the elements and often writing by candlelight due to the destruction of Gaza’s infrastructure, Said is working on a book titled Witness to the Hellfire of Genocide. His goal is to document two years of unrelenting war, forced displacement, and the daily tragedies that rarely make international headlines.
“Displacement sites and tents have become part of our lives. We’ve had to find ways to adapt to this misery—even though it’s almost impossible,” Said told Al Jazeera. For him, writing is not about seeking sympathy or recognition, but about bearing witness. “I don’t need your sympathy. I need a conscience that hasn’t rotted… a human that hasn’t turned to stone, I need a reader who won’t just close the book and sigh—then go to sip their coffee.”
Every chapter in Said’s book is named after a person, place, or memory he refuses to let disappear. He insists that “stories disappear if they’re not documented,” emphasizing that every page is a form of quiet resistance against forgetting. “I wrote because I wanted to leave something behind—to be a witness, not just another martyr,” he explained. Despite the near-total destruction of hospitals, schools, and homes, and the staggering toll of nearly 70,000 Palestinians killed since October 2023, Said clings to the hope that his writing matters. “This is all I could write. The rest is being written now in blood. If I stay alive—I will finish the story.”
While individuals like Said fight to preserve the truth of their experiences, the international community is embroiled in a complex and often contradictory dance. As reported in a recent article analyzing current geopolitics, the International Stabilization Force (ISF) has been established with a mandate to decommission weapons from non-state armed groups in Gaza, protect civilians, and secure humanitarian aid corridors. The ISF’s creation was backed by the United States, Qatar, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Indonesia, Pakistan, Jordan, and Türkiye. Yet, skepticism abounds as to whether the ISF can achieve its goals, particularly since Hamas is unlikely to disarm unless Israel withdraws from Gaza—something Israel has categorically refused to do.
The diplomatic chessboard is further complicated by a series of high-profile meetings and negotiations. US President Trump recently hosted Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS) at the White House, with discussions centering on defense pacts, F-35 fighter jets, nuclear reactors, and normalization efforts between Israel and Saudi Arabia. For Trump, the prospect of brokering Israeli-Saudi normalization is seen as a potential crowning achievement, one that could cement his legacy as a global dealmaker. For MBS, the visit marks a significant step toward rehabilitating his international reputation, badly tarnished by the 2018 murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
But not everyone is celebrating. Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu finds himself increasingly isolated, pressured into accepting ceasefires and peace proposals he views as threatening to his political survival. The internationalization of the Gaza conflict—exemplified by France and Saudi Arabia’s hosting of a conference demanding a Palestinian state—has further boxed him in. The US-brokered peace plan, while endorsed by key Arab players, offers Palestinians little beyond the hope of an end to the violence, with no concrete path to statehood or protection from future aggression.
Human Rights Watch recently condemned Israel’s destruction of three West Bank refugee camps and the expulsion of 32,000 residents as a “war crime and crime against humanity.” The ongoing expansion of settlements and the systematic erasure of Palestinian villages echo some of the darkest chapters of 20th-century history, critics say. Despite these realities, neither Trump nor MBS appear poised to challenge Israel’s policies in any meaningful way, prioritizing national interests and personal legacies over the rights and safety of Palestinians.
As these diplomatic machinations unfold, the language and framing used by the Western media continue to shape public perception in ways that often obscure the lived realities of those on the ground. The Media Bias Meter study’s findings, the testimony of writers like Wasim Said, and the high-level negotiations among world leaders all point to a central truth: the battle over Gaza is being waged not just with bombs and bullets, but with words, narratives, and the power to define reality itself.
In the midst of this storm, the stories of ordinary people, the nuances of history, and the complexity of the present moment risk being lost. But as long as voices like Said’s persist, and as long as watchdogs continue to scrutinize the media and political elites, there remains hope that the world will not forget—or look away.
