A Catastrophe for Generations: The Production of Debility during the Genocide in Gaza

During the current genocide enacted by the Israeli government against the Palestinian people, a deliberate strategy of debilitation has been used by the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) against the Palestinian population. Debility – a term coined by Puar (2017) – refers to the deliberate, gradual wearing down of a population through injury, maintaining Palestinians in a state of perpetual debilitation as a mechanism of control (Puar, 2017, p. x). During the first intifada (1987-1993), then Defence Minister Yitzhak Rabin adopted a ‘break their bones’ policy aimed at permanently disabling Palestinian youth to suppress resistance (Issa, 2025). In a similar vein, during the Great March of Return in 2018 and 2019 – a series of peaceful protests seeking an end to the Israeli blockade of Gaza – IDF soldiers consistently used a practice of shooting protesters in the knee. The military response to these protests resulted in the deaths of 322 Palestinians and injuries to an astounding 36,000 individuals (Jones, 2023, p. 250). At the same time, the occupying forces have also targeted hospitals, preventing access to essential medical supplies (Puar, 2017).

These few examples illuminate the deliberate production of disability among the Palestinian population as a means of reducing the community’s capacity to resist. In this piece, I argue that while such a strategy is not new, it has reached unprecedented levels following October 2023. Significantly, this has devastating personal consequences, as widespread debility is inflicted, with long-term implications that aim to undermine both resistance and the ability to sustain life. Overall, this piece seeks to highlight the importance of recognising the deliberate infliction of injury upon an entire community, a dimension that risks being overlooked amidst the staggering death tolls. This piece is structured as follows: first, I provide an overview of the concept of the “right to maim” to understand the strategic creation of debility. I then examine its application in Gaza, through the amputation crisis, the war on life support, and the war on infrastructure. I next highlight the agency of Palestinians, under extreme conditions of violence. Finally, I discuss the implications for the future resistance capacities of the Palestinian people.

The Right to Maim

Biopolitical and necropolitical scholarship has explored how governments control populations through the ‘right to live’ – controlling health, bodies, and lives – and the ‘right to kill: exposing marginalised groups to violence and death (Foucault et al., 2008; Mbembe, 2020). Jasbir Puar, in her analysis of the actions of the IDF and the Israeli government, identifies a gap in the theoretical understanding of governments’; biopolitical and necropolitical control mechanisms over populations, supplementing this literature with the concept of the sovereign ‘right to maim’ (Puar, 2017). This refers to the strategic creation of injury rather than death, permanently disabling individuals while wearing down the broader population through the destruction of infrastructure and the denial of resources that sustain life. This represents a logic of ‘will not let die’, in which neither life nor death is the end goal, but “debilitation and the production of disability are in fact biopolitical ends unto themselves” (Puar, 2017, p. xviii). Puar emphasises the distinction between debility and disablement, challenging the ability/disability binary. Some bodies may not be recognised as, or may choose to identify as, disabled, yet they may be debilitated (Puar, 2017, p. xv). In this way, debilitation emphasises the slow wearing down of a population rather than a specific event in which a person becomes disabled. This contrast emphasises that in debilitation, there is no precise before or after, but “bodies that are sustained in a perpetual state of debilitation” (Puar, 2017, p. xiv). However, Puar notes that capacity, debility, and disability can overlap or coexist (Puar, 2017, p. xv). One function of the right to maim is to present the debilitation of a population as a humanitarian practice, in which death is spared (Davies et al., 2024). First, this can avoid the increased scrutiny that can arise from larger death tolls, in which the number of casualties is the primary marker of tragedy (Puar, 2017). In this logic, injury can be framed as a preservation of life, but, in reality, it is a biopolitical practice of ‘will not let die’, where there is a production of permanent disability of bodies which are now less capable of resisting occupation powers (Jones, 2023, p. 250). Furthermore, debilitation is inflicted upon the population through the destruction of life support systems such as hospitals and medical facilities that are crucial for recovery and healing. This practice ensures that debility persists and that violence lives on longer than initial attacks (Jones, 2023, p. 250). For this reason, it is important not only to focus on mass death, as this “risks eliding other forms of control through which sovereign power” operates (Davies et al., 2024, p. 6). Importantly, these forms of biopolitical control are part of the settler colonial rule of the Israeli state and are distinctly racialised and weaponised against Palestinians. In this way, the colonised population is kept under submission through the destruction of their capacity to resist (Puar, 2017). In other words, there is a calculated and patterned use of debilitation against an unwanted population: “where debilitation and injury have become a politically sanctioned, reasonable, or even ‘acceptable’ when used against racialised groups” (Davies et al., 2024, p. 8). Therefore, it is essential to focus on the “less-than-deadly, but no less important aspects of biopolitical control that conspire to incapacitate, coerce, and make the lives of unwanted populations strategically ‘wretched’” (Davies et al., 2024, p. 6).

The Genocide in Gaza: the Deliberate Production of Debility

Firstly, it is important to highlight that even before the beginning of the genocide in Gaza, there already existed a considerable population of people with disabilities; nearly 50,000 people were officially registered as living with a disability (Aljamal, 2024). Surviving has been especially difficult for those with physical and mental disabilities, as well as for the families who support them. With little to no time given to flee, streets full of rubble, and constant displacement, people living with disabilities have been particularly vulnerable to the deadly impacts of genocide.

The Amputation Crisis

Following the Hamas attacks of 7 October 2023, the Israeli government, through the IDF, has been waging a genocidal war in Gaza. As a result, there have been substantial numbers of deaths, with current estimates putting the death toll at over 64,000 people, likely a vast underestimate (OCHA, 2025). Furthermore, this genocide is ongoing, with Israel recently launching a renewed ground offensive, meaning that these numbers will continue to rise. It is also important to note here that statistics and figures can have a dehumanising effect, and behind each number there was a life, a person, and a story that deserves to be remembered. In addition to the thousands who have lost their lives, an exceptionally high number of people have been wounded, with current estimates suggesting around 171,000 individuals have been injured (OCHA, 2026). One of the key elements that distinguishes this genocide is the large number of amputations, particularly among children, who account for roughly half of the population of Gaza (Moor, 2025). In January 2025, UNICEF estimated that between 3,000 and 4,000 people in Gaza had lost one or more limbs, including over 1,000 children, often without anaesthesia, making Gaza the place with the most amputees per capita (Ferguson & Su, 2025). For example, Baylasan, an 11-year-old girl from Khan Younis, survived the bombing of her house during the night in November 2023. She woke up four days later with one leg amputated. Her mother survived and is in Belgium with Baylasan’s brother, while Baylasan is one of the ‘lucky’ few who have been moved to the US to receive treatment, though she will be required to leave once her treatment is finished. Her father remains in Gaza, with little prospect of joining the rest of his family (Moor, 2025). The deliberate targeting of infrastructure known to be sheltering civilians highlights Israel’s aim to kill and maim the Palestinian population indiscriminately. Taken together, this demonstrates a strategy of the widespread injury of Palestinian bodies as part of the genocidal technique.

War on Life Support 

Throughout the genocide, Israel has blocked humanitarian support from entering Gaza. In particular, for 11 weeks following 2 March 2025, the Israeli government blocked all humanitarian aid from entering Gaza, leaving 2.2 million people facing acute food insecurity (AJLabs, 2025). On the 15 th August 2025, Famine was confirmed in Gaza by the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, with three-quarters of Gaza’s population at emergency or catastrophic food deprivation (IPC, 2025). This has led to over 400 people dying from starvation, including over 140 children dying from the effects of malnutrition (Chughtai, 2025). Not only does this have immediately detrimental effects on the health of Gazans, but experiencing such levels of malnutrition has long-term effects, especially on children. Chronic malnutrition can result in stunted growth, impaired cognitive development, and poor health, with this war likely leaving an entire generation of Gaza permanently affected (World Health Organization, 2025). Furthermore, the effects of famine can lead to generational impacts when experienced at certain stages of development, including malnutrition during gestation or early life, in which permanent biological changes can be encoded at the genetic level (Swanson & Welsh, 2024). On an individual level, this is robbing Palestinian children of the chance to lead full, healthy lives and undermines their future opportunities due to impaired educational achievement. At a societal level, this challenges the social and economic health of the entire Palestinian community in Gaza (Swanson & Welsh, 2024). In addition to physical consequences, the psychological impact of this war is equally severe. Continuous exposure to extreme violence has caused anxiety, depression, and stress disorders in the short term, as well as enduring mental health conditions (Swanson & Welsh, 2024). Even prior to this conflict, over half of Gaza’s children had post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and around 60% reported engaging in self-harm practices because of depression, fear, and grief (Swanson & Welsh, 2024). Unsurprisingly, living through a genocide will exacerbate and compound these harms. In a study by the Community Training Centre for Crisis Management in Gaza, it was found that 49% of children surveyed expressed a desire to die (AOAV, 2024). The traumatic experiences of the children of Gaza will likely result in physical and mental debility for at least a generation.

War on Infrastructure

For many who have undergone amputations and been left with permanent disabilities, these life- altering injuries could have been prevented. These injuries are a result of relentless bombardment, burns resulting from fires from bombings, and infections spreading quickly due to surgeries being performed in unsanitary conditions (Moor, 2025). The Israeli government has repeatedly withheld essential medical equipment from entering the Strip, preventing access to medicine and resources that could have prevented or reduced the number of amputations. Furthermore, there has been a deliberate assault on healthcare professionals: over 1500 healthcare professionals murdered, and a third of hospitals completely shut down (Medical Aid for Palestinians, 2025). At the same time, Israel has prevented the entry of the materials used to manufacture prosthetic limbs, to support those who have undergone amputation, alleging they could then be used for military purposes (Middle East Monitor, 2025). However, it is not only the medical infrastructure that is under attack. The destruction of sewage facilities is also exacerbating the spread of diseases such as hepatitis, diarrhoea, polio, and respiratory infections, and the possibility of a cholera outbreak (Townsend, 2025). Similarly, the destruction of Gaza’s water infrastructure leaves the population with little access to clean water, furthering the risk of disease (Jafarnia, 2025).

Survival as Resistance

While this paper has highlighted the way in which the Palestinian population in Gaza has been targeted with violence, it is important to emphasise that Palestinians are not only victims of this genocide, but, even in the darkest conditions, hold agency. Palestinian journalists have been at the forefront of resisting this genocide through documenting the crimes committed in Gaza. As international journalists have been prevented from entering Gaza by the Israeli government, Palestinians have taken on the sole burden of documenting their own genocide. This has been highly dangerous, as the IDF has targeted journalists, killing over 250 individuals (OHCHR, 2025). Yet journalists continue every day, health professionals continue every day, and average citizens provide care and support to one another. Furthermore, despite repeated Israeli calls for Palestinians in Gaza to be relocated, Gazans have repeatedly reaffirmed their commitment to their home and their refusal to accept ethnic cleansing. The practice of sumud, steadfastness, underpins their continued resilience in the face of genocide.

Consequences and Conclusions

Through the deliberate targeting of populations with the right to maim and the biopolitical logic of ‘will not let die’, the IDF and the Israeli government are forging the conditions under which the future Palestinian population post-genocide will have a reduced capacity to resist the settler- colonial regime. Through the debilitation of an entire population, through physical and mental impairment, I argue that the IDF and the Israeli government are seeking to create a docile and submissive population and to cement their colonial power further. Through this, they are creating conditions under which it is difficult for Palestinians to sustain life in Gaza on their terms. However, while I argue this is the aim of the Israeli government, it is essential not to overlook the agency of the Palestinian people and their refusal to submit to the occupying power. As Puar notes, it is a “biopolitical fantasy” that the regime could locate, strip, and empty the resistance capacities of future generations (Puar, 2017, p. 152). Palestinian life, culture, and society will continue, and the mere continued presence of Palestinian people on Palestinian land in the face of a genocidal regime is a formidable act of resistance.

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