Fighting war fatigue from Gaza to Sudan

On Sep 1, 2026

It can be hard to read horror stories every day. They fill your head, dreams and nightmares, causing anger, fear and revulsion.

For many people since 7 October 2023, it’s been a daily stream of violence, destruction, dispossession and personal traumas, played out live on social media.

Gaza remains largely cut off the world, with Israel continuing to bombard, kill and isolate the besieged territory:

Hanan Al-Ajab lay on a gurney in the oncology department of Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, barely clinging to life—her mouth agape, her eyes shut. Her daughter, Fatma Al-Ajab, held up a nasal cannula, the end of the plastic tube dangling in the air and unattached. “There is no oxygen cylinder,” Al-Ajab told Drop Site News in distress. “There is nothing. Nothing is available. Most things are unavailable. The staff have done everything they can, God bless them, and they are working with whatever they have. But when there is a shortage of oxygen, everything deteriorates.”

“My mother has become a skeleton,” she said pointing to her mother’s emaciated body. Hanan, 63, was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer several months ago. She is one of an estimated 10,000 to 12,000 cancer patients in Gaza who depend on access to specialized healthcare, according to the UN. Yet critical shortages in chemotherapy agents and other lifesaving medicines, as well as a lack of properly functioning medical equipment, have left her unable to receive proper care.

Israel has continued to heavily restrict humanitarian aid and life essentials from entering Gaza—in blatant violation of the ceasefire agreement that went into effect on October 10, 2025.

Contacts in Gaza keep telling me about the humanitarian crisis that envelops everybody; the lack of hygienic conditions, no rebuilding, Israeli bombs and rats eating the toes of adults and children in tents during the sweltering summer heat.

In Sudan, the worst humanitarian catastrophe on the planet, the civilian population continues to be pummelled by either the Sudanese Armed Forces or the UAE-backed Rapid Support Forces (backed by Colombian mercenaries):

City Under Siege, Children Under Fire: Rapid Support Forces’ Crimes Against Humanity in North Darfur documents how civilians in and around El Fasher were killed, injured, beaten, tortured and detained between early 2024 and October 2025 as the RSF fought the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and allied Joint Forces in a war that devastated North Darfur. The RSF’s crimes included murder, forcible transfer, imprisonment, torture, rape, sexual slavery, other forms of sexual violence, enslavement, extermination and persecution.

Hundreds of thousands of children have been displaced, many of them repeatedly risking death and injury during attacks or while fleeing. Countless have been orphaned. People with disabilities and older people have faced acute risks, including targeted attacks, abandonment, and exclusion from essential assistance.

Throughout assaults on North Darfur, the RSF routinely used terms like falangay, indicating slavery or servitude, during attacks on civilians of non-Arab ethnicity.

There can be a tendency to turn away from bad news, a growing global phenomenon, but I’d argue that we don’t have the luxury of doing so when so much of humanity is in turmoil. And the West and its allies are deeply complicit.

Everybody manages the horrors differently but I’d encourage people to keep engaged, active and pushing for a more just, accepting and beautiful world.

We only have one planet so let’s demand far better from politicians, elected officials and complicit journalists.

I’m an independent journalist without any institutional backing. If you’re able to support me financially, by donating money to continue this work, I’d hugely appreciate it. You can find donating options in the menu bar at the top of my website, via Substack and here. Or you can buy merchandise, t-shirts and mugs, to support my work.

I’ve been an independent journalist for over 20 years, always looking for new and innovative ways to fund the work that I do.

After starting a weekly podcast, more details below, I’m excited to announce that there’s now merch aka merchandise, that you can buy to support my independent investigations. Two t-shirt and two mug options, both utilising art by the remarkable Bangladeshi-American artist, Debashish Chakrabarty. The products can be shipped to anywhere in the world.

Here are two examples:

Please consider buying these items to support my work, a tangible way to back independent journalism at a time when such voices have never been more important.

This is a pre-sale to gauge interest in the merch, and I want to produce different products in different styles, so order away, friends.

In the last month, I’ve had many interviews talking about the latest developments in Palestine, US politics and across the Middle East including with Al Jazeera English and TRT World:

My weekly podcast, The Antony Loewenstein Podcast, is finding an engaged audience in many corners of the globe. Available on YouTube, Spotify and Apple and social media clips on YouTube Shorts, Instagram, TikTok, Twitter and Facebook, the word is spreading far and wide on issues that most in the mainstream media refuse to cover. Please share with your friends, family and enemies.

Thanks to my podcast team, we’re able to produce quality content that both challenges accepted wisdoms about war and peace and urges greater understanding of marginalised groups.

The recent episodes:

Ask Me Anything [questions from the audience] on Israel, Palestine and China:

Afghanistan Five Years After the Taliban:

Israel With Nuclear Weapons and the Greater Israel Project:

The Weaponisation of the Refugee “Crisis”:

Can Israel and Netanyahu Be Held to Account?

Buy my book in the US + UK

Buy my book in Australia + New Zealand

I recently visited Israel, the West Bank and the Balkans while researching my next book, out in late 2027.

Here’s my interview with Australia’s ABC Radio National’s Global Roaming about what I witnessed in the harrowing West Bank.

And a clip about the weaponisation of anti-Semitism:

I was recently in conversation with the UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese and human rights lawyer Chris Sidoti and it was a fascinating conversation:

My monthly column with the UK outlet, Middle East Eye:

As the co-founder and co-editor of the news outlet, Declassified Australia, I’ve been proud of our recent work.

The most striking was by my colleague, Peter Cronau, on Australia still sending F-35 weapon’s parts to Israel (now via the US):

Check out our other recent work here.

While writing my new book, I recently spent time at this remarkable writer’s retreat, Varuna, in the Blue Mountains (around two hours from Sydney). It was an incredibly productive period, helping me process and get my head around the challenging material that I’m covering, partly about Israel and Palestine since 7 October 2023, and making it compelling:

You can follow me on Instagram and Twitter for constantly updated content. My website has information about all my work, books and documentary films stretching back to 2003.

Thanks very much for reading.

Take care.

Antony

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