In a rare display of coordinated criticism, foreign ministers from over two dozen Western and allied states have issued a joint statement calling for an immediate end to "Israel's" war on Gaza.

"The war in Gaza must end now," declared the statement, signed by foreign ministers from countries including the UK, France, Canada, Australia, Japan, and the EU's top crisis official. While the language appears firm, critics question why these same governments remained silent or complicit through months of indiscriminate bombings, mass displacement, and starvation.

"The suffering of civilians in Gaza has reached new depths. The Israeli government's aid delivery model is dangerous, fuels instability and deprives Gazans of human dignity," the ministers said. "It is horrifying that over 800 Palestinians have been killed while seeking aid."

For observers, the horror is not just the scale of destruction in Gaza, but the fact that those issuing this statement have armed, funded, and shielded "Israel" through it all. Many of the signatories have:

• Opposed ceasefire resolutions at the United Nations;
• Continued weapons sales to "Israel";
• Deflected accountability by smearing critics as antisemitic;
• Backed "Israel's" so-called right to self-defense even as entire neighborhoods were flattened.

The joint statement condemned "the drip feeding of aid and the inhumane killing of civilians, including children, seeking to meet their most basic needs of water and food," and urged "Israel" to "immediately lift restrictions on the flow of aid and to urgently enable the UN and humanitarian NGOs to do their life saving work safely and effectively."

These words now ring hollow for many Palestinians and their allies, who have long warned of this unfolding catastrophe while Western powers turned a blind eye. The sudden concern for humanitarian access appears to follow, not lead, global outrage.

Selective Outrage

Perhaps most telling is the statement's rejection of forced displacement plans, asserting that "proposals to the Palestinian population into a 'humanitarian city' are completely unacceptable" and violate international law. Yet many of these same states offered no resistance when "Israel" first floated such ideas or when over two million Palestinians were pushed from their homes in southern Gaza under the guise of evacuation.

The statement also criticized "Israel's" settlement expansion, calling the E1 plan "a flagrant breach of international law" that would "critically undermine the two-state solution." But again, the Global South has seen decades of these same governments turning a blind eye as settlements multiplied and Palestinian sovereignty eroded, raising questions about whether this newfound indignation is merely rhetorical.

The statement ends by voicing support for "an immediate, unconditional and permanent ceasefire," backing efforts by Qatar, Egypt, and the United States. But even that feels belated. It is the very countries of the Global South, Algeria, Bolivia, South Africa, Malaysia, that have consistently championed Palestinian rights while Western allies stonewalled or equivocated.

Read more: South Africa criticizes Israeli use of 'starvation as a weapon of war'