You are having lunch, turn on the television and decide to watch the news: epidemics, clashes among political parties, and the family in the wood are daily occurrences, but you notice something: there is no longer any mention of Gaza.
And indeed, this is precisely what has happened: it has disappeared from international public discourse. The Strip continues to be in a state of emergency: instability, humanitarian crisis and recurring violence, while global political and media attention has slowly faded. The conflict has not been resolved, yet this tragedy no longer has any immediate impact on the strategic and communication plan of foreign policy.
The media silence on Gaza is not simply collective distraction, but the result of a structural mechanism. International crises follow a short and selective cycle of attention, in which visibility is linked to novelty, sudden escalation and the direct involvement of major powers. Crises that do not evolve in a clear or decisive manner tend to be progressively forgotten.
The events in Gaza show no signs of an imminent diplomatic solution, nor of an escalation that could upset the regional balance and involve other states. Consequently, even though the tragedy continues, it slips from our attention, replaced by conflicts deemed considered more decisive for the international order.
But the silence on Gaza is not based on simple media logic. Foreign policy plays a central role in thisremoval. In this theatre, for many international actors, speaking openly about Gaza leads to high political costs. The result is passive management of the conflict, focused more on containment than resolution.
Silence thus becomes a choice. Not taking a position means avoiding diplomatic and political tensions but being indifferent is not the same as being neutral; it remains a form of implicit positioning that contributes to maintaining the “status quo”. In this context, Gaza ends up being perceived as a secondary theatre, incapable of altering the global balance of power except in a marginal way.
Alongside the geopolitical aspect, there is a less visible but equally important dimension, namely the cognitive one. The continuous repetition of violence leads to inurement, in fact, continuous exposure to images of suffering, without any perceptible change, generates emotional saturation. The technical and bureaucratic language sometimes used to describe the crisis and the use of standardised figures, reports and statements contribute to a gradual numbing of international public opinion.
Gaza thus becomes a "silent war": there are still victims or violations, but it no longer causes shock. All this has profound consequences, not only for the population directly involved, but also for the overall credibility of the international system. Prolonged silence and inattention undermine the effectiveness of international humanitarian law and reinforce the perception of double standards in conflict management.
The lack of attention also encourages radicalisation dynamics: when suffering is not recognised politically, it tends to translate into mistrust, resentment and delegitimisation of international institutions. The implicit message that emerges is that some crises, and therefore some lives, are less worthy of attention than others. This message will obviously have destabilising effects in the long term.
Talking about the conflict in Gaza does not just mean turning the spotlight back on a crisis that has been forgotten but also asking ourselves whether contemporary foreign policy is really working. Silence should not be considered empty, but rather a tool that emphasises a position, a way of managing conflict that favours apparent stability over justice and inertia over responsibility.
Gaza has not disappeared from the international agenda because its situation has improved; on the contrary, it has been forgotten because it no longer serves the dominant strategic priorities. The silence surrounding this conflict only serves to normalise it, and the reduction in media coverage transforms the emergency into a condition that is implicitly 'accepted'.
Despite the silence of the media and politicians, the crisis in Gaza will continue to exist, out of the spotlight but not out of reality.
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