Humanitarian crisis is at its peak as an aftermath of the wars in Middle East and between Russian & Ukraine. Despite the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas there is no respite from the bombings on hapless citizens of Gaza. If we go by the larger estimates over 100,000 have already been killed, majority of them being women and children. This has in fact turned out to be a blatant aggression by the Zionist regime of Israel to annihilate the Palestinians. The recent killing of Para-medical workers proves the point. U S administration is fully supporting Israel with latest high-powered bombs and is at the back of Israel in all circumstances. It authorized the release of 2,000-pound bombs to Israel in January 2025, a munition that had previously been held back.
Similarly, the end to human sufferings as a result of Russia Ukraine war does not seem to be a reality in the near future. That the talks between US and the Russian governments to end the war will yield a result soon is uncertain. The European Union has taken strong exception on these talks. Many members of the EU countries have declared military support to the Ukraine government. According to figures released by Kyiv, U.N. statistics, and open-source data published by BBC Russia, the total death toll of Ukrainian and Russian soldiers, as well as Ukrainian civilians stands at 158,341 as of March 31, 2025. NATO stands strongly with Ukraine which irks Russia. The hope for end to this war is grim(1).
If these wars continue the possibility of use of Nuclear weapons cannot be ruled out. The Israeli Heritage Minister Amichai Eliyahu had threatened the use of nuclear weapons. US Senators Lindsey Graham and Tim Walberg have also come up with similar statements. These statements confirm Israel’s mind set to annihilate the Palestinians. US President Donald Trump’s aggressive statements against Iran are also serious threat in that direction.
In a commentary written for International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN), Heba Taha, an Associate Senior Lecturer in the Department of Political Science and the Center for Advanced Middle Eastern Studies at Lund University has warned ‘that throughout the past year, the violence in Gaza has been described using nuclear analogies, with reports indicating, for example, that the destructive power of Israeli explosives dropped on Gaza is equivalent to, or surpasses, those of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombs. These metaphors try to link Gaza to these nuclear targets. These reports also perhaps implicitly push back against the distinction between conventional and non-conventional weapons, since Gaza stands as a display of the immense damage and unimaginable violence that conventional weapons can cause’ (2).
President Putin has increasingly used the threat of the nuclear arsenal during the ongoing war and Russia has placed its weapons on heightened alert (3).
At one time in the ongoing war there appeared a grave threat to the nuclear power plants. This threat is in abeyance for the time being but not abolished.
In 2025, rising geopolitical tensions, coupled with “dangerous nuclear rhetoric and threats,” are causing concern, with the UN Secretary-General calling for action to support the legally binding atomic weapon ban treaty(4).
The conventional wars provide precondition where more deadly weapons are developed. The nuclear threat has been seen to increase under these circumstances. It is therefore imperative that the conventional wars must be stopped if we have to abolish the nuclear weapons. It is unfortunate that the global community is either mute spectator or ineffective in the present situation. The UN too has failed to make the parties agree to end the wars.
The trade war initiated by Donald Trump can any time add to the gravity of the situation. Global South which is already deprived region has landed into further precarious situation.
It is imperative that the Global South should take strong initiative to end these wars. As a leader of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM), India had powerful voice to promote peace. It is unlikely that present leadership will take any such initiative because they have plans to become arms exporter. Moreover Indian government has not taken a firm stand against the Zionist’s genocidal actions.
Under these circumstances it is the duty of the civil society to demand in a much louder voice for end to the conventional wars and save the situation from escalating to nuclear exchange which would be catastrophic.
Dr Arun Mitra is a Practicing ENT Surgeon in Ludhiana, Punjab. He is also the President of Indian Doctors for Peace and Development (IDPD) www.idpd.org
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