The ongoing conflicts in Gaza and Ukraine exemplify the brutal human toll of territorial conquest, a recurring theme in history where power struggles over land lead to widespread suffering. In Gaza, as of July 24, 2025, over 61,800 people have been killed in the Israel-Hamas war, with 59,866 Palestinians and 1,983 Israelis, according to the Gaza Health Ministry and Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The conflict, reignited by Hamas’s October 7, 2023, attack, has seen Israel’s military operations devastate Gaza, with 80% of Palestinian casualties estimated to be civilians, including 70% women and children in residential areas. Starvation compounds the crisis, with 15 deaths, including four children, reported in a single day due to famine, exacerbated by Israel’s restrictions on aid convoys. Similarly, in Ukraine, Russia’s invasion since February 2022 has resulted in over 40,000 civilian casualties and nearly 600,000 Russian military losses, with 1,200–1,500 Russian soldiers killed or wounded daily as of November 2024. The war has displaced 3.7 million Ukrainians internally and driven 6.9 million to flee, creating Europe’s largest refugee crisis since World War II. These conflicts underscore the chaotic, bloody nature of territorial conquest, where civilians bear the brunt of violence and displacement.

Historical conquests in these regions reveal a pattern of violence and suffering that mirrors today’s crises. In Ukraine, the 20th century alone saw devastating territorial struggles. The Holodomor (1932–1933), a Soviet-engineered famine, killed millions of Ukrainians as Stalin sought to crush national identity and collectivize agriculture, seizing grain reserves to subordinate the region to Soviet control. During World War II, Ukraine was a battleground between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union, with an estimated 7 million deaths, including civilians massacred in places like Babi Yar. The 1944 deportation of 200,000 Crimean Tatars by the NKVD, with up to 46% dying in exile, was another brutal act to secure Soviet dominance over Crimea. These events, like Russia’s current occupation of 20% of Ukraine, highlight how conquest often involves not just territorial gain but cultural erasure and mass suffering.

In Gaza, centuries of conquest have similarly scarred the region. The Ottoman Empire controlled Palestine, including Gaza, from the 16th century until 1917, imposing heavy taxation and conscription that strained local populations. After World War I, British colonial rule under the Mandate (1920–1948) saw violent clashes between Jewish and Arab communities, culminating in the 1948 Nakba, when 160,000–190,000 Palestinian refugees flooded Gaza following Israel’s establishment, overwhelming its 60,000–80,000 residents. Israel’s 1967 occupation of Gaza after the Six-Day War further entrenched control, with strict security measures and economic restrictions that persist today. These historical conquests, like the current war, involved displacement, economic strangulation, and civilian suffering, reflecting the messy, bloody legacy of territorial ambitions that continues to claim lives in Gaza and Ukraine.