Abstract: This essay takes issue with Lorenzo Veracini’s argument in this journal that the violence and destruction in Gaza following October 7, 2023 marks the failure of Israeli settler colonialism. More importantly, I suggest that the settler colonial framework is insufficient to understanding the dynamics currently underway. Expanding on Ruth Wilson Gilmore’s concept of ‘organized abandonment’ and Saskia Sassen’s theory of ‘expulsion’ helps situate Gaza within broader global processes of abandonment, dispossession, the production of surplus populations, and the destruction of the planet.