On Tuesday the United Nations’ humanitarian chief said that "14,000 babies" in Gaza could die “within the next 48 hours” if humanitarian aid doesn’t reach them asap. Yet 9,000 trucks loaded with baby food and nutritional supplies wait at Egypt’s border with Gaza, ready to enter but not allowed to do so. What is going on, and Why?
Apparently as a result of US pressure on Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu, on Monday evening Israel allowed 5 trucks with humanitarian aid to enter Gaza, and Israel claims that 93 trucks entered Gaza on Tuesday; but as of noon today none of this aid has been distributed to people in need. And in order to provide one meal per day to everyone, 500 trucks per day are needed.
This report from Democracy Now! summarizes Gaza’s food and humanitarian aid crisis. Another comprehensive report is by Dr. AbduMajed Al- Alou, "Gaza faces catastrophic famine."
So it has been 11 weeks since Israel closed Gaza’s borders to food and medicine deliveries, and this has overlapped with what Israel has announced as a military operation dubbed “Gideon’s Chariot,” which will see thousands of Israeli reserve soldiers entering and “occupying” Gaza. The stated purpose, of course, is to defeat Hamas; but the operation itself seems to be focused on destroying buildings and clearing land, especially in the southern part of Gaza, where the city of Rafah used to be. For a vivid description of this operation, based on interviews with Israeli soldiers involved, watch this Democracy Now! interview with an Israeli journalist.
The current “humanitarian operation” appears to be only a stop gap before a completely new US-Israeli plan to manage the civilian side of the occupation of Gaza kicks into action. For decades, the UN’s Relief and Works Agency has distributed food and managed schools and much else in Gaza. UNRWA has now been banned and bombed by Israel. Supplementing UNRWA’s work, charitable organizations like the World Food Kitchen have fed thousands of people each day. But there is no more food in Gaza so that meals can be prepared by charities. The world watches in horror.
To the rescue, according to Trump and Netanyahu, will (soon) come a combined and totally new project to feed starving Gaza. To implement this miracle, the United States is creating the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation. According to an excellent article by Egyptian investigative reporter Saher (“Global Voices”), the foundation “will be staffed by US military veterans, former officials, and corporate financiers.” The basic work plan of the humanitarian operation will include establishing a limited number of food and relief stations, primarily in the southern end of the Gaza strip, and to dole out a week’s food supply to people who show up, identify themselves satisfactorily, etc. The downside of this of course, is that many – perhaps most people – in Gaza are not capable of walking many miles and carrying home a week’s supply of groceries. The hidden agenda, actually not so hidden, is to force/lure displaced people to relocate to the south, where they can be watched and controlled as needed. Though Israel’s military operation has not succeeded in doing this, the whip of starvation may work.
Finally, in the last few days European countries have unleashed what the Israeli newspaper Haaretz calls a “diplomatic tsunami." "The situation in Gaza is unbearable," a foreign diplomat familiar with the international efforts against Israel told Haaretz. "It's time to stop. Images of children scrambling for a plate of rice, reports of real hunger, and the fact that Israel isn't doing enough to facilitate humanitarian aid make it impossible for us to stand by any longer," he added. Continuing, Haaretz writes:
Since Monday, crisis has followed crisis: the leaders of France, the U.K., and Canada announced they may consider sanctions against Israel; 25 Western countries issued a joint statement expressing concern over Gaza; the U.K. government suspended talks on a free trade agreement with Israel; British Foreign Secretary David Lammy announced sanctions on Israeli settlers and summoned Israeli Ambassador Tzipi Hotovely for a formal reprimand. … Seventeen of the EU's 27 member states voted to re-examine the legal basis of the EU–Israel Association Agreement. While full cancellation would require consensus and is considered unlikely, a qualified majority could suspend specific parts, such as the free trade deal that exempts Israeli exports from tariffs, or the Horizon program, which allows Israeli participation in European science and technology projects.
And there is more:
Looking ahead, Israeli officials are already bracing for the next flashpoint. France and Saudi Arabia are expected to convene a conference in New York in June to announce recognition of a Palestinian state. According to sources, the initiative is primarily Saudi, designed to deliver a symbolic diplomatic achievement reflecting concern for the Palestinian people. However, officials now believe the organizers are working to expand the number of countries backing the move.
Would it be mean-spirited to observe that after many months of genocide and 11 weeks of a total food blockade of food and humanitarian deliverie into Gaza, the “awakening” of Europe deserves some scrutiny? Nevertheless, here it is: as many European countries are refusing to follow Trump’s “diplomacy” on Ukraine, perhaps they are now refusing subservience to US policy (whatever that is) on Gaza. Is the beginning of a new orientation towards Israel/Palestine by Europe? We can be hopeful.
Below I’ve linked three articles about the war on Gaza that may be of intereset. That’s all from me, for now.
Frank Brodhead
For Concerned Families of Westchester
SOME ADDITIONAL READING
Gaza: Starvation and Exile
By Sari Bashi, New York Review of Books [May 19, 2025]
---- Over the past nineteen months of war, the Israeli military has destroyed the civilian infrastructure—agricultural fields, water installations, medical facilities, power lines—needed to sustain life in Gaza. The devastation has intensified the preexisting crisis created by Israel’s nearly two-decade closure of the coastal enclave, which blocked access to educational opportunities, separated families, and short-circuited economic activity. Now the Israeli military’s campaign has left Gaza’s two million-plus residents, nearly half of whom are children, unable to grow crops, process food, or pump clean water. … During the last cease-fire, which went into effect on January 19, those authorities let in significantly more humanitarian and commercial goods. But on March 2, as the cease-fire deal faltered, the government blocked all supplies from entering. The ensuing shutdown has been unprecedented: at no point since Israel built a fence around Gaza and created designated “crossings” in the 1990s has the government closed off the territory to all goods for this long.
[Read More]
‘Render it unusable’: Israel’s mission of total urban destruction
By Meron Rapoporf and Oren Ziv, +972 Magazine [Israel] [May 15, 2025]
---- In early April, just weeks after resuming its assault on Gaza, Israeli forces announced that they had taken control of the southernmost city of Rafah to create the “Morag Axis,” a new military corridor further dissecting the Strip. Over the course of the war, according to Gaza’s Government Media Office, the army had destroyed more than 50,000 housing units in Rafah — 90 percent of its residential neighborhoods. Now, the army proceeded to flatten Rafah’s remaining structures, turning the entire city into a buffer zone and cutting off Gaza’s only border crossing with Egypt. … Some of this devastation is the result of aerial bombardments, ground fighting, and IEDs planted by Palestinian militants inside buildings in Gaza. However, while it is difficult to obtain precise figures, it appears that most of the destruction in Gaza and southern Lebanon was not carried out from the air or during combat, but rather by Israeli bulldozers or explosives — premeditated and intentional acts. According to +972 and Local Call’s investigation, this was driven by a conscious, strategic decision to “flatten the area,” to ensure that “the return of people to these spaces is not something that will happen,” as Yotam, who served as a deputy company commander in an armored brigade in Gaza, said. [Read More]
'The War Has Made Israel Unlivable, and Turned Gaza Into Hell'
By Nirit Anderman, Haaretz [Israel] [May 21, 2025] – Reporting from Cannes
---- Everything could have gone differently. One optimistic – not to say naïve – scenario would have had director Sepideh Farsi walking around Cannes these days with Fatma Hassona, the main character in her latest documentary film. They would have spoken to audiences after the film's Gala screenings, they would have given interviews to journalists from various countries, would have popped over occasionally to Hassona's photography exhibition at a prestigious seaside hotel, and in between events they would have had dinner in one of this French holiday destination's buzzworthy restaurants. However, given Hassona's birthplace, Gaza, the likelihood of such a scenario was almost negligible. About one month ago, a day after Farsi called to tell her that their film had been accepted to the Cannes Film Festival – this is the final scene in the movie, showing Hassona radiant with joy – Israeli fighter jets bombed Hassona's home in Gaza, instantly killing her and six other members of her family. This death has inadvertently turned the film about her, "Put Your Soul in Your Hand and Walk," into one of the most talked about films at Cannes. It was screened over the weekend to capacity audiences. [Read More]
