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New York Times
06-05-2025
- Politics
- New York Times
Palestinians Need Food, Not Words
A full-blown humanitarian emergency in Gaza is no longer looming. It is here, and it is catastrophic. It's been more than two months since Israel cut off all humanitarian aid and commercial supplies into Gaza. The World Food Program delivered its last stores of food on April 25. Two million Palestinians in Gaza, nearly half of them children, are now surviving on a single meal every two or three days. At makeshift clinics run by my relief organization, American Near East Refugee Aid, signs of prolonged starvation are becoming more frequent and alarming. In the past 10 days, our lab technicians began detecting ketones, an indicator of starvation, in one-third of urine samples tested, the first time we have seen such cases in significant numbers since we began testing in October 2024. Food, fuel and medicine are exhausted or close to it. Every hour is a race against time — but without the access and political will needed to deliver aid, save lives and end the unimaginable suffering, our hands are tied. This is the longest continuous total siege Gaza has endured in the war. Israel is now openly exploiting aid as a tool of war; senior Israeli officials have declared what effectively is the intent to use starvation as a tactic to pressure Hamas to release the remaining hostages — a clear violation of international law. Many Palestinians fear it is also part of a plan to expel them from Gaza, and aid groups warn that Palestinians could end up in 'de facto internment conditions.' Israel's blockade — and the deliberate delays, denials and excessive security procedures that surround it — is not just a failure of logistics. It is an engineered system of deprivation. The short-lived cease-fire in January proved inadequate to meet humanitarian needs. Aid increased beginning on Jan. 19, but was again cut off entirely by March. The intent to use hunger as leverage is explicit, and it is unconscionable. As food stocks vanish, leaders including President Trump, Canada's new prime minister and Israel's allies in Europe and around the world are calling for the immediate resumption of humanitarian aid. Yet their words remain no more than that: just words, empty and ignored. On Sunday, Israel's security cabinet approved plans to step up its military campaign in Gaza. Just as ominously for Palestinians, Israel also approved a plan to entrench its control over aid, through Israeli-established hubs with private companies handling security. This appears part of a broader effort that includes the continued closure of Gaza's crossing with Egypt and a ban on the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees, the main source of humanitarian support for Palestinians. The clampdown on aid would also undermine Arab-led regional efforts for genuine recovery and reconstruction by ignoring or putting off feasible and legitimate security and governance plans. The danger for relief workers is constant. This March, the Israeli military killed 14 aid workers and a U.N. official. For my organization, the war became deadly in March 2024 when an Israeli airstrike killed our colleague Mousa Shawwa and his young son. At least 418 humanitarian staff members have been killed in Gaza over the past 18 months, making it the deadliest region in the world for aid workers. Since breaking the cease-fire with intensified bombing on March 18, the Israeli military has pushed Palestinians in Gaza into smaller and smaller enclaves, expanding 'no go' military or evacuation zones to about 70 percent of their territory. Israel must be required to create open and secure humanitarian corridors. Without them it is impossible to scale up relief because every delivery is a gamble with civilian and aid workers' lives. And while an immediate cease-fire and influx of aid are urgently needed, that will not be enough. There must be a plan, not just for relief but for recovery, which cannot happen in a war zone or under permanent siege. True recovery requires a political agreement that guarantees Palestinian presence, security and self-determination. Humanitarian access is not just a moral imperative, it is a prerequisite for any hope of a better future. Imagine instead a Gaza where homes are rebuilt, clean water flows, children return to school and families can once again harvest food from their own land. This vision may seem distant after decades of Israeli military occupation, blockade and repeated wars that have severely damaged infrastructure and essential services. But we've helped improve the lives of Palestinians in Gaza before and we can do it again. What stands in the way isn't capacity, it's deliberate policy blocking the path to basic human dignity. When we talk about peace, we must ask: What kind of future are we envisioning if an entire people is left to suffer starvation? Israelis will not be safer while Gaza remains under siege. Sustainable peace is built not through domination, but through dignity, freedom, opportunity and mutual security. This is the moment of moral reckoning. Will the world be complicit in Gaza's collapse, or part of its recovery?
Al Jazeera
24-02-2025
- Politics
- Al Jazeera
Israel deploys tanks as assault on occupied West Bank intensifies
The Israeli military has launched several new raids across the occupied West Bank, intensifying a monthlong operation that has killed hundreds of people and displaced thousands. During the raids on Sunday and into Monday, Israeli tanks were deployed in the occupied Palestinian territory for the first time in more than two decades. Reports that the army is planning to open up military corridors in the West Bank suggested an extended and expanded campaign. Israeli raids hit areas across the West Bank as bulldozers and armoured vehicles continued to pound Jenin and Tulkarem, where large refugee camps are located. Soldiers were reported to have stormed Jenin from the west, besieging the refugee camp and the areas adjacent to it. They also imposed a curfew in the town of Qabatiya to the south for a second straight day and stormed the nearby towns of al-Yamoun and Burqin. The al-Quds Brigades, the armed wing of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, reported on Telegram that it was fighting with Israeli forces in Jenin. 'Ominous sign' Hamas, the Palestinian Authority, neighbouring Jordan and the Arab League called on Monday for a halt to the intensifying attacks. Brazil also urged a full suspension of Israeli military attacks and unimpeded international aid access to the occupied territory. The deployment of tanks is an ominous sign, Al Jazeera's Nour Odeh reported from Amman, Jordan, because Al Jazeera is banned from Israel and the West Bank by the Israeli government and Palestinian Authority. 'The Israeli media is quoting sources close to the prime minister [Benjamin Netanyahu] saying that the army is intending to create large corridors in Tulkarem and Jenin – reminiscent of the so-called Netzarim Corridor in Gaza – in order to allow free movement for its forces and heavy equipment,' she said. The Israeli-established and -occupied Netzarim Corridor bisected Gaza and prevented displaced Palestinians from going back to their homes. It is feared that a similar tactic in the West Bank would illustrate a plan to extend and expand the ongoing operation. Hamas, which along with the Palestinian Authority condemned Israel for assaults in the West Bank, said Israel's wish to stay there is 'an illusion that will not come true'. The Palestinian Authority called for urgent international intervention to 'curb Israel's unchecked aggression' and its effort to continue 'genocide' against Palestinians. More than 40,000 people have been displaced from Jenin and Tulkarem, including its Nur Shams refugee camp, by the ongoing Israeli operation, which began shortly after the ceasefire in Gaza began on January 19. Israeli Minister of Defence Israel Katz confirmed the number on Sunday, adding that the army intends to stay in the camps to prevent the return of residents. United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Monday raised alarm about the Israeli attacks on the West Bank while warning against a return to fighting in Gaza. 'I am gravely concerned by the rising violence in the occupied West Bank by Israeli settlers and other violations as well as calls for annexation,' he said. Israeli settlers, who are often backed by armed soldiers, carry out daily attacks in the occupied territory. Videos released by Palestinian outlets from overnight into Monday showed settlers scrawling a Star of David and Hebrew graffiti on a Palestinian property and lighting a fire during an attack on farmland east of Yatta in the Hebron governorate.
Al Jazeera
27-01-2025
- General
- Al Jazeera
Palestinians return to north Gaza after over a year; Hamas hails ‘victory'
After 15 months of war, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians are returning to northern Gaza as part of a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas. Early on Monday, displaced Palestinians – huddled together and holding their belongings in sacks and plastic bags – began heading northwards on foot through the Israeli-established Netzarim Corridor, which bisects the strip. The Israeli military earlier on Monday said it would allow Palestinians to cross via the coastal al-Rashid Street by foot starting at 7am (05:00 GMT) and the central Salah al-Din Street by vehicle from 9am (07:00 GMT). 'I will start rebuilding my home brick by brick, wall by wall,' a forcibly displaced Palestinian told Al Jazeera. 'We will start by removing the debris and rebuild it all over again.' Al Jazeera's Hani Mahmoud, reporting from al-Rashid Street, said there was a 'sense of excitement and happiness picking up' after Israel announced the timings for people to return home in the north. 'We saw a change in the mood of everyone. We have never seen people that happy in the past 15 months,' he said. 'People describe this moment as historic. They say it's as important as the announcement of a ceasefire. For them, this is a victorious day.' Many of the people returning north were defiant. 'I cannot describe my feeling. It is a festive day for us, as if we have been resurrected and now are entering paradise,' a young displaced man told Al Jazeera. 'I have one message: We the Palestinians are the rightful owners of this land. We will not budge. Our resolve cannot be dented. We sacrificed 50,000 lives and 110,000 wounded over the past 15 months alone. We sacrificed our homes, schools, hospitals and entire infrastructure, but we will not budge.' Hamas called the return 'a victory' for Palestinians while its ally Palestinian Islamic Jihad said it was a 'response to all those who dream of displacing our people'. In a statement, Hamas said Palestinians returning to areas from which they were forcibly displaced 'prove the failure of the occupation to achieve the aggressive goals of displacing people and breaking their steadfast will'. In the early days of the war, Israel had forcibly evacuated about 1.1 million people from northern Gaza to prepare for a ground invasion. Israel delayed opening the Netzarim Corridor, originally scheduled over the weekend, over Hamas's failure to release female Israeli captive Arbel Yehud in the latest captive-prisoner exchange on Saturday. Hamas accused Israel of violating the ceasefire despite the group informing mediators that Yehud was alive and giving guarantees for her release. On Sunday, Israeli forces had blocked Palestinian civilians from approaching the Netzarim Corridor, firing on crowds on several occasions and killing at least two Palestinians, according to medical sources. Israel agreed to open the crossing on Monday after Qatar's Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced Hamas had agreed to release Yehud and two other captives before Friday. 'Small, promising sign' Omar Baddar, former deputy director of the Arab American Institute, said he was cautiously optimistic about Palestinians returning to their homes in northern Gaza. 'There is no question that Israel has ambitions to take over North Gaza. That is part of the reason why they have utterly destroyed it and expelled people from the area,' Baddar told Al Jazeera. 'So, while this is a small, promising sign – that they are going to allow within this agreement people to return – they are allowing them to return to an area that is utterly devastated. There is no indication that they are going to allow them to rebuild their homes in that area,' he said. Israel's war in Gaza has killed at least 47,306 Palestinians and wounded 111,483 since October 7, 2023. At least 1,139 people were killed in Israel during the Hamas-led attacks that day, and more than 200 were taken captive. Palestinian authorities said the actual death toll during the 15 months of relentless Israeli air and ground assaults is likely to be much higher as they continue to recover bodies from the rubble.
