Two days after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced an end to the siege on Gaza, the United Nations has reported that Israel is still preventing food from reaching Palestinians facing starvation. Despite claims from Israeli officials that trucks of aid had entered Gaza, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs stated that only a handful of deliveries had been allowed through, with none authorised for distribution. The meagre aid is far from sufficient, amounting to just 20% of the daily deliveries before the war began over 11 weeks ago.
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Growing international outrage over the deepening humanitarian crisis has led to increased diplomatic pressure on the Israeli government. Opposition leader Yair Golan, a former deputy chief of the Israeli military, sharply criticised Netanyahu’s leadership and compared Israel’s growing isolation to that of apartheid-era South Africa. Golan condemned the government’s conduct in Gaza, accusing it of engaging in excessive force against civilians and calling for a moral reckoning from the Israeli left.
Tensions have also risen within Israel, where dissent against the war’s humanitarian impact remains rare. Peaceful protesters demonstrating near the Gaza border, including activists from the joint Palestinian-Israeli group Standing Together, were arrested and placed under house arrest. Meanwhile, settler extremists have reportedly acted with impunity, entering Gaza and escalating violence in the West Bank—highlighting what critics describe as a troubling double standard in the government’s use of force.
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Inside Gaza, the situation continues to deteriorate. Israeli airstrikes on Tuesday alone reportedly killed at least 85 people, including over 20 women and children in a school-turned-shelter and a family home. The Israeli military has issued new evacuation orders for Khan Younis, forcing already displaced and malnourished civilians to flee once more. The cumulative death toll in Gaza has now surpassed 53,000, with over 28,000 of the dead identified as women and children, according to UN Women.
