Israel has shown little indication that it is relentless over 19 months after its war with Gaza. Last week, it showed the opposite, showing increased violence across besieged Palestinian territory, with hundreds dead and hundreds of thousands fearing what will come next.
This was the week when President Donald Trump toured the Middle East and visited Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. They were hoping that a ceasefire agreement of sorts would be announced, or that the US would put more pressure on Israel to come seriously at the negotiation table. That was especially true after Hamas released US-Israel prisoners on Monday without demanding anything.
Ultimately, it didn’t happen, returning to his idea that Trump was involved in managing the future of what was left of Gaza, admitting that Palestinians were starving.
Israel also intercepted many missiles fired by Yemeni Hooti rebels before attacking Yemen themselves on Friday.
Let’s take a closer look at the week that destroyed Gaza. The Palestinians felt even more abandoned.
How many Palestinians were killed in Gaza this week?
Figures compiled by Al Jazeera show that at least 370 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli attacks since Sunday. The violence has been particularly fatal later in the week, with medical sources reporting the murders of at least 100 Palestinians on Friday and 143 on Thursday. Many of the people killed were women and children.
These are some of the worst daily deaths since the start of the October 2023 war.
The killings have resulted in a total death toll reported by the Gaza Ministry of Health, exceeding 53,000, but the death toll in the territorial government media offices now exceeds 61,700.
Israeli attacks target the entire Gaza Strip with a special focus on the north. Hospitals have also been repeatedly bombed by Israel.
What is being done to alleviate the hunger crisis in Gaza?
The humanitarian crisis in Gaza has been caused by Israel’s complete lockdown of all food and drug strip invasions since March 2nd.
A report released Monday by the Integrated Food Security Stage Classification (IPC) initiative states that the Gaza Strip “still faces a significant risk of hunger,” with 500,000 people facing starvation and 93% of the population of over 2 million facing serious risks.
People are already starving — Gaza authorities said last week that 57 people have died as a result of starvation.
Trump admitted that “many people are starving” in Gaza and said the US “will take care of it,” but has provided little details. The US has supported a new institution called the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation and said it will begin work in Gaza by the end of the month.
However, the plan was rejected by the United Nations and other humanitarian groups who say it would lead to more evacuation for the Palestinians in Gaza, as it would only dissolve aid in some parts of Gaza and set a dangerous precedent for the delivery of aid in Walzon.
The United Nations has repeatedly had the capacity to deliver aid throughout Gaza, but is prevented from doing so by Israel. If Israel allows trucks, they say there is enough assistance to be prepared to feed all Palestinians in Gaza for four months.
What do Palestinians want?
Palestinians in Gaza spoke of last week’s fears and are desperately urging the world to act and stop the Israeli bombing.
One of the worst hit regions, at the Jabaria refugee camp in northern Gaza, one civilian had a simple message.
“all [the strikes] They targeted civilians. All the houses are bombed – everything is gone,” Ahmed Mansour told Al Jazeera. They’re all joking from us. I’m heading to the coast now. We have evacuated more than 50 times. Kill us or let us live. ”
Taher Al-Nunu, a senior Hamas official, called on the US to open an intersection in Israel on Friday to put more pressure on “to allow immediate entry of humanitarian aid, food, medicine and fuel to hospitals in the Gaza Strip.”
What does Israel want?
The Israeli government has made it clear that despite domestic support for such a transaction, it does not want to agree to a deal that will end the war in exchange for the release of all Israeli prisoners still being held in Gaza.
Instead, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has spoken about a complete victory over Hamas, but it is difficult to see what it entails.
Instead, the war continues to drag on, with Netanyahu saying on Monday that preparations for “enhancing the battle.” Last week he said Israel was planning a “complete conquest” of Gaza.
Trump left the Middle East this week and refused to agree to a ceasefire deal, but when asked if there was a trade in place for the return of Israeli prisoners of war, he simply said, “We’ll know right away.”
Meanwhile, Israeli newspaper Ha’aretz reported that Israel’s position was “stricken” and that the United States “lost interest.” Sources told the newspaper that US envoy Steve Witkoff was “no longer involved.”
“He’s waiting for us to hear what we want. We don’t want anything, so he has nothing to do,” the source said.
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