- by William Briggs
- The Guardian
- Issue #2137
Photo: Hla.bashbash – wikimedia.org (CC BY 4.0)
Just recently night-time temperatures in Gaza dropped well below average. It meant that people living in temporary shelters, tents, and in the open, suffered even more. Around them, talks go on, promises are made and broken. Around them people still die, unnecessarily. The occupation continues, aid is restricted, hopes are raised and dashed. The agony that is Gaza goes on.
The sudden and short cold snap led to the deaths of six newborn babies.
The bombardment of Gaza by the Israeli military, since October 2024, has resulted in more than 80 per cent of all health facilities being either damaged or destroyed. The ceasefire deal saw Israel agree to allow the delivery of much more humanitarian aid. This included 60,000 mobile homes and 200,000 tents. This and the associated food aid is now being ‘delayed’ as innocents pay the price for stalled negotiations.
The claims and counter claims of violations of the terms of the ceasefire and the handover of Israeli hostages and Palestinian prisoners are leading to increasing hardship. Netanyahu has announced a blockade of aid into Gaza. Moves toward resolution were pushed aside.
Israeli media reported that the government was about to enforce a total blockade of food and water. Israel’s energy Minister, Eli Cohen was quoted as saying that Gaza’s electricity supplies would be cut off.
This has been met with condemnation around the world. Oxfam was quick to denounce the blockade as yet another Israeli war crime, calling it “a reckless act of collective punishment, explicitly prohibited under international humanitarian law.”
UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Tom Fletcher was another voice of condemnation, saying “Israel’s decision to halt aid into Gaza is alarming. International humanitarian law is clear: We must be allowed access to deliver vital lifesaving aid.”
Caroline Seguin from Doctors Without Borders declared that “Israel is once again blocking an entire population from receiving aid, using it as a bargaining chip. This is unacceptable, outrageous, and will have devastating consequences.”
The entire population of Gaza is still suffering and suffering unnecessarily. The UN has estimated that in the past four months, 19,000 children had been hospitalised for acute malnutrition. Things appear to be worsening regardless of the state of the ceasefire. The bombs might not be falling just now, but the suffering has not gone away.
The World Food Programme issued a warning in early March to the effect that food supplies required to keep ‘public’ kitchens and bakeries operating would run out in two weeks. 500,000 people are entirely dependent on food aid.
Immediate fears of starvation had receded following the ceasefire of mid-January. Supplies of food and water increased dramatically. Wells were re-opened, doubling the levels of available water for the population. While this was still below the level that existed in October, 2023, there was hope. Those hopes are daily being dashed.
Food prices in Gaza are spiralling as a result of the shortages. The price of flour and vegetables has doubled.
The foreign ministers of the UK, Germany, and France issued a joint statement which says in part that “a halt on goods and supplies entering Gaza, such as that announced by the government of Israel would risk violating international humanitarian law … . Humanitarian aid should never be contingent on a ceasefire or used as a political tool.” The foreign ministers spoke for all when they said that maintaining the ceasefire was vital, that the hostages must be released and that aid must continue to flow.
There is a sense of foreboding, almost of inevitability that hangs in the air. An end seemed possible. The civilian population of Gaza danced amid the rubble when the ceasefire was announced. Their aspirations are simple fair and reasonable. They want a chance to live in peace and to rebuild their lives. Belligerent attitudes as well as the on-going desire to rid Gaza of its people are once more in the ascendancy. Nothing that Netanyahu says or does is possible without Washington’s approval and active support.
After the Israeli decision to use aid to try to force a change to the ceasefire agreement, a White House National Security spokesperson remarked that “Israel has negotiated in good faith since the beginning of [the Trump] administration to ensure the release of hostages held captive by Hamas terrorists … we will support their decision on next steps, given Hamas has indicated it is no longer interested in a negotiated ceasefire.”
Armed with such assurances, the extremist Israeli Finance Minister, Bezalel Smotrich was emboldened to say that “the decision … to completely stop the entry of humanitarian aid into Gaza until Hamas is destroyed or completely surrenders and all our hostages are freed is an important step in the right direction.” His usual level of vitriol accompanied his remarks and were almost identical to Trump’s threats of “all hell breaking loose.”
Trump’s vision of a Gaza free of Palestinians; in the vein of the Nazi Judenrein slogan, but with the added spectacle of Las Vegas on the Mediterranean, has not been going well. Arab nations have expressed their readiness to fund the rebuilding of Gaza without evicting the population. The Palestinian people are not prepared to simply disappear.
The most recent issue of accusation and counter-accusation between Hamas and Israel has allowed Trump to fulminate and to issue threats. He has promised to give Israel everything they need to destroy Hamas.
US military support for the Israeli war machine is growing. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has announced that another $4 billion US worth of weapons is on the way. As he put it, the USA will “continue to use all available tools to fulfil America’s longstanding commitment to Israel’s security, including means to counter security threats.” There are reports that these “means” include thousands of 2,000-pound bombs. Biden had already shipped enough hardware to allow Israel to all but totally destroy all structures in Gaza. Trump is providing so much more.
Netanyahu was buoyed by the announcement. Disregarding the ceasefire and its importance now and into the future, the Israeli leader praised the decision and Trump. “Donald Trump is the greatest friend that Israel has ever had in the White House … . He has shown it by sending us all the munitions that were being held up. This way, he is giving Israel the tools we need to finish the job.”
The ceasefire might technically hold, but given such rhetoric and given the stated ambitions of Netanyahu and Trump to clear the land, then peace is a mirage.
The nights became chilly in Gaza. Babies died from the cold. Starvation again stalks the land. The people cry, and their simple cry is that they be given a chance to live in peace and with dignity in their own land.
APAN condemns ‘hell plan’
The Australia Palestine Advocacy Network (APAN) is demanding urgent Australian action as Israel moves to escalate its already devastating, and illegal, blockade on Gaza under a program reportedly referred to as the “hell plan.”
This plan, which aims to cut off essential food, water and electricity supplies to Gaza’s 2.2 million Palestinians, is an egregious violation of international law and an unacceptable intensification of the ongoing humanitarian disaster that Israel has manufactured in the besieged territory.
APAN President Nasser Mashni has called the so-called “hell plan” a barbaric act of collective punishment, deliberately starving 2.2 million Palestinians in Gaza. This is not just a humanitarian catastrophe – it is a calculated, and deliberate expression of the intention to commit a war crime, unfolding in real time.
“Palestinians in Gaza have endured months of relentless bombardment, mass displacement, starvation and unspeakable terror. Now Israel is tightening the noose with a blockade designed to push Palestinians beyond the brink.
“International law isn’t upheld by words – it’s upheld by action. Australia cannot demand that Israel abide by international law while ignoring its own obligation to enforce it. Talk about a “rules-based order” is meaningless without concrete actions to defend it.
“The Australian government must condemn this plan, and Israel’s ongoing genocidal assault on Palestinians, outright, or face being accused of complicity in Israel’s siege and starvation.”
