What do you call a ceasefire when the firing has not ceased? The killings in Gaza decreased when the truce was announced last October, but they did not end. Israel’s strike on Thursday morning on one of the few remaining functioning hospitals, which killed six people and wounded 28 more, was the first on a healthcare facility since then. But it was not an anomaly. About four Palestinians a day have died on average since the ceasefire was declared.
The Israeli military said that it had struck a Hamas commander and other fighters in the attack on Nasser hospital, without providing evidence. Its record does not inspire confidence in the accuracy of its account. Multiple UN experts and health campaigners have warned of the deliberate targeting of medical facilities and healthcare workers. Israeli military personnel have also described the shockingly high level of civilian deaths tolerated as “collateral damage” in targeting even low-level fighters after the brutal Hamas attacks of 7 October 2023.
Many more Palestinians are dying because of the war. With more than four-fifths of Gaza’s buildings destroyed, storms and the cold are proving deadly, killing at least four children and a woman last weekend. The UN says that 940,000 people are in makeshift shelters in areas at risk of flooding. Sewage is spewing into tents. In desperation, families are risking a return to ruined homes – with some dying in building collapses.
Reconstruction is the real need, but even the absolute basics are lacking: the UN says Israel is blocking 150,000 tents that are ready for use, along with other sorely needed goods, including sanitation equipment and nutrient-dense peanut butter. As an occupying power, Israel has a responsibility under international law to meet the needs of Gaza’s people. Allowing in the aid they desperately need should be the absolute minimum expected of it.
Even Donald Trump’s Netanyahu-friendly Board of Peace has urged Israel to allow in all humanitarian supplies and said that its response is insufficient – but it shows no inclination to actually use its leverage. Israel says that it has let in trucks and tents but that reconstruction can’t begin until Hamas “fully disarms”.
Gadi Eisenkot, a former head of the military, has six weeks to form a government following elections last month, in which Benjamin Netanyahu lost his mandate. Substantial improvements are unlikely even if Mr Eisenkot succeeds; the fate of civilians in Gaza was more of an issue in the US midterms than in the Israeli election.
But as Israel gradually begins to digest the extraordinary shift in international opinion underlined by the US midterms – with about three in 10 Americans now believing that it has committed genocide – other governments have a fresh opportunity to press for change. They must use not just words but deeds. Mr Netanyahu has suggested that Israel could become an isolated “super-Sparta”. Yet it is dependent – for security, trade and diplomatically – on the US and Europe.
Other nations must also pay up: shockingly, the World Food Programme said last month that it has had to cut the number of people it can help by half a million because funding has slumped. Israel’s obstruction increases the cost of relief, and its barring of aid groups is another obstacle. Now is the time to exert maximum pressure to ensure that Palestinians can survive this winter – and that they have a future worth living for.
