Israel plans reoccupation as Gaza faces starvation

Israel’s Security Cabinet approved a plan on Sunday night to gradually reoccupy all of Gaza and hold it indefinitely if no deal is reached by 15 May.

The plan calls for the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) to flatten any remaining buildings and displace virtually the entire population of two million people to a single “humanitarian area.”

Israel will contract out humanitarian aid for the people of Gaza to a address the deepening humanitarian crisis which have led to malnutrition and food looting.

Friday marked two months since Israel imposed a complete blockade on the Gaza Strip. This period marks the longest time during which no aid has entered the Palestinian territory since war broke out following Hamas’s 7 October 2023 attack on Israel.

Hunger and shortages are worsening. The community kitchens that provide a significant portion of Gaza’s nutrition are beginning to close due to food shortages. There are reports of increased food looting, and thousands of children have been hospitalised for malnutrition. The UN and the International Red Cross are warning of the imminent collapse of all humanitarian aid efforts in the Strip.

On 25 April, the WFP announced that its food stocks had been exhausted and the last supplies had been delivered to charity kitchens. It is unclear how long the food stored in these kitchens will last. In the past week, 10 kitchens have closed, and the remaining ones have reduced the amount of food they serve. The number of hot meals distributed daily has dropped to around 950,000, down from over one million at the beginning of April Nir Hasson reports in Haaretz.

"Our diet is down to the bare minimum," Ahmed (an alias) told Haaretz. "We've reduced ourselves to one meal daily because we're almost out of flour. As a family, we agreed: one meal a day, no bread. If we find pasta, we try to stockpile it. Like everyone else, we rely on water trucks for drinking water. Every day we line up, hoping to fill a container. Some days, we don't make it; either the truck doesn't come or the line is too long. On those days, we drink untreated water."

According to a WFP market survey, food prices in April were, on average, 50% higher than in March and up to 740% higher than during the February ceasefire. A simple bag of flour now costs the equivalent of AU$150, several people told CNN. Several staple foods, including dairy products, eggs, fruit, and meat, are no longer available.

Cases of acute child malnutrition in Gaza are rapidly rising—one of the telltale signs of impending famine. Nearly 3,700 children were diagnosed last month, an 82% increase from February, according to the UN.

Last Wednesday night, thousands of desperate residents stormed a UN school and several warehouses in Gaza City in search of food and basic supplies. In the Rimal neighbourhood of southern Gaza City, men, women, and children attempted to force their way into buildings, hoping to find remnants of supplies such as flour and canned goods. “Hunger is extreme—it’s reached unnatural levels,” a resident of Gaza told The Times of Israel via text message, speaking on condition of anonymity due to fears for their safety.

Israeli officials have claimed that Gazans are not yet starving and that enough aid entered the Strip during a six-week ceasefire to sustain the population for an extended period. However, they have also argued that Hamas has been stealing aid.

US President Donald Trump said on Monday that his administration would help get food to “starving” Gazans amid the two-month-long Israeli aid blockade, but added that Hamas had made it “impossible” by diverting humanitarian assistance for its fighters.

“We’re going to help the people of Gaza get some food. People are starving, and we’re going to help them get some food,” Trump told reporters during an event at the White House. “A lot of people are making it very, very bad,” he continued. “Hamas is making it impossible because they’re taking everything that’s brought in.”

Israel announced on Monday that the Security Cabinet had approved a plan to reoccupy all of Gaza and hold it indefinitely if no deal is reached by 15 May.

The plans for a major offensive against Hamas include moving the Palestinian civilian population to the south of the Strip, attacking Hamas, and preventing the group from taking control of humanitarian aid, a senior Israeli defence official said.

The plan includes delineating an area in southern Gaza’s Rafah—south of the Israeli-held Morag Corridor—to be secured by the IDF, where civilian companies will distribute aid to Palestinian civilians. People entering the “sterile zone” in Rafah will undergo IDF security screening to prevent Hamas from accessing the aid.

According to a memo by COGAT (the Israeli defence body coordinating aid to Gaza), seen by the Associated Press, all aid will enter Gaza through the Kerem Shalom crossing—about 60 trucks per day—and will be distributed directly to people.

Prior to the war, about 500 trucks entered Gaza daily. The memo also noted that facial recognition technology will be used to identify Palestinians at logistics hubs, and text message alerts will notify people in the area when they can collect aid.

The UN said in a statement on Sunday that it would not participate in the plan as presented, citing violations of its core humanitarian principles. Aid groups have said they are opposed to using any armed or uniformed personnel to distribute aid that could potentially intimidate Palestinians or put them at risk.

Hamas decried Israel’s efforts to control distribution of humanitarian aid in Gaza as a violation of international law.

National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir was the only cabinet member to vote against the aid plan. He stated that “the only aid that ought to enter Gaza should be for voluntary migration, to allow them to emigrate voluntarily.”

He told his far-right Otzma Yehudit party during a Knesset faction meeting, “As long as we have hostages languishing in the tunnels, I don’t understand this discussion at all.” Until the hostages are returned, he said, “the enemy should not receive either food, electricity, or any other aid—neither through the IDF nor by way of civil society.”

READ MORE

Two Months Into Israel's Blockade, Gazans Are Nearly Out of Food (Haaretz, Nir Hasson)

Trump: We’ll help ‘starving’ Gazans get food, but Hamas ‘making it impossible’ (Times of Israel)

Hasbara delusions: when Gaza's hungry children are a 'PR failure' (Haaretz)

Israel plans to occupy and flatten all of Gaza if no deal by Trump's trip (Axios)

Israel vows to escalate war with new plan to ‘conquer’ Gaza (CNN)