How do we reconcile these opposing positions? Why are so many Palestinians food insecure when so much aid is flowing? I think I got to the root of this mystery on a recent trip to Israel, and in the process, I also learned why Gaza’s prospects are so bleak.
While each side accuses the other of exaggerating (it’s worth noting that the UN has been warning of the risk of famine for months), Israel and the UN are essentially comparing apples and oranges: Israel is focused on the amount of aid. approved The UN has not yet released details on the actual amount of aid sent to Gaza. Reach Civilians. COGAT noted that more than 1,500 relief trucks are waiting at Kerem Shalom, the main border crossing between Israel and the Gaza Strip. Israel is willing to let these trucks enter the Gaza Strip, but they cannot safely pass through the combat zone, even though the Israeli army pauses operations for several hours a day to deliver relief supplies.
COGAT blames UN agencies for the failure to deliver aid, writing to X: “Stop making excuses and do your part. There is much to be done.” But UN officials plausibly argue that the inability to get aid to those in need is due to an “almost complete breakdown of law and order.” The UN claims that at least 250 people have been killed since the war began on October 7, making Gaza the most dangerous place in the world for humanitarian workers. The latest threat comes from criminal gangs who rob aid trucks in Gaza for cigarettes, which cost up to $25 a stick.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF), which invaded Gaza to destroy Hamas, could have guarded aid convoys and distributed food and medicine, but it has refused to do so, or even to assume any other government functions in Gaza. Five Israeli human rights groups are now challenging the government’s position in Israel’s Supreme Court, arguing that the Israeli army has an obligation to do more to ensure that humanitarian aid reaches Palestinians.
At the heart of the case, currently before the High Court, is whether Israel is an occupying power. Under international law, “territory is considered occupied when it is actually placed under the control of hostile forces.” An occupying power has an obligation “to take measures to restore and ensure, so far as possible, public order and security,” as well as to “provide food and medical care to the population.”
Human rights groups argue that Israel is an occupying power, at least in northern Gaza, and therefore has a duty to provide security and assistance to Palestinian civilians. The Netanyahu government counters that the IDF does not exercise “effective control” over any part of the Gaza Strip, and therefore its obligation under the laws of war is only to facilitate the entry of humanitarian aid, not to actually distribute it. “It feels like a total denial of responsibility for the situation,” Tania Harry, executive director of Gisha, one of the human rights groups that filed the petition, told me.
Yes, exactly. Israel wants the benefits of having its military operating throughout the Gaza Strip — the ability to track down Hamas terrorists — but it wants none of the onerous and costly responsibility of actually governing the Strip.
That reluctance is entirely understandable: neither Palestinians nor Israelis want the IDF to control Gaza in the long term. Both sides were pleased that military rule ended in 2005, when then-Prime Minister Ariel Sharon withdrew Israeli troops and settlers (a decision that many Israelis now regret). The IDF does not want to repeat its experience in Lebanon: Israel’s 1982 invasion led to a costly 18-year occupation mission in southern Lebanon that exposed the IDF to car bombs and other terrorist attacks.
However, the Israeli government’s refusal to govern Gaza and its rejection of any role for the Palestinian Authority make it unlikely that Arab countries will send their own troops to maintain security in Gaza.
The Israeli government also seeks to undermine the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), which has been the main provider of education, health care and social services in the Gaza Strip for decades. Israel accuses UNRWA of colluding with Hamas and alleges that some of its staff took part in the October 7 attack on Israel. A bill currently before the Knesset would designate UNRWA a terrorist organization.
In response to these accusations, the United States and other Western donors cut off funding to UNRWA in January. Several major donors have since resumed funding, but not the United States, which was the organization’s largest backer for many years. The U.S. supports the World Food Programme and other aid agencies that lack the extensive infrastructure that UNRWA built in Gaza over the years. But even UNRWA today finds it difficult to function in such a lawless zone.
Gaza is increasingly a real-life Mad Max hellscape, with ordinary people struggling to survive, and Hamas has begun to rearm and regroup after heavy losses since October 7. As retired General David Petraeus previously told me, Israel appears to be pursuing a perverse strategy of “cleaning up and walking away,” allowing the IDF to repeatedly retake Hamas strongholds.
While I was in Israel recently, I asked analyst after analyst what the ultimate outcome for Gaza would be. Most simply shrugged and said no one knew. The most convincing answer I heard was that Gaza would be ruled by a Hamas-Israel Defense Forces coalition, with Hamas once again assuming de facto control, and the IDF continuing its regular airstrikes and invasions to keep the terror group from getting too powerful.
This will lead to further humanitarian disasters, endless wars, and a new generation of Palestinians plotting Israel’s destruction. If Israel wants to prevent the rebirth of Hamas, it should offer the people of Gaza an alternative vision of a more positive and hopeful future.
It starts with the IDF acknowledging its responsibilities as an occupying power and doing more to facilitate aid distribution. Then Israel must agree to a long-term roadmap for a Palestinian state, bring in Arab peacekeepers, commit to helping rebuild Gaza (more than half of the buildings have been destroyed), release frozen Palestinian funds to the Palestinian Authority, and finally work with reconstituted Palestinian security forces to keep peace in Gaza, just as the IDF already does in the West Bank.
Unfortunately, this is unlikely to happen as long as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu remains in power. Instead, it is more likely that Israel will continue to wield power without accountability in Gaza, leaving Palestinians to fend for themselves in chaos and violence.
