Israel’s widening military assault on Gaza—the continued bombardment, the prolonged siege, the daily murder of starving people seeking aid, the expansion of ground operations, and the carving up of Gaza with military corridors—has brought Gaza to a tipping point. Starving Palestinians have begun to collapse in the streets and die of hunger and thirst. At least 33 people have died from hunger and malnutrition over the past two days alone. Israeli troops gun down desperate people seeking meager food rations on a daily basis, with one of the deadliest aid massacres taking place on Sunday with nearly 70 people killed by the Israeli military as they approached a World Food Program aid convoy in northern Gaza.
On Monday, Israeli troops pushed into areas of Deir al-Balah in central Gaza for the first time since the beginning of the war. Deir al-Balah was the only city in Gaza that has not been subject to a major Israeli ground operation or suffered widespread devastation. Many Palestinians have sought refuge there and it is also the headquarters of several UN agencies and medical NGOs. Israeli forces raided the main staff residence of the World Health Organization in the city on Monday, forcing women and children to evacuate on foot toward the coast while male staff were handcuffed, stripped, interrogated on the spot and screened at gunpoint.
On this week’s Drop Site News livestream, Sharif Abdel Kouddous speaks to Eyad Amawi of the Gaza Relief Committee in Deir al-Balah about the latest assault on the city and the spreading famine in Gaza; and with Mouin Rabbani, co-editor of Jadaliyya and a former UN official who worked as a special adviser on Israel-Palestine for the International Crisis Group, about how the U.S. and Europe are allowing Israel to pursue its genocidal campaign with impunity.
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