First, Israel halted the entry of all humanitarian aid into Gaza. Then at the weekend it cut the remaining trickle of electricity into the besieged strip. The goal is to pressure Hamas to accept revisions to a multi-phased ceasefire the warring parties agreed to in January and release half the remaining hostages held in Gaza in one group before the second stage begins. Unless the Palestinian militants cave to its demands, Israel has threatened to suspend its supply of water to the enclave.
This month’s actions by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s far-right government underline its cynical use of collective punishment against Gaza’s 2.2mn population to pursue its war aims against Hamas. The group must release the hostages but the people of Gaza should not be punished for the actions of the militants. The Geneva Convention obliges occupying powers to allow delivery of food and essential supplies for the population.
Yet Netanyahu’s government has used humanitarian aid as a tool of war since Hamas’s horrific October 7 2023 attack. Two days after militants killed 1,200 Israelis and seized 250 hostages, then defence minister Yoav Gallant ordered a “complete siege” on Gaza, saying: “We are fighting human animals and we are acting accordingly.”
In the 17 months since, the siege has ebbed and flowed, with Israel controlling the amount and type of aid entering the strip. Rarely, if ever, has it allowed it to reach the levels aid agencies deem sufficient to sustain a war-ravaged population stalked by hunger and disease.
When the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Netanyahu and Gallant in November for crimes against humanity and war crimes, it said there were reasonable grounds to believe both men were responsible for using “starvation as a method of warfare”. Now Gaza risks running out of fresh food within weeks, as well as fuel needed to power generators and pump water from the remaining wells undamaged by conflict.
Netanyahu makes no apologies. His extremist allies have openly called for a return to a full siege. It is happening as the US-backed ceasefire agreed in January hangs by a thread. During the truce’s first phase, Hamas released 38 hostages, while Israel freed more than 1,500 Palestinian prisoners and allowed a surge of aid into the strip.
The second stage was to begin 10 days ago, during which the parties were supposed to agree to a permanent ceasefire and the full withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza. But Israel is now demanding that Hamas release half the remaining hostages, some 30 people, on day one rather than in a sequenced manner.
Hamas insists that Israel stick to the original deal, and end its offensive in Gaza, which has killed more than 48,000 people, according to Palestinian health officials. Israelis are desperate for the hostages to be freed from their vicious captivity. The January deal — for which President Donald Trump claimed credit — set out a path to achieving both.
Israel’s prime minister now wants to shift the goalposts, while sticking to his refusal to end the war. He is able to impose the siege with impunity: European powers issued stock statements criticising the halt to aid; the Trump administration uttered no word of condemnation. Instead, Netanyahu and his far-right allies have been emboldened by Trump’s outlandish plan to empty Gaza of Palestinians and turn it into the “Riviera of the Middle East”.
In dealings with other US allies, from Canada to Ukraine, Trump has been quick to use the proverbial stick in his efforts to bend others to his will. So far he has given Netanyahu a free pass. Yet few nations would be as vulnerable to US pressure as Israel. At the very least, Trump should force Netanyahu to end the siege and support mediators’ efforts to get the ceasefire deal back on track.
