[MIDDLE EAST] Two days after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced the lifting of the siege on Gaza, the United Nations has reported that food supplies are still being obstructed, leaving Palestinians in dire need. The leader of Israel’s centre-left Democrats party has warned the country is becoming a global pariah, accusing it of committing atrocities against civilians.
As of Tuesday afternoon, only five trucks carrying humanitarian aid had entered Gaza, and none of that limited delivery had been cleared for distribution, according to Jens Laerke, spokesperson for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), at a press briefing in Geneva.
Israeli authorities had approved approximately 100 additional trucks, Laerke said, but these had not yet been allowed to cross into the territory. Even if permitted entry, the volume would be far below the pre-war average of 500 trucks per day and would offer little relief after nearly three months of siege.
Israeli officials claimed that 93 trucks had entered Gaza on Tuesday, though they did not clarify whether the contents—mainly food and medicine—had been authorized for delivery to civilians.
Conditions in Gaza continue to worsen. The UN has issued stark warnings about a looming famine and an escalating health crisis, with the World Health Organization reporting severe shortages of medical supplies and equipment due to the ongoing blockade.
International pressure is mounting on Israel to facilitate the delivery of aid to over two million people trapped in Gaza. Netanyahu said Sunday night that he would lift the siege to avoid damage to Israel’s global reputation amid what he acknowledged was a deepening starvation crisis.
However, former deputy chief of staff of the Israeli military and current opposition Democrats leader Yair Golan criticized the move as too little, too late. “Much of the damage has already been done,” Golan said, describing the military campaign as unjustifiably harsh.
Golan added that Netanyahu’s policies risked isolating Israel globally, likening the current trajectory to apartheid-era South Africa. “A sane country does not attack civilians, does not kill babies for sport, and does not aim to expel an entire population,” he told Reshet Bet radio.
Netanyahu responded by denouncing Golan’s remarks as “contemptible antisemitic blood libels against IDF soldiers and the State of Israel.” But Golan stood by his comments during a subsequent press conference.
Meanwhile, Israeli military operations in Gaza have intensified. On Tuesday, the Israeli army issued evacuation orders for central Khan Younis, deepening the humanitarian crisis and displacing more families. Airstrikes that day killed at least 85 people, including 22 individuals—mainly women and children—sheltering in a school and a family home in northern Gaza, according to the enclave’s health ministry.
The UN has warned that denying access to humanitarian aid and employing starvation as a weapon may constitute war crimes.
The Israeli offensive, initially framed as a justified response to Hamas attacks on October 7 that killed around 1,200 people and resulted in the abduction of 250 others, has since drawn sharp international criticism for the scale of destruction and civilian casualties. Golan argued the war had “become corrupt” and called on the political left to speak out more forcefully against it.
Within Israel, opposition to Netanyahu’s handling of the war has largely focused on the failure to secure the release of hostages and broader concerns about the military campaign—rather than the toll on Palestinian civilians.
Those who have centered their activism on Palestinian suffering have faced repression. On Monday, police arrested several anti-war demonstrators near the Gaza border, including Alon-Lee Green, co-director of the joint Palestinian-Israeli group Standing Together. The activists, who displayed photos of Palestinian children killed in Israeli strikes, were held overnight and placed under house arrest.
“While peaceful demonstrators are dragged into court, extremist settlers are allowed to cross into Gaza illegally, attack Palestinians in the West Bank, and organize settlement conferences at the Gaza border with impunity,” Standing Together said in a statement, decrying what it called a “dangerous double standard” in law enforcement.
Inside Gaza, civilians face intensifying bombardments, hunger, and repeated displacement. The Israeli military has declared all of central Khan Younis a “combat zone,” forcing already-exhausted residents to flee once again. Nearly every area of the Strip has been hit, leaving no safe place for civilians.
The death toll from Israeli strikes has now surpassed 53,000, with more than half identified as civilians. According to UN Women, over 28,000 of the dead are women and children.
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