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Twenty-one months into Israel’s war in Gaza, the enclave is gripped by escalating scenes of death and hunger, with some killed while trying to reach aid, others dying of starvation and growing condemnation of Israel’s conduct even among many of its closest allies.
The United Nations says more than a thousand people have been killed by Israeli forces while seeking food since late May, when a controversial new Israel- and US-backed aid group, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, began operating.
Of those, hundreds have died near GHF sites, according to the UN. The GHF was created to replace the UN’s aid role in Gaza and has been widely criticized for failing to improve conditions.
All 2.1 million people in Gaza are now food insecure. On Tuesday, Gaza’s health ministry said 900,000 children are going hungry, and 70,000 already show signs of malnutrition.
But how did it come to this?
A complete siege after Hamas’ October 7 attack
Before the war, Gaza was already one of the most isolated and densely populated places on earth, with around two million people packed into an area of 140 square miles. Israel has maintained tight control over the territory through a yearslong land, air and sea blockade, with severe restrictions on the movement of goods and people. More than half of its residents were food insecure and under the poverty line, according to the UN.
Between 500 and 600 truckloads of aid entered Gaza daily before the conflict. That number has since plummeted to an average of just 28 trucks per day, a group of humanitarian organizations said Wednesday. It’s unclear if the figure includes trucks used in GHF’s operations.
Following Hamas’ October 7, 2023 attack, which left 1,200 people dead and more than 250 taken hostage, Israel ordered a “complete siege” of Gaza, halting the supply of electricity, food, water and fuel.
A humanitarian crisis swiftly unfolded, as trapped residents faced both hunger and a devastating Israeli military campaign in response. Human rights groups have repeatedly criticized Israel’s use of food as a “weapon of war” and accused it of imposing “collective punishment.”
Brief respite and a short-lived ceasefire
Following international pressure, the first trucks carrying aid entered Gaza in late October. A temporary ceasefire between Israel and Hamas began on November 24, 2023, slightly increasing aid flow. But the truce collapsed a week later.
Aid deliveries subsequently dwindled again, and stringent Israeli inspections further delayed shipments. Israeli authorities said screening was necessary to prevent Hamas from diverting supplies but humanitarian officials accused Israel of deliberately throttling aid.
Further compounding the crisis was the Israeli campaign against the UN and its aid delivery system, which Israel said was ineffective and allowed aid to fall Hamas’ hands. The UN denies this.
Among the agencies targeted was the UN’s Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), which Israel accused of having staff involved in the October 7 attack. A UN investigation found that nine of UNWRA’s 13,000 Gaza-based employees “may have” participated and no longer worked at the agency.
In January this year, Israel banned UNRWA from operating in Gaza, cutting off viral services like food, health care and education to hundreds of thousands of people.
The breakdown of social order
As Israel’s campaign leveled much of Gaza, displacing most of its residents and weakening Hamas’ grip on the territory, lawlessness began to spread.
Looting became a new hurdle for UN trucks, and casualties mounted at aid delivery points. Israel has repeatedly blamed Hamas and armed gangs for the chaos.
The UN warned just weeks into the war that civil order was beginning to collapse, with desperate Palestinians taking flour and hygiene supplies from warehouses. By November 2024, the UN again raised the alarm, saying the capacity to deliver aid was “completely gone.”
In “one of the worst” looting incident, over 100 trucks were lost, it said. Drivers were forced to unload trucks at gunpoint, aid workers were injured, and vehicles were damaged extensively.
As Hamas’ grip on Gaza waned and the territory’s police force was hollowed out, gangs emerged to steal aid and resell it. Israel has also armed local militias to counter Hamas – a controversial move that opposition politicians have warned will endanger Israeli national security.
The arming of militias appears to be the closest that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has come to empowering any form of alternate rule in the strip. Since the start of the war, the Israeli leader has refused to lay out a plan for Gaza’s governance once the conflict ends.
Another ceasefire collapse and a new aid system
On January 19, another temporary ceasefire was reached. Aid resumed, but remained well short of what was needed.
Israel reinstated a total blockade of Gaza on March 2 after the truce expired. Two weeks later, it resumed fighting, with officials saying the goal was to force Hamas to accept new ceasefire terms and release hostages.
By July, the World Food Programme (WFP) assessed that a quarter of Gaza’s population was facing famine-like conditions.
At least 80 children have died of malnutrition since the conflict began, the Palestinian health ministry says. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), most of these occurred after the March blockade.
In May, GHF, the controversial new Israeli- and American-backed organization, announced it would begin delivering with Israel’s approval. Just days before GHF began operating, its director Jake Wood resigned, saying it was impossible to do his work “while also strictly adhering to the humanitarian principles of humanity, neutrality, impartiality and independence.”
The foundation was created to replace the UN’s role in Gaza, while complying with Israeli demands that the aid not reach Hamas. The GHF said it would coordinate with the Israeli military, but that security would be provided by private military contractors.
The UN has refused to participate, saying the GHF model violates some basic humanitarian principles. Critics have noted that there are only a small number of GHF distribution sites, in southern and central Gaza – far fewer than hundreds under the UN’s previous model. This has forced massive crowds to gather at limited locations.
The GHF has defended its system, saying it is a “secure model (that) blocks the looting.”
But soon after it began operating on May 27, the plan turned deadly as those seeking aid increasingly came under fire near GHF aid sites.
Palestinian officials and witnesses have said Israeli troops are responsible for most of the deaths. The Israeli military acknowledged firing warning shots toward crowds in some instances, but denied responsibility for other incidents.
And the deaths aren’t limited to the vicinity of GHF aid sites. On Sunday, Israeli forces killed dozens waiting for aid in northern Gaza, according to the Palestinian health ministry. Israel said troops fired warning shots after sensing an “immediate threat”
The ministry of health recorded 10 deaths due to famine and malnutrition in 24 hours from Tuesday, bringing the total of Palestinians who died of starvation to 111.
On Wednesday, 111 international humanitarian organizations called on Israel to end its blockade and agree to a ceasefire, warning that supplies in the enclave are now “totally depleted” and that humanitarian groups are “witnessing their own colleagues and partners waste away before their eyes.”
An Israeli official said at a press briefing on Wednesday that they expect more aid to enter the enclave in the future.
“We would like to see more and more trucks entering Gaza and distributing the aid as long as Hamas is not involved,” the official said. “As we see for now, Hamas has an interest: First, to put pressure on the State of Israel through the international community in order to (have) an effect in the (ceasefire) negotiation process; and second, to collapse the new mechanism that we have established that is making sure that they are not involved in the aid delivery inside Gaza.”
International pressure continues to mount on Israel, including from the United States.
And on Monday, the foreign ministers of 25 Western nations slammed Israel for “drip feeding” aid into the Gaza Strip. Israel’s foreign ministry said it “rejects” the statement, calling it “disconnected from reality.”
CNN’s Tim Lister, Mostafa Salem, Catherine Nicholls, Oren Liebermann, Eugenia Yosef, Dana Karni, Mike Schwartz, Mick Krever, Eugenia Yosef and Jeremy Diamond contributed reporting.