Gaza humanitarian crisis worsening despite Israel, Hamas ceasefire

As Israel keeps restricting the entry of sufficient levels of aid, Palestinian families struggle to find adequate shelter, enough food, and essential water amid the destruction, according to Al Jazeera’s team on the ground.
The World Health Organization says 15,000 Palestinians who are desperately in need of medical treatment are awaiting medical evacuation from Gaza after 41 critical patients were evacuated yesterday, as the Rafah border crossing remains shut despite the ceasefire deal.

How US pressure came to bear on Israel
The presence of high-ranking US officials in Israel in recent days has been described as “babysitting” – designed to twist the arm of a far-right Israeli government itching to find any excuse to relaunch its war on Gaza.

So far, the Trump administration appears to have largely succeeded, highlighting what some analysts deem to be Israeli subservience to the US, and an acknowledgment that when Washington orders Israel to do something, the latter will ultimately agree.

“They’re letting Netanyahu and others know that they’re free to go so far without consultation, but that’s it,” Alon Pinkas, a former Israeli ambassador and consul general in New York, told Al Jazeera.

“They’re reminding Netanyahu that he’s essentially out of options in the US. The Democrats can’t stand him, public opinion has turned against him, and there are many in the Republican Party, and specifically the MAGA [Make America Great Again] wing, who are asking questions about him,” Pinkas said. “He can no longer play one side against the other. This is it.”

Israel continuing operations by ‘encouraging’ civil war in Gaza
Daniel Levy, a former Israeli political negotiator, says despite the ceasefire, Israel has “fully, militarily been endorsed in its reoccupation of Gaza under the plan”.

“Israel is arming, aiding, supporting militias that are designed to sow chaos. Israel is encouraging elements of civil war in Gaza as it’s done in Syria and Lebanon,” Levy told Al Jazeera.

“So, it may be for the American side there’s a desire to get an international force in [Gaza], there’s a desire for things to go more smoothly, perhaps there’s a desire for lucrative contracts to be signed,” he added.

However, Levy explained, for the Israeli side and on the ground, they are still getting their way, “there is by design, the intentionality that Gaza will not see better days.”

“Palestinians will be pushed into, if they can do anything to encourage it, a fratricidal conflict and of course the continued free hand in the West Bank,” he said
Palestinian Authority welcomes Trump’s remarks on West Bank annexation
A spokesperson for the head of the Palestinian Authority, President Mahmoud Abbas, has welcomed Trump’s warning to Israel, in the Time Magazine interview, that it would lose all US support if it moves ahead with a push to annex the occupied West Bank.

Nabil Abu Rudeineh also urged the US president “to continue making more significant efforts that can achieve security and stability in the Middle East”, according to a statement shared by the Wafa news agency.

Israeli forces open fire on car in West Bank’s ad-Dhahiriya
Israeli forces have opened fire on a vehicle belonging to a Palestinian at the entrance to the city of ad-Dhahiriya, south of Hebron, in the occupied West Bank, our colleague on the ground reported.

We’ll bring you more on this as we get it.

‘West Bank being intentionally and brutally carved up’: NRC
Jan Egeland, head of the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC), has warned that Israeli settler violence – backed by the Israeli authorities – is driving Palestinians from their homes across the occupied West Bank.

“The same violence and impunity we saw in Gaza is dispossessing whole communities in the West Bank,” Egeland said in a statement, noting that violence in the West Bank has been largely eclipsed by the situation in Gaza.

He noted that nearly 200 Palestinians have been reported killed since January while another 3,200 have been injured by Israeli troops and settlers.

Military operations have also pushed more than 30,000 Palestinians out of their homes in the Jenin, Nur Shams and Tulkarem refugee camps, Egeland added.

“Humanitarians cannot even reach parts of Jenin and Tulkarem camps to verify the devastation, and communities are not allowed to return,” said Egeland. “Restrictions and intimidation are silencing the truth about what is happening.”