UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres met Kuwait’s Deputy Foreign Minister Jarrah Jaber Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah at Kuwait international airport in Kuwait City.
| Photo Credit: AFP

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on My 12 appealed for an immediate halt to the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza, the return of hostages and a “surge” in humanitarian aid to the besieged Palestinian territory.

“I repeat my call, the world’s call for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire, the unconditional release of all hostages and an immediate surge in humanitarian aid,” Mr. Guterres said in a video address to an international donors’ conference in Kuwait. “But a ceasefire will only be the start. It will be a long road back from the devastation and trauma of this war,” he added.

Israeli strikes on Gaza continued on May 12 after it expanded an evacuation order for Rafah despite international outcry over its military incursion into eastern areas of the city, effectively shutting a key aid crossing.

“The war in Gaza is causing horrific human suffering, devastating lives, tearing families apart and rendering huge numbers of people homeless, hungry and traumatised,” Mr. Guterres said.

His remarks were played at the opening of the conference in Kuwait organised by the International Islamic Charitable Organization (IICO) and the UN’s humanitarian coordination organisation OCHA.

On May 10, in Nairobi, the UN head warned Gaza faced an “epic humanitarian disaster” if Israel launched a full-scale ground operation in Rafah.

Gaza’s bloodiest-ever war began following Hamas’ unprecedented October 7 attack on Israel that resulted in the deaths of more than 1,170 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.

Vowing to destroy Hamas, Israel launched a retaliatory offensive that has killed more than 34,971 people in Gaza, mostly women and children, according to the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry.

Palestinians prepare to evacuate, after Israeli forces launched a ground and air operation in the eastern part of Rafah, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, May 11, 2024.
| Photo Credit: Reuters

Israel ordered new evacuations in Gaza’s southern city of Rafah on May 11 as it prepared to expand its operation, saying it was also moving into an area in northern Gaza where Hamas has regrouped.

Fighting is escalating across the enclave with heavy clashes between Israeli troops and Palestinian militants on the outskirts of Rafah, leaving the crucial nearby aid crossings inaccessible and forcing more than 110,000 people to flee north.

Israel’s move into Rafah has so far been short of the full-scale invasion that it has planned.

The United Nations and other agencies have warned for weeks that an Israeli assault on Rafah, which borders Egypt near the main aid entry points, would cripple humanitarian operations and cause a disastrous surge in civilian casualties. More than 1.4 million Palestinians — half of Gaza’s population — have been sheltering in Rafah, most after fleeing Israel’s offensives elsewhere.

Army spokesman, Avichay Adraee, told Palestinians in Jabaliya and Beit Lahiya cities and the surrounding areas to leave their homes and head to shelters in the west of Gaza City, warning that people were in “a dangerous combat zone” and that Israel was going to strike with “great force”.

Heavy fighting is underway in northern Gaza, where Hamas appeared to have once again regrouped in an area where Israel has already launched punishing assaults. Battles erupted this week in the Zeitoun area on the outskirts of Gaza City, in the northern part of the territory. Northern Gaza was the first target of the ground offensive. Israel said late last year that it had mostly dismantled Hamas in the area.

At least 19 people, including eight women and eight children, were killed overnight in Central Gaza in three different strikes that hit the towns of Zawaida, Maghazi and Deir al Balah, according to Al Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al Balah and an Associated Press journalist who counted the bodies.

Israel’s bombardment and ground offensives in Gaza have killed more than 34,800 Palestinians, mostly women and children, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and combatants in its figures.

Much of Gaza has been destroyed and some 80% of Gaza’s population has been driven from their homes.

Smoke billows after Israeli bombardment in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip on Monday, May 6, 2024.
| Photo Credit: AFP

The story so far: Israel advancing with a long-anticipated ground invasion of Rafah and seizing control of the Gaza side of the border crossing with Egypt on Tuesday, shortly after Hamas announced its acceptance of a ceasefire proposal brokered by Egypt and Qatar, has cast a shadow on the prospects of halting the war, which has claimed the lives of over 34,700 people so far.

Israeli tanks moved into the southern part of the city overnight, while warplanes bombed areas near the crucial Rafah border crossing, killing at least 23 Palestinians and injuring several others. The invasion, described by the U.S. as a “limited operation,” unfolded a day after the Israeli military ordered over a million people sheltering in Rafah to evacuate parts of the southern Gaza Strip city and relocate to an “expanded humanitarian zone” near Khan Younis, in preparation for an assault to “eradicate” Hamas.

Explained | How bad is the humanitarian crisis in Gaza?

The military operation in Rafah: what, why and how

Israel ordered the Rafah evacuation after four of its soldiers were killed in a rocket attack claimed by the Hamas armed wing near Rafah on May 5. The evacuation order prompted widespread concern about the potential ramifications for the millions of displaced Palestinians camping there.

The U.S. cautioned PM Benjamin Netanyahu against launching a southern Gaza offensive. Terming the impending invasion as a “red line” for his administration, President Joe Biden said further military action risked more casualties and devastation. Further, in a telephonic conversation with the Israeli PM, the U.S. President again highlighted the necessity of a ceasefire with Hamas to protect Israeli hostages and emphasised it as the best course of action.

Human rights groups and aid agencies also warned that an Israeli incursion could result in dire consequences, potentially leading to a “bloodbath.”

Against the backdrop of an imminent all-out military assault on Rafah, Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh announced that the group accepted a ceasefire proposal mediated by Qatar and Egypt. Israel must decide whether it accepts or obstructs a truce, a Hamas official said. The ball is now in Israel’s court, the official told AFP.

Israel, meanwhile, remained defiant and insisted on invading Rafah despite international pressure. Tel Aviv said it would “stand alone if it has to.”

Hours after Hamas’ announcement raised hopes of a pause in firing, Mr. Netanyahu rejected the ceasefire agreement as “far from Israel’s necessary demands,” claiming that its terms had been “softened.”

In a statement, the Israeli PM said the war Cabinet had unanimously decided to continue its operation in Rafah to “apply military pressure on Hamas,” advance the release of hostages and achieve the “other objectives” of the war. It added that a delegation will be nonetheless sent to meet with mediators in Cairo “to exhaust the possibility” of reaching an agreement on “terms acceptable to Israel.”

On Sunday night, the military alert dropped leaflets and sent messages, ordering people to relocate to an expanded humanitarian zone ‘Muwasi,’ a makeshift tent camp. Notably, the Israeli military had issued similar evacuation orders at the onset of the war in 2023, often directing civilians to vacate combat zones before offensive actions and asking them to move south to Rafah.

Soon after, the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) launched a “precise counterterrorism operation to eliminate Hamas terrorists and infrastructure” in eastern Rafah. Twenty-three people, including six women and five children, were killed in the series of strikes and bombardment across Rafah, Associated Press reported. 

In a first since its 2005 disengagement from Gaza, the Israeli military returned to the point and seized control of the Rafah border crossing on the Gaza side. Video clips shared online by the IDF showed Israeli flags flying at the checkpoint and atop tanks. “The IDF will continue pursuing Hamas everywhere in Gaza until all the hostages that they’re holding in captivity are back home,” it posted on X.

The View From India | Why truce remains elusive in Gaza

What is the significance of Rafah for Israel? 

The southern city of Rafah has served as a shelter for an estimated 1.4 million Palestinians forced to leave their homes to escape military action after Israel launched a military campaign following Hamas’ October 2023 attacks in Israel in which at least 1,200 people were killed. 

The Rafah crossing has been a lifeline for hundreds of thousands of people caught in the conflict. The border point is the main exit point from Gaza, and the sole crossing not directly under Israeli control. It is the centre for delivery of critical aid, food and humanitarian assistance, facilitating the exit of injured people and foreign passport holders from the strife-torn area. The displaced Palestinians and residents, living in densely packed camps and apartments in Rafah, are entirely dependent on international aid for food and basic supplies arriving in Gaza from the Rafah border crossing.

The area emerged as a focal point in the escalating conflict in recent months amid Israel’s claims that the crossing is used for “terrorist purposes.” Israel contended that Rafah is Hamas’ “last bastion” and shelters thousands of fighters and potentially numerous hostages. The administration claimed that four of the militant group’s 24 battalions are based in the area.

Israeli PM Netanyahu repeatedly deemed Rafah crucial to achieve his government’s “central goal” of dismantling the military and governing capabilities of Hamas. “It is impossible to achieve the goal of the war of eliminating Hamas by leaving four Hamas battalions in Rafah,” Mr. Netanyahu said in a statement in February. 

A week ago, the Israeli PM vowed to enter Rafah and destroy Hamas’ remaining battalions, regardless of whether a deal was reached or not. “The idea that we will stop the war before achieving all of its goals is out of the question. We will enter Rafah and we will eliminate Hamas’ battalions there — with a deal or without a deal, to achieve total victory,” Mr. Netanyahu later said in a meeting with the families of the hostages.

With Israeli troops taking control of the Rafah crossing on Tuesday, Israel now has full authority over the entry and exit of people and aid. The development has sparked global concern over the fate of Gaza’s 2.3 million people, left hungry and homeless due to the war.

Palestinians stand in the ruins of the Chahine family home, after an overnight Israeli strike that killed at least two adults and five boys and girls under the age of 16 in Rafah, southern Gaza Strip, on May 3, 2024.
| Photo Credit: AP

A World Health Organization official said on Friday that the agency had a contingency plan prepared in case of an Israeli incursion into Gaza’s Rafah but said it would not be sufficient to prevent a substantial rise in the death toll.

“I want to really say that this contingency plan is a band-aid,” said Rik Peeperkorn, WHO representative for the occupied Palestinian territory, at a Geneva press briefing via video link.

“It will absolutely not prevent the expected substantial additional mortality and morbidity posed by a military operation.”

A brawl erupted at University of California, Los Angeles, (UCLA) after a pro-Palestinian encampment was “forcefully attacked,” the school’s chancellor said on May 1, while activists at the University of Wisconsin in Madison clashed with police officers who destroyed their tents, in a day of escalating violence on some college campuses over the war in Gaza.

Fifteen people were injured during the UCLA confrontation, including one person who was hospitalized, according to the president of the University of California system. The chaotic scenes unfolded on Wednesday after police burst into a building occupied by anti-war protesters at Columbia University on Tuesday night, breaking up a demonstration that had paralyzed the school.

Chancellor Gene Block at UCLA said in a statement that “a group of instigators” came on campus Tuesday to “forcefully attack” the pro-Palestinian encampment, prompting the school to ask for assistance from outside law enforcement.

After a couple of hours of scuffles between dueling demonstrators at the University of California, Los Angeles, police wearing helmets and face shields separated the groups and restored calm. Later Wednesday, pro-Palestinian protesters rebuilt a barricade around their encampment. There were no counter-protesters in sight, and law enforcement officers were deployed throughout the campus.

Also read | Demonstrations roil U.S. campuses ahead of graduations as protesters spar over the war in Gaza

In Madison on Wednesday, police with shields removed all but one tent and shoved protesters, resulting in a scrum. Four officers were injured, including a state trooper who was hit in the head with a skateboard, according to University of Wisconsin police spokesperson Marc Lovicott.

Within hours, protesters had erected more tents at the UW campus.

More than 30 people were arrested, most of them released without charges, but four were charged with battering law enforcement, police said.

Tent encampments of protesters calling on universities to stop doing business with Israel or companies that support the war in Gaza have spread across campuses nationwide in a student movement unlike any other this century. The ensuing police crackdowns echoed actions decades ago against a much larger protest movement protesting the Vietnam War.

This is all playing out in an election year in the U.S., raising questions about whether young voters — who are critical for Democrats — will back President Joe Biden’s reelection effort, given his staunch support of Israel.

There have been confrontations with law enforcement and more than 1,300 arrests. In rare instances, university officials and protest leaders struck agreements to restrict the disruption to campus life and upcoming commencement ceremonies.

The clashes at UCLA erupted when the pro-Palestinian protesters tried to expand their encampment late Tuesday night. Counter-protesters then tried to pull down the parade barricades, plywood and wooden pallets surrounding the encampment. In the chaos, firecrackers exploded.

Police left the scene around 11.30 p.m., and police in riot gear showed up at 1.45 a.m. to establish a perimeter. Pro-Israel protesters threw traffic cones and chairs, released pepper spray, and tore down barriers around the encampment. Some from the pro-Palestinian camp hopped over the barriers and scuffled with the counter-protesters.

No one was arrested. Officials have not clarified whether the demonstrators were all students.

Chancellor Block offered his sympathy to those who were injured and anyone who feels unsafe on campus, and promised the university will conduct a thorough investigation that he said may lead to arrests, expulsions and dismissals. In addition, Mr. Block said the administration is examining its own security response.

“However one feels about the encampment, this attack on our students, faculty and community members was utterly unacceptable,” Mr. Block said. “It has shaken our campus to its core and — adding to other abhorrent incidents that we have witnessed and that have circulated on social media over the past several days — further damaged our community’s sense of security.”

Also read | More than 100 arrested at U.S. university pro-Palestinian protests

UCLA senior Edgar Gomez, who ventured outside his dorm to watch the ruckus unfold, said he saw counter-protesters tearing up Palestinian flags, and pepper spray hung in the air as the two sides fought.

“I’ve never seen this happen before,” said Mr. Gomez, adding that he isn’t with either group. “I’ve never seen people get so heated.”

California Governor Gavin Newsom and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass both called for accountability of those involved in the melee. A spokesperson for the governor said outside law enforcement was sent to the campus after “unacceptable” delays in the university’s police force response to the clashes.

The nationwide campus demonstrations began at Columbia to protest Israel’s offensive in Gaza after Hamas launched a deadly attack on southern Israel on October 7. Militants killed about 1,200 people, most of them civilians, and took roughly 250 hostages. Vowing to stamp out Hamas, Israel has killed more than 34,000 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, according to the Health Ministry there.

Late Tuesday, New York City police officers entered Columbia’s campus and cleared a tent encampment, along with Hamilton Hall where a stream of officers used a ladder to climb through a second-floor window, and police said protesters inside presented no substantial resistance. They had seized the Ivy League school building about 20 hours earlier.

Protesters first set up a tent encampment at Columbia almost two weeks ago. The school sent in police to clear the tents the following day, arresting more than 100 people. But the protesters returned.

Negotiations between the protesters and the college ground to a halt in recent days, and the school set a Monday deadline for the activists to abandon the tent encampment or be suspended.

Instead, protesters took over Hamilton Hall early Tuesday, carrying in furniture and metal barricades.

In a letter to senior police officials, Columbia President Nemat Shafik, who uses the first name Minouche, said the administration asked officers to remove protesters from the occupied building and a tent encampment “with the utmost regret.”

Columbia on Wednesday called Hamilton Hall “an active crime scene” under NYPD investigation and limited campus access to people with Columbia identification and essential personnel, barring the media.

“After the University learned overnight that Hamilton Hall had been occupied, vandalized, and blockaded, we were left with no choice,” the school said in a statement.

Fabien Lugo, a first-year accounting student who said he was not involved in the protests, said he opposed the university’s decision to call in police.

“This is too intense,” he said. “It feels like more of an escalation than a de-escalation.”

Blocks away from Columbia, at The City College of New York, demonstrators were in a standoff with police outside the public college’s main gate. Video posted on social media by reporters late Tuesday showed officers forcing some people to the ground and shoving others as they cleared the street and sidewalks.

Close to 300 protesters were arrested in the crackdowns at Columbia and City College, officials said.

Brown University, another Ivy League school, reached an agreement Tuesday with protesters on its Rhode Island campus. Demonstrators closed their encampment after administrators agreed to consider a vote to divest from Israel in October — apparently the first U.S. college to agree to such a demand.

Meanwhile, protest encampments were cleared or closed up voluntarily at schools from Flagstaff, Arizona, to New Orleans.

At Portland State in Oregon, school officials said some 50 protesters left a library on campus that had been occupied since Monday after administrators offered not to seek criminal charges or other discipline. An unknown number of people remained in the library Wednesday.

Israel and its supporters have branded the university protests antisemitic, while Israel’s critics say it uses those allegations to silence opposition. Although some protesters have been caught on camera making antisemitic remarks or violent threats, organizers of the protests, some of whom are Jewish, say it is a peaceful movement aimed at defending Palestinian rights and protesting the war.

U.S. Deputy Ambassador Robert Wood votes against resolution during a Security Council meeting at United Nations headquarters, on April 18, 2024
| Photo Credit: AP

Palestinian militant group Hamas condemned on April 19 the U.S. veto that ended a long-shot Palestinian bid for full United Nations membership.

“Hamas condemns the American veto at the Security Council of the draft resolution granting Palestine full membership in the United Nations,” the Gaza Strip rulers said in a statement, which comes amid growing international concern over the toll inflicted by the war in the besieged Palestinian territory.

Iran-Israel Crisis updates April 19, 2024

The veto by Israel’s main ally and military backer had been expected ahead of the vote, which took place more than six months into Israel’s offensive in Gaza, in retaliation for the deadly October 7 attack by Hamas militants.

Twelve countries voted in favour of the draft resolution, which was introduced by Algeria and “recommends to the General Assembly that the State of Palestine be admitted to membership of the United Nations”. Britain and Switzerland abstained.

The United States will continue dropping essential aid from the air into the Gaza Strip, the White House said Tuesday, after Palestinian militant group Hamas called for them to end following fatal drownings and stampedes.

“Air drops are one of the many ways that we are helping to provide desperately needed aid to Palestinians in Gaza, and we will continue to do so,” the National Security Council said in a statement, after Hamas said that 18 people had died, 12 of them by drowning while trying to recover dropped food supplies.

The NSC said the United States was working “around the clock” to increase the flow of aid into Gaza by land, adding that efforts were also underway to establish a maritime corridor to reach the territory.

“Let’s be clear, Hamas started this war and has refused to agree to a hostage deal that would create the conditions to facilitate a surge in humanitarian assistance,” the statement said.

Hamas urged Tuesday for an end to airdrops — whereby aid packages are dropped with parachutes from a plane — saying they were too risky.

In a statement, Hamas called for “an immediate end to airdrop operations” and “the immediate and rapid opening of land crossings to allow humanitarian aid to reach our Palestinian people.”

The UN children’s fund, UNICEF, has said vastly more aid must be rushed into Gaza by road, rather than air or sea, to avert an “imminent famine.”

Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad al-Maliki and Palestinian U.N. envoy Riyad Mansour attend a public hearing held by The International Court of Justice to allow parties to give their views on the legal consequences of Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian territories before eventually issuing a non-binding legal opinion in The Hague, Netherlands on February 19, 2024.
| Photo Credit: Reuters

The story so far: Israel’s war in Gaza in retaliation for the October 7 terror attacks by Hamas took centre-stage at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) this week again, as the UN General Assembly raised the question of illegal Israeli settlements in the court, with public hearings that will end on February 26. The hearings sparked a further divide between Western countries, many of whom sought to defend Israel’s bombardment of Gaza as the “right to self-defence”, and were ranged against Global South countries, most of whom had supported South Africa’s bid to have the ICJ try Israel for “war-crimes” for its actions. The latest hearings opened in the backdrop of a major rift between Brazil and Israel.

What are the ICJ hearings about?

The current hearings of the ICJ at the Peace Palace in The Hague (The Netherlands) are not a consequence of the Israel-Hamas conflict of the past few months, but pre-date them. In December 2022, the UN General Assembly had asked the court for an “advisory opinion” on two specific questions pertaining to Israeli actions in the past: first, what are the “legal consequences” for Israel over its policy of “occupations, settlement and annexation” of Palestinian territories since the 1967 war, and attempts to change the demographic status of Jerusalem, and second, what legal consequences arise for all other states and the United Nations over Israel’s “discriminatory” policies towards Palestinians. As many as 52 states and three international organisations gave written and oral comments during the hearings scheduled from February 19-26, led by Palestine, and followed by South Africa.

Editorial | Momentous ruling: On Israel and the International Court of Justice order

Who were the key speakers and what have they said so far?

While a majority of the speakers at the hearings are from the Global South led by Brazil and South Africa, all P-5 members of the UN Security council submitted comments, although Israel chose not to participate. India was not among the speakers, but its neighbours, Pakistan and Bangladesh were strongly critical of Israel’s actions. Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad al-Maliki gave a three-hour high-powered submission in which he said Israeli governments had left only three choices for Palestinians: “displacement, subjugation or death”, calling their actions: “ethnic cleansing, apartheid or genocide.” The U.S., U.K. and allies began submissions with condemnations of the October 7 attack in which more than 1,100 were killed in Israel. Ireland, however, has diverged quite dramatically from the West and the European Union in its criticism of Israel’s actions, countering arguments on the “right to self-defence” by saying that international law “limits the use of force in self-defence to no more than what is necessary and proportionate”. More than 29,000 people have been killed in Gaza since Israel’s bombardment began. While the ICJ case pertains to events pre-2022, it was clear that the destruction of nearly half of all structures in Gaza in four months are precipitating concerns that Israel plans to occupy and resettle that territory as well. Brazil’s ambassador in particular called for the ICJ to pronounce Israel’s actions of confiscating land, demolishing Palestinian homes, establishing Israeli settlements, and constructing the West Bank barrier wall as illegal.

Why have Brazil and Israel drawn daggers?

While Brazil and Israel have had close relations in the past, Brazil’s President Lula da Silva has been openly critical of “Zionism” in the past. For instance, he refused to visit the grave of Theodor Herzl during a visit to Jerusalem in 2010. Last week, Israel declared Mr. Lula a “persona non grata” who won’t be allowed to enter the country after he compared Israel’s bombardment of Palestinians to the Holocaust in Nazi Germany in which six million Jewish people were killed. Brazil has since recalled its ambassador to Israel.

What is India’s stand?

Despite its abstention in one vote calling for a ceasefire in October 2023, India has consistently voted in favour of UN resolutions that are critical of Israel’s occupation and annexation of Palestinian territory. Unlike the rest of the Global South, however, the Modi government has chosen to keep public comments on the issue to a minimum, and the decision not to speak at the ICJ is in line with that. Several factors complicate clarity on the Indian position. On the one hand, there is an expectation from the Arab world, particularly from close partners such as the UAE and Saudi Arabia, for India to stand with Palestine. Qatar, for instance, may have expectations after the Prime Minister’s visit this month to thank the Emir for releasing eight Indian naval officers. This may explain why New Delhi has spoken strongly about zero tolerance for the October 7 terror attacks, but has not designated Hamas as a terror group so far.

Also read | South Africa tells top U.N. court that it’s accusing Israel of apartheid against Palestinians

On the other hand, there is India’s close defence and surveillance equipment cooperation with Israel. While India has been buying defence equipment from Israel, recently, it shipped drones made by Adani-Elbit Advanced Systems in Hyderabad to help Israeli operations. In addition, the government has green-lighted the recruitment of tens of thousands of Indian workers by Israeli companies dealing with labour shortages due to the expulsion of Palestinians from jobs post October 7 attacks. However, the area of greatest concern for Indian diplomacy will come if it is seen as an outlier to the Global South that India seeks leadership of, which has been clearly critical of Israel’s actions, and is increasingly speaking in one voice for international judicial accountability for them.

A Palestinian man walks past shuttered shops during a general strike in Nablus in the occupied West Bank, on October 18, 2023, a day after a rocket hit a Gaza hospital killing hundreds.
| Photo Credit: ZAIN JAAFAR

Two Data Points published last week explored the impoverished nature of the Palestinian territories, especially Gaza, and how Israel controls employment, trade, water and electricity in both Gaza and the West Bank. This third and concluding part of the series on the Israel-Hamas conflict also explores how Israel controls the economy of the Palestinian territories, but focuses only on Israel’s control of exits and entry points, which determines trade and movement of men for employment and other needs.

With entries and exits by air and sea banned, only three crossings — two controlled by Israel and one by Egypt — are available for movement in and out of Gaza. In 2022, 4.24 lakh people were allowed to exit from Gaza to Israel or through Israel to the West Bank. The total estimated population of Gaza in mid-2022 was 20 lakh. In other words, one in five people were allowed to exit once in 2022. The more than 4 lakh exit permits issued in 2022 is the highest in about two decades; the previous high of 5.21 lakh was recorded in 2004. These numbers pale in comparison to the 60 lakh exits recorded in 2000.

Chart 1 | The chart shows the exits of people from Gaza to or through Israel (M=million, k=1,000).

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As can be seen in Chart 1, the exit of people permitted to Israel or through it took a dive in the 2000s and remained low in the 2010s due to escalation of hostility at various points in time. In 2008, only 0.26 lakh permits were issued, the lowest ever. In 2006, after Hamas won the Palestinian parliamentary elections and started controlling Gaza, Israel stopped most workers from entering the country. This is significant because Gaza lacks industries and most workers found employment in Israel or its settlements. Due to lack of permits, Gaza’s labour force participation rate dwindled in the following years reaching 35% in 2021, among the lowest in the world, as recorded in the Data Point last Monday. Of those who are looking for jobs in Gaza, half are unemployed. These are direct consequences of the decline in exit permits.

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Not just workers, but patients from Gaza who need to cross Israel to access services in the West Bank get delayed for their appointments. In 2022, only two out of every three applications submitted for referral patients to exit Gaza were approved by the time of appointment. Given that Gaza has only 13 hospital beds per 10,000 population, which is among the lowest in the world, this restriction assumes more significance.

Chart 2 | The chart shows incoming goods to Gaza in terms of truckloads from Israel (k=1,000).

The Data Point published last Wednesday showed that in 2021, half the exports from Palestinian territories went to Israel and over 80% of its imports came from Israel. Therefore, restriction of goods movement can impair the Palestinian economy. Data show that in 2022, over 74,000 truckloads of goods were allowed into Gaza by Israel, the lowest since 2014. Chart 2 shows that goods to Gaza from Israel reduced to the lowest levels immediately after the Israeli blockade in 2007. Goods which Israel may consider as having a military use are denied entry.

Gaza’s import dependency on Israel for petrol, diesel, and cooking gas was high before 2018. With Israel scaling down fuel and gas exports to Gaza post-2018, Egypt has taken its spot.

Chart 3 | The chart shows petrol and diesel (in litres) which came into Gaza from Israel and Egypt.

There is severe restrictions on exports as well. In 2009, this was as low as 24 truckloads compared to 5,834 in 2022. While the number of truckloads allowed out of Gaza has improved in the last few years, the latest conflict could affect this.

Chart 4 | The chart shows outgoing goods from Gaza to or through Israel.

Source: “Movement in and out of Gaza in 2022” report from the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs

Also read | The Israel-Palestine conflict is at bend point

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Some of Latin America’s largest countries came out on Wednesday to condemn Israel’s attacks on a densely populated refugee camp in the Gaza Strip, widening the diplomatic rift between the region and the Middle Eastern country.

Argentina, home to Latin America’s largest Jewish community, Peru and Mexico lambasted the Israeli attacks, which the Gaza government in the Hamas-controlled territory said had killed nearly 200 people.

The criticisms come a day after Bolivia cut diplomatic ties with Israel over its bombardment and siege of Gaza and mounting civilian casualties, while Colombia and Chile recalled their ambassadors to the country.

-Reuters