Tag: Middle East

Israel has lost the war of public opinion | Opinions

In a new media landscape dominated not by Western media giants but by Instagram reels, TikTok videos and YouTube shorts, Israel’s ongoing war on the besieged Gaza Strip is more than televised.

Audiences across the world, and especially young people, have been watching the devastation caused by Israel’s indiscriminate bombardment of the Palestinian enclave on their preferred social media platforms, in real-time, for over a month. Anyone with internet access has seen countless videos of babies torn apart by bombs, women crushed under tonnes of concrete and mothers cradling the dead bodies of their children.

Israel, of course, still continues with its usual efforts – and more – to control the narrative about its bloody wars and decades-old occupation.

It does not hesitate to brand as “terrorists” and assassinate Palestinian journalists who work tirelessly to tell Gaza’s truth to the world. During this latest war alone, Israel killed at least 53 journalists and media workers, mostly in targeted air strikes alongside their family members, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists. Al Jazeera Arabic’s Gaza Correspondent, Wael Dahdouh, lost his wife, son, daughter and grandson in one such attack. He received the news while he was on air.

And Israel does not allow foreign journalists to enter Gaza and report on what they see freely either. CNN’s Fareed Zakaria recently admitted that the Israeli military currently only allows into the war-torn Gaza Strip foreign journalists who agree to “submit all materials and footage to the Israeli military for review prior to publication”. Zakaria said CNN agreed to these terms “in order to provide a limited window into Israel’s ops”.

Yet, despite all these efforts, thanks largely to social media, Israel is no longer able to conceal the truth about its conduct in Palestine. It can no longer control the narratives and the public opinion on Palestine. As mainstream media loses its ability to single-handedly decide what Western and, to a certain extent, global audiences get to witness about the situation in Palestine, the brutality of Israel’s occupation has been laid out in the open for everyone to see.

Now social media users are openly mocking Israel’s desperate attempts to control the narrative of its war on Gaza, and swiftly exposing the Israeli lies parroted by mainstream outlets. On November 29, the #WeWontBeSilenced campaign was launched across social media platforms, encouraging posting this graphic, or a picture with one hand covering one’s mouth, and a relevant message written on the other hand or a poster. Since its launch, it has received hundreds of thousands of impressions across platforms and will continue to gain traction as social media accounts feel the effects of shadow banning, censorship, and intimidation.

It’s not only Israel that knows it’s losing the PR war either – its biggest financier and enabler knows it, too. Last week’s announcement of a temporary ceasefire, which is due to expire soon, has revealed the US is as concerned about changing public opinion on the conflict as Israel.

Politico reported that senior Biden administration officials have been concerned about how the temporary ceasefire “would allow journalists broader access to Gaza and the opportunity to further illuminate the devastation there and turn public opinion on Israel.” In other terms, US officials are cognizant of the direction public opinion has shifted since the beginning of this episode of bombardment and are worried that an influx of journalists into the Gaza Strip could further expose the genocide Israel has been committing there with their permission and support.

Israel and the US, however, did not lose the all-important war on narratives just because of its latest war on Gaza. The current assault on Gaza has only expedited Israel’s weakening grip on the media narrative and public opinion. In March of this year, many months before the beginning of the latest round of violence, Gallup published data that, for the first time ever, revealed that, “Democrats’ sympathies in the Middle East now lie more with the Palestinians than the Israelis, 49 percent versus 38 percent.” This shift in Democrats’ sympathies is indicative of a weakening of the mainstream media monopoly on the narrative of Israel-Palestine. Meanwhile, many in the GOP have also begun to rethink the US-Israeli relationship vis-a-vis foreign aid. Former US President Donald Trump’s “America First” doctrine has made many Republicans question whether supporting Israel with regular military aid should remain a foreign policy priority for the party.

Since October 7, Meta’s reaction to accounts and posts that raise awareness of the mass murder of Palestinian civilians has largely been one of censorship, with reports of over 90 percent of pro-Palestinian content deleted. Now, there are concerns as to how X will respond to Israeli PR pressure.

This week, X CEO Elon Musk visited Israel and met Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in a trip widely criticised as a form of “cleanup” after his endorsement of an anti-Semitic post on his platform. As part of the propaganda tour, an agreement was reached that Musk’s Starlink, a satellite internet service, can only be used in Gaza with the approval of the Israeli government. The Israeli occupation wields and controls the flow of water, electricity, food, humanitarian aid – and now Musk’s internet services – into Gaza, yet remains adamant it is not an occupier.

Israel has only itself to blame for its increasingly negative image in the international community.

It cannot expect the world to turn a blind eye to the genocide it is committing in plain sight, with the support of the US. The short ceasefire – which allowed some humanitarian aid to enter the besieged enclave and the Palestinians to bury their dead and wrap their wounds as much as they can – is expected to end soon. Israel will likely continue with its indiscriminate bombardment and suffocating total siege on Gaza in the immediate aftermath of the brief truce. Israel’s war on Palestinians may be far from over, but it has already lost the war of public opinion.

The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera’s editorial stance.

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COP28: Israel should not be allowed to greenwash its war on Gaza | Environment

As its war on Gaza continues with no end in sight, Israel will be participating in the 28th United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP28) which started on Thursday in Dubai. For the Israeli government, this will be an invaluable opportunity to engage in “green diplomacy”, promote its climate technologies, and divert the international community’s attention from its illegal occupation, apartheid and ongoing war crimes against the Palestinians.

Indeed, participating in the world’s top climate event while continuing to indiscriminately bomb an unlawfully besieged territory will allow Israel, which has long been trying to conceal its theft of Palestinian land and resources under a cloak of pseudo “environmentalism”, to push its extensive “greenwashing” agenda to dangerous new extremes.

Given the scale of atrocities Israel has committed in Gaza in the past few weeks, the presence of an Israeli delegation – no matter its size or the relative seniority of its members – will cast a shadow over COP28.

The Israeli government has said its delegation to the conference has been significantly “scaled down” due to “current events”, and that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his top ministers will not be in attendance. Nevertheless, it said Israel will still have a pavilion at the conference which will be used to promote its environmental start-ups and initiatives, especially those from the southern regions affected by the war.

Regardless of who in the Israeli government ends up attending the summit this year, however, they will struggle more than ever to sell the image of Israel as an environmental leader. The dissonance caused by Israel’s representatives suddenly switching from genocidal threats to eco-friendly jargon will be mind-breaking for global audiences.

Can anyone take seriously, for example, any recommendations on clean and sustainable energy from Israel’s Energy Minister Israel Katz, who at the start of the war stated: “Humanitarian aid to Gaza? No electric switch will be turned on, no water tap will be opened, and no fuel truck will enter until the Israeli abductees are returned home”? Or can anyone with any self-respect take ecological advice from Israel’s Agriculture Minister Avi Ditcher, who declared that Israel is “rolling out Nakba 2023” in Gaza?

Saying the genocide part out loud, the Israeli government cannot expect its rhetoric to not have long-term diplomatic, economic, and potentially legal consequences, or to not damage the country’s standing as a climate leader. Jordan, for example, has already pulled out of an energy and water deal with Israel which was hatched in COP27 due to what Jordanian Foreign Minister called “Israel’s barbarism in Gaza”.

The public relations fallout caused by Israel’s war will also make it difficult for it to sell its climate tech solutions as global audiences will find it hard to reconcile Israel’s supposed concern for the environment with its current actions in Gaza.

Israel’s air raids and total blockade of Gaza have left civilians on the verge of dehydration and starvation. The UN had to pressure Israel to allow clean water into the territory and refrain from using water as a “weapon of war”. More than 15,000 people in Gaza have been killed in indiscriminate attacks on residential areas, schools, and hospitals, including thousands of children. Those who survive are without adequate shelter, food, and medical care.

The Gaza Strip was barely habitable before Israel’s latest assault due to a years-long, relentless blockade. Now, Israel’s indiscriminate bombardment and total siege – its ongoing genocide – has also triggered an ecocide in Gaza. Even if the war ended today, it would take years for Gaza’s natural ecosystems to recover.

Of course Israel’s greenwashing efforts also did not start with this war. Israel has been trying to greenwash its occupation of Palestine and oppression of the Palestinian people since its inception.

Indeed, since the founding of Israel in 1948, the Jewish National Fund, Israel’s largest green NGO that controls 13 percent of state land, has been evicting Palestinians from their lands and destroying their villages under the pretence of protecting forests and preserving natural reserves. It has also uprooted hundreds of thousands of olive trees to destroy Palestinian lives and livelihoods.

Meanwhile, Israel’s national water company Mekorot created a “water apartheid” in the occupied West Bank, where Jewish settlers consume six times more water than 2.9 million Palestinians living there.

Despite its apartheid policies in the West Bank, in the international arena, Mekorot has managed to position itself as a leading contributor to the quest to achieve UN sustainability goals. It led a special session on water at COP27 and has been publishing annual environmental, social and governance (ESG) and corporate responsibility reports with little consideration or even mention of its practice of water apartheid against the Palestinians.

At last year’s COP27, Israel’s President Isaac Herzog, who recently supported the collective punishment of civilians in Gaza, promised that Israel would be “net zero” by 2050. Since he failed to mention Palestine and Palestinians in his speech, however, it is unclear whether the environmental consequences of the occupation, the apartheid, or the 40,000 tonnes of explosives dropped on Gaza (which amounts to more than two nuclear bombs) would be included as part of Israel’s carbon footprint this year.

Writer and analyst Zena Agha has described Israel’s environmental policy as “Janus-faced”, on the one hand promoting “environmental reform and technological development” and on the other, depriving “Palestinians of their land, water, and other natural resources”.

Amid the ongoing genocidal assault on Gaza, at COP28, this two-sidedness will reach new extremes.

COP28 is already under fire for maintaining strong connections to big oil companies while purporting a technical and diplomatic agenda to transition away from fossil fuels. The optics of an Israeli delegation at COP28 amid an ongoing offensive that inflicted unprecedented humanitarian and environmental damage on Gaza will undoubtedly damage the reputation of the conference further.

Indeed, the scale of the humanitarian crisis Israel created in Gaza has not only exposed Israel’s decades-old greenwashing strategies and tarnished its image as a climate solution leader, but also called into question the credibility of a state-centred approach to global warming that ignores human rights.

By allowing itself to become a venue for Israel to greenwash its increasingly more brutal attacks on Palestinian people, land and essential infrastructure, as well as its disregard for UN resolutions, institutions and staff (more than 100 UN employees have been killed in the Gaza war so far), COP28 threatens to undermine critical features of the global climate agenda, namely state compliance, accountability, and respect for international law and institutions.

While Israel’s attendance at COP28 exposes one of the many existing problems with our current approach to tackling global warming, it is not too late to change course.

Those committed to achieving climate justice should treat this conference as an opportunity to call out greenwashing and state the obvious connection between human rights and the climate emergency. As Greta Thunberg rightly said, there can be “no climate justice on occupied land”, and occupiers should not be allowed to use climate conferences to greenwash their wars.

The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera’s editorial stance.

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Blinken urges Israel to protect civilians amid tough Gaza truce talks | Israel-Palestine conflict News

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has told Israel that it must account for the safety of Palestinian civilians before resuming any military operations in Gaza, where a week-long truce has allowed the exchange of captives held by Hamas for Palestinians imprisoned in Israel.

As negotiators from Qatar and Egypt were in difficult talks on Thursday for a new two-day extension to the pause in fighting between Hamas and Israel, the United States’s top diplomat made his third trip to the region since the Israel-Palestinian war began on October 7.

Blinken said Washington remains committed to supporting Israel’s right to self-defence, but also stepped up calls for Israel to comply with international law and protect civilians if it starts major military operations in southern Gaza.

His message was in keeping with the administration of US President Joe Biden’s shifting rhetoric on the war, which began as a full-throated embrace of Israel’s response to the Hamas attacks but gradually tempered as the number of Palestinian civilian casualties began to rise dramatically.

More than 15,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since October 7, including more than 6,000 children. The death toll and scale of destruction have prompted widespread international criticism.

As Israel bombarded hospitals, schools and homes, the Gaza Ministry of Health said at least 7,000 people are still missing or feared buried under the rubble, and more than 36,000 Palestinians have been wounded, many with life-altering injuries. With 26 of Gaza’s 35 hospitals out of service, their chances of getting treatment are slim.

According to Ibrahim Abusharif of Northwestern University in Qatar, Blinken’s continued trips to Israel and meetings with Israeli leaders “doesn’t seem like it’s moving the needle in any direction”.

Palestinians shop in an open-air market among the ruins of houses and buildings destroyed in Israeli strikes, amid a temporary truce between Hamas and Israel, in Nuseirat refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip, November 30, 2023 [Ibraheem Abu Mustafa/Reuters]

“What set the tone was the early rhetoric from the Biden administration that gave unconditional support for what turned out to be a genocidal war,” he told Al Jazeera. “Blinken can try to soften his rhetoric and apply pressure, but in the end, it won’t bring back the dead in Gaza.”

During a meeting in Jerusalem, Blinken assured Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that he could count on US support.

But, he said that such support requires Israel’s “compliance with international humanitarian law,” and “urged Israel to take every possible measure to avoid civilian harm,” the US Department of State said.

To prevent a further significant increase in civilian casualties, Blinken “stressed the imperative of accounting for humanitarian and civilian protection needs in southern Gaza before any military operations there,” the department said.

Later on Thursday, US National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby said Washington supports the resumption of fighting in Gaza after the end of the truce, which Netanyahu has affirmed would happen.

“We continue to believe that Israel has the right and responsibility to go after Hamas … and as they make that decision, they’ll continue to find support from the United States,” Kirby told reporters.

Settler violence

Blinken also “urged immediate steps to hold settler extremists accountable for violence against Palestinians in the West Bank” and said the US places great importance on the resumption of a peace process that would eventually lead to the creation of a Palestinian state.

Israeli officials have pledged to the US on multiple occasions that Israeli settler violence will be punished, but Netanyahu’s office released a statement about the meeting with Blinken that contained no mention of either settler violence or a two-state solution.

Netanyahu said he told Blinken, “We will continue this war until we achieve the three goals – to release all our abductees, to eliminate Hamas completely and to ensure that Gaza will never again face such a threat.”

Blinken also met Israel’s war cabinet in Jerusalem before travelling to the occupied West Bank for talks with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and then back to Tel Aviv where he held talks with Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant and opposition leader Yair Lapid.

Humanitarian aid, Palestinian state

In his meeting with Abbas, Blinken focused on efforts to increase the delivery of humanitarian aid to Gaza and condemned Jewish settler attacks against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank.

Blinken told Abbas “he would continue to insist on full accountability for those responsible,” and that Washington “remains committed to advancing tangible steps for a Palestinian state,” the State Department said.

Abbas presented Blinken with “a comprehensive file documenting Israeli occupation crime in Gaza, and the West Bank, including Jerusalem”, Palestinian state news agency Wafa reported.

Israeli army raids have taken place on a daily basis across the West Bank since the war began. The total number of people arrested since October 7 is now more than 3,325, according to the Palestinian Prisoner’s Society (PPS).

At least 248 Palestinians, including more than 50 children, have been killed in the occupied West Bank since October 7. More than 2,750 have been injured.

Abbas also raised the topic of the forced displacement of Palestinians in Gaza and the occupied West Bank, particularly in light of increased attackers from settlers.

The top US diplomat will close out his latest Middle East tour in the United Arab Emirates on Friday, where he will discuss the Gaza situation with Arab leaders gathered in Dubai for the COP28 United Nations climate change conference.

Another truce extension?

Blinken’s meetings came as Israel and Hamas agreed at the last minute to a third extension of a truce under which Israel has paused most military activity in return for the release of captives held by Hamas.

Qatar, which has been mediating between the two sides, said the agreement was being extended under the same terms as in the past, under which Hamas has released 10 Israeli captives per day in exchange for 30 Palestinian prisoners.

Late on Thursday, the Israeli military said two released captives have been handed over to its soldiers by the Red Cross and the Palestinian Prisoners’ Club released a list containing the names of 30 Palestinian prisoners – eight women and 22 children – who are expected to be released later in the day.

But as the number of civilians held in Gaza dwindles, Daniel Levy, a former Israeli negotiator, said the current iteration of the truce deal will have to be renegotiated.

“Can one do that in time to extend this cessation without getting back to the intention of the Israeli political and military leadership, which is to resume its all-out assault on Gaza? They are being clear that that’s where they want to go,” Levy told Al Jazeera.

“The Americans are apparently saying, ‘Hey, we’re with you on you continuing your military mission, but can you do it differently’ – that sounds like a disingenuous position to me. Why would anyone have faith that Israel will do this differently.”



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Why have so many Palestinian children been killed by Israel? | Israel-Palestine conflict

Thousands of children have been killed, maimed, injured or arrested by Israeli forces.

Two Palestinian boys have been shot dead by Israeli forces in the occupied West Bank.

More than 6,000 children have been killed in Gaza – not counting those still missing or buried under the rubble.

And there are about 250 minors in Israeli prisons.

Why does Israel target Palestinian children?

Presenter: Folly Bah Thibault

Guests:
Yousef Hammash – Gaza advocacy officer for the Norwegian Refugee Council and a resident of Gaza

Tanya Haj-Hassan – paediatric intensive care doctor who has worked in Gaza. She co-founded Gaza Medic Voices, a social media account that shares firsthand testimonies from healthcare workers in the Gaza Strip.

Alex Saieh – head of humanitarian policy and advocacy at Save the Children. Saieh specialises in humanitarian and post-conflict recovery.

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Call to prayer amidst the ruins | Gaza News

NewsFeed

A call to prayer is made from a destroyed mosque as a drone shot shows the ruins of the building and surroundings in Khan Younis. The video shows the scale of destruction caused by Israeli bombardment in response to the Oct 7 Hamas attack.

Published On 30 Nov 2023

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Climate disaster fund approved at UN’s COP28 climate summit | Climate News

The United Nation’s annual climate summit is under way in Dubai, with world leaders approving a climate disaster fund that will help vulnerable nations cope with the impact of drought, floods and rising seawater.

The agreement marked a “positive signal of momentum” at the start of the 2023 conference – known as COP28 – its host UAE’s Sultan al-Jaber said in the opening ceremony on Thursday.

Al-Jaber, who is the UAE’s minister of industry and also heads the national oil company, is chairing the summit for its 28th meeting. His leading role has drawn backlash from critics who believe his oil ties should disqualify him from the climate post.

In opening remarks, al-Jaber made the case that the world must “proactively engage” fossil fuel companies in phasing out emissions, pointing to progress by some national oil companies in adopting net-zero targets for 2050.

“I am grateful that they have stepped up to join this game-changing journey,” al-Jaber said in opening remarks. “But, I must say, it is not enough, and I know that they can do much more.”

The UN’s climate chief, Simon Stiell, gave a more stark assessment, saying there must be a “terminal decline” to the fossil fuel era if we want to stop “our own terminal decline”.

People stand for a moment of silence for victims in Gaza during the COP28 opening in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, November 30 [Amr Alfiky/Reuters]

Who is attending?

With more than 70,000 attendees, the two-week-long affair is billed as the largest-ever climate gathering.

Among tts expected attendees are dozens of world leaders, including the heads of state of France, Japan, the UK, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Jordan, and Brazil. Also represented are crowds of activists, lobbyists, and business leaders, including billionaire Bill Gates.

However, the presidents of the world’s two biggest polluters — the US and China — are not attending.

The summit comes at a pivotal time, with global emissions still climbing and 2023 projected to be the hottest year on record. Scientists warn the world must commit to accelerating climate action or risk the worst impacts of a warming planet.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said leaders should aim for a complete “phaseout” of fossil fuels, a proposal opposed by some powerful nations that has dogged past negotiations.

What are the goals?

On Thursday, nations formally approved the launch of a “loss and damage” fund to compensate climate-vulnerable countries after a year of hard-fought negotiations over how it would work.

Later in the summit attendees are due to review and calibrate the implementation of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change’s (UNFCC’s) terms, Paris Agreement, and Kyoto Protocol, a binding treaty agreed in 1997 for industrialised nations to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

This year, UNFCC members will also face their first Global Stocktake (GST) – a scorecard analysing countries’ progress towards the Paris Agreement – so they can adapt their next climate action plans which are due in 2025.

At the same time, host UAE aims to marshal an agreement on the tripling of renewable energy and doubling the annual rate of energy efficiency improvements by 2030.

Rallying a common position on these points will be challenging, as COP requires all nations – whether dependent on oil, sinking beneath rising seas or locked in geopolitical rivalry – to act unanimously.

Questions about the UAE’s role

The UAE sees itself as a bridge between the rich developed nations most responsible for historic emissions and the rest of the world, which has contributed less to global warming but suffers its worst consequences.

But the decision for it to host has attracted a firestorm of criticism, particularly as the man appointed to steer the talks, al-Jaber, is also head of UAE state oil giant ADNOC.

Al-Jaber, who also chairs a clean energy company, has defended his record, and strenuously denied this week that he used the COP presidency to pursue new fossil fuel deals after allegations reported by the BBC.

On Thursday, al-Jaber said the “role of fossil fuels” must be considered in any deal at the climate talks, saying “it is essential that no issue is left off the table”.

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Israel-Palestine war: ‘Ceasefire’ or ‘pause’, what have world leaders said? | Israel-Palestine conflict News

“We are at war. Not an operation, not a round [of fighting], at war,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared to his fellow Israelis on October 7, following a surprise attack by the Palestinian armed group Hamas that killed an estimated 1,200 people in Israel.

Within hours, the United States, Israel’s closest ally, condemned the attacks as “unconscionable”. President Joe Biden affirmed, “Israel has the right to defend itself,” echoing sentiments from Israel’s allies worldwide.

Over the next seven weeks, Israel went on to drop more than 40,000 tonnes of explosives on Gaza, killing more than 15,000 people, including at least 6,150 children, and levelled entire neighbourhoods.

Following several failed resolutions at the United Nations and a flurry of diplomatic efforts, a four-day Gaza truce, agreed upon by Hamas and Israel, finally took effect on November 24 and was later extended for an additional three days.

[Al Jazeera]

As the war continues on the ground, a parallel battle is being waged through the exchange of words on the world stage.

To understand how language is shaping the current war, Al Jazeera examined all the speeches and statements given by 118 United Nations member states at all the UN Security Council (UNSC) and General Assembly (UNGA) sessions between October 7 and November 15.

In addition to the UN statements, we analysed hundreds of speeches and statements given by the leaders of Israel and Palestine, five permanent members of the UNSC — the US, UK, France, China and Russia, as well as eight regional players, namely Egypt, Iran, Jordan, Lebanon, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria and Turkey.

Pause vs ceasefire – who said what?

Many countries have called for an immediate and comprehensive ceasefire, ending all hostilities, while Israel’s allies have only called for a pause in fighting.

Those avoiding the call for a “ceasefire” echo Israel’s sentiment that Hamas should not be given any respite in fighting and the war should only end after the armed group’s complete destruction. Many of these countries have called for peace or political resolution, but have fallen short of using the term “ceasefire”.

According to the United Nations:

  • A ceasefire is largely defined as a “cessation of all acts of violence against the civilian population”.

While there is no universal definition of what a ceasefire entails, it typically includes a formal agreement to end the fighting and lays out a political process to de-escalate the conflict, such as withdrawing weapons or repositioning forces.

  • A humanitarian pause, on the other hand, is defined as a “temporary cessation of hostilities purely for humanitarian purposes”.

A pause or truce is a temporary halt to fighting for an agreed-upon period.

Our analysis found that the majority of countries (55 percent) specifically called for a “ceasefire” in Gaza while 23 percent of nations underscored the importance of a temporary halt in hostilities. The remaining 22 percent did not explicitly endorse either option.

[Al Jazeera]

The majority of countries calling for a pause are European states as well as the US and Canada.

The Biden administration has called for “humanitarian pauses” in the war while firmly rejecting demands for a ceasefire, at least until Israel achieves its stated goal of eliminating Hamas.

The majority calling for a ceasefire are those in the Global South, with the exception of a handful of European states, most notably France, Ireland, Russia and Spain.

France has urged setting up a humanitarian truce which could lead eventually to a ceasefire.

For Palestinians in Gaza like Tala Herzallah, a 21-year-old student at the Islamic University of Gaza, the role of the international community and organisations like the UN in helping end the war has been close to “zero”.

“All international laws are being violated, and no one says anything. It’s all just ink on paper,” she told Al Jazeera.

People are being bombed in hospitals, in schools. But all they do is condemn. Our blood is cheap

by Tala Herzallah – student in Gaza

Moreover, like many Palestinians, Herzallah stressed that the conflict with Israel extends far beyond the tragic events of October 7.

“We (Gaza) have been under siege for more than 16 years, with pain, poverty and unemployment. Bombed every now and then.”

[Al Jazeera]

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‘We’re not here to beg’: Gaza residents’ anger over steep rise in prices | Gaza News

Deir el-Balah, central Gaza Strip – As the sounds of war quietened with the advent of the first truce between Israel and Hamas since October 7, the markets in the Gaza Strip have been flooded with shoppers, desperate to buy food supplies and winter clothes.

But the cost of these products has skyrocketed, particularly for basic foodstuffs, sparking anger and resentment among shoppers who blame shopkeepers and stallholders for high prices.

Imm Abdullah, who was displaced from her home in the Nassr neighbourhood in Gaza City a month ago after Israel ordered people in northern Gaza to move south, has been staying at one of the United Nations-run schools in Deir el-Balah with her 12 children and grandchildren. She said conditions in the school have become desperate, with no water and barely any provisions.

“When the Israelis threw leaflets down at us, I left with my family wearing just my prayer clothes,” she said. “At the school, we barely get food assistance. The other day we got a can of tuna. How am I supposed to sustain my family with that?”

Prices of basic food products in Gaza have soared since the start of the war [Abdelhakim Abu Riash/Al Jazeera]

Imm Abdullah had come to the town’s market to try to buy food and some warmer clothes for herself and her grandchildren, as the weather had turned cold. But after visiting different stalls to look for basic food products, her exasperation bubbled over.

“I don’t believe the merchants when they say the prices are out of their control,” she said. “They can regulate prices and be considerate of the fact that we are going through exceptional times, which is not something they should take advantage of.”

She rattled off a list of products that are now unaffordable: Bottled water, which used to be 2 shekels ($0.50), is now 4 or 5 shekels ($0.80-$1). A carton of eggs is 45 shekels ($12). A kilo of salt, which used to be 1 shekel is now 12 ($3.20), while sugar is 25 shekels ($6.70).

“It’s so unfair,” Imm Abdullah said. “I can’t take it any more and some days I go sit by the sea and weep because I don’t know how to feed or sustain my family. Sometimes I wish we had stayed in our home and got bombed instead of going through this.”

Billions lost due to blockade

According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, the poverty rate in the Gaza Strip has reached 53 percent, with one-third (33.7 percent) of Gaza residents living in extreme poverty.

Approximately 64 percent of households in Gaza are without enough food, and unemployment is at 47 percent – one of the highest rates in the world.

According to Elhasan Bakr, an economic analyst based in Gaza, the price distortion has led to inflation of between 300 and 2,000 percent for various products.

Even before October 7, a 17-year Israeli blockade on the coastal enclave had resulted in the loss of $35bn to the Palestinian economy.

“The latest Israeli aggression has been another nail in the coffin of Gaza’s economy,” Bakr told Al Jazeera. “The direct loss to the private sector has surpassed $3bn, while the indirect losses are more than $1.5bn.”

Elhasan Bakr, an economic analyst from the Gaza Strip [Abdelhakim Abu Riash/Al Jazeera]

The agricultural sector, he added, has suffered a direct loss of $300m.

“This includes the uprooting and bulldozing of fruitful trees in the agricultural lands in the north and east near the Israeli fence, which means that it will be another few years before farmers can reap what they sow,” he explained.

“We are talking about a total paralysis of economic activity in Gaza. There are 65,000 economic facilities – ranging from the agricultural to the service industries – in the private sector which have been either destroyed or stopped working because of the war. This has resulted in a huge loss of jobs, which in turn leads to a complete lack of food security.”

Furthermore, the small amount of aid that has been allowed by Israel to enter Gaza is insufficient to cover the needs of the almost one million displaced people staying at UN schools for even one day.

“From October 22 to November 12 – in those 20 days – fewer than 1,100 trucks entered the Gaza Strip,” Bakr said. “Fewer than 400 of these trucks carried food products. Barely 10 percent of Gaza’s food sector needs are met. This is nowhere near enough, especially when you consider the fact that, before October 7, at least 500 trucks used to enter the Strip on a daily basis.”

The Gaza Strip, he added, would need 1,000 to 1,500 trucks a day to deliver the needs of the population of 2.3 million.

Mohammed Yasser Abu Amra (left) receives money from a shopper in the Deir el-Balah market [Abdelhakim Abu Riash/Al Jazeera]

‘We had to walk past dead bodies to shop’

In the Deir el-Balah market, Mohammed Yasser Abu Amra stands over the bags of spices and grains that he sells each day that the truce lasts.

“The war has affected everything, from delivery costs to supplies,” the 28-year-old said. “Whatever I have now, once that is finished I won’t have the money to buy the same products because it’ll be more expensive, so that leaves me no choice but to raise prices to break even.”

The main reason for the price rises, he said, is the closure of the border crossings, which has led to wholesale merchants selling products to shopkeepers at much higher prices.

“Lentils used to be 2 shekels ($0.50) per kilo and we would sell it for 3 ($0.80),” Abu Amra said. “Now we buy it for 8 shekels ($2) and sell it for 10 ($2.60).”

A bag of fava beans used to be 70 shekels ($18) and is now priced at 150 shekels ($40), he added, while previously a bag of cornflour would be 90 shekels ($19) but is now 120 shekels ($32). Abu Amra’s neighbour, also a shopkeeper, lost his home and warehouse in an Israeli attack, resulting in the loss of $8,000 worth of produce.

Another shopper, Imm Watan Muheisan, said loudly – to the chagrin of nearby shopkeepers – that the current prices are “insane”.

“If you have 1,000 shekels ($270), you can only buy a handful of food items,” she snapped. “One kilo of potatoes is now 25 shekels ($6.70), it used to be three kilos for 5 shekels ($1.70).”

The mother of seven, who fled her home in the Shati (Beach) refugee camp east of Gaza City four weeks ago, is sheltering at the Deir el-Balah UN school for girls where, she said, she and her family are barely surviving.

“We walked here and had to pass by the dead bodies on the street,” she said. “We used to wear our best clothes to market… we’re not here to beg.”

Imm Watan Muheisan called the current prices of food products ‘insane’ [Abdelhakim Abu Riash/Al Jazeera]

Black market prices take over

Ahmad Abulnaja, an 18-year-old shopkeeper, began selling clothes with his older cousin Ali at the beginning of the war. He agreed that wholesale merchants are behind the increase in prices.

“A tracksuit used to sell for 20 to 25 shekels ($5.30 – $6.70) but now it’s 45 ($12),” he said. “That is, the merchant I get my supplies from has raised the price because the supply is dwindling.”

Price hikes are more pronounced on food products rather than clothes, but the demand for clothes is also high as displaced people try to buy warm clothes with winter setting in.  were forced to flee their homes in northern Gaza without bringing their possessions.

Abulnaja’s cousin, Ali, said he believed the informal prices will be around for a long time because the scale of destruction in Gaza is so immense and the demand for products shows no sign of abating.

“It’ll be a while before we have a solution,” he said. “Even if more products enter the Gaza Strip, there’s nothing to stop one merchant from selling a product at the price he sets, especially since northern Gaza is cut off from the rest of the Strip.”

There is also the issue of the lack of compensation for businesses, the economic analyst, Elhasan Bakr, said. He pointed to the fact that in the aftermath of previous Israeli wars on the enclave, donor aid has centred on rebuilding housing units, rather than supporting the economy.

According to UN estimates, the last four Israeli offensives on the Strip between 2009 and 2021 caused damage estimated at $5bn, but none of the damage in the 2014 and 2021 wars had been repaired.

Ali Abulnaja sells clothes in a stall in the Deir el-Balah marketplace [Abdelhakim Abu Riash/Al Jazeera]

“We are talking about the devastation of the basic infrastructure which would need months to rebuild, from roads to communications towers to electricity installations and sanitary extensions,” Bakr said.

But until then, the Palestinian economy will not recover unless there is a huge international effort in aid, and poverty and unemployment levels will reach new record highs.

“Gaza at its present stage is unliveable,” Bakr said, adding that more than 300,000 people have lost their homes.

“We need a minimum of five years just to go back to where we were before the war started.”

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