A new report from Doctors Without Borders (known by its French initials MSF) has accused Israel of carrying out ethnic cleansing in Gaza.

The report, titled “Gaza death trap,” asserted that Israeli forces have on numerous occasions prevented essential items such as food, water, and medical supplies from entering the Strip, as well as blocked, denied, and delayed humanitarian assistance.

It added that the situation in northern Gaza is especially dire following Israel’s recent scorched earth military offensive that has depopulated large areas and reportedly killed almost 2,000 people.

According to the report in October 2024, the amount of supplies reaching the whole Gaza Strip hit its lowest point since the war escalated in October 2023: “A daily average of 37 humanitarian trucks entered in October 2024, well below the 500 humanitarian trucks entering before 7 October 2023.”

Separately, Georgios Petropoulos, the Head of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) sub-office in Gaza stated that it looks like the aid system has been “weaponised,” and as a result of this, “what we can provide to people is only a fraction of what they truly need.”

Speaking during a virtual news conference, the UN official said that Israeli authorities “seem unwilling” to open checkpoints, hampering the delivery of vital supplies.

He also noted that convoys trying to cross into southern Gaza are often looted in areas that are under the control of the Israeli army.

The result is that aid workers have to make “horrible” choices each day.

“Should I let people die of starvation or the cold? Do we bring in more food to ease hunger or more plastic sheets for shelter? Famine is very likely already here.”
Georgios Petropoulos

Francesca Albanese, the UN’s special rapporteur on human rights in the occupied Palestinian territory, described the inability of the UN’s 192 member states to prevent Israel’s genocide in Gaza as “an utter disgrace.”

The UN expert made her comment in a repost on social media of a video interview in which she said “what’s happening in Gaza is the shame of the century.”

“Gaza has been erased. There is almost nothing left other than the despair of the people who continue to perish there.

“Look at the acts of torture. Look at who is being killed: Doctors, nurses, students, mothers, children – 17,000 children. To look at what the soldiers have done and said, and then have the courage to say that this is not genocide. This genocide would have not been possible without the shocking, shocking cover-up by the media.”
Francesca Albanese

Israel’s Military Strategy In Gaza Remains Uncertain

Meanwhile, David Des Roches, a professor at the National Defense University in Washington, DC, said that Israel’s military strategy in Gaza remains uncertain as the execution of the war “blends into a political strategy,” which Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is unable to articulate because of the fractious nature of his coalitions government.

He noted that the military goal is to prevent Hamas or any other organisation from being able to launch an attack from Gaza on Israel again and, at the same time, try to avoid Israel assuming the “burden” of being the occupying power in the Palestinian territory.

“What that means is they have to find a way to make Hamas or any successor organisation incapable of coalescing into a military outfit, while at the same time somehow getting a Palestinian entity to govern this area and keep it quiet.

“It’s a very, very difficult thing to do and I’m not sure if they can pull it off. I think what we are seeing take form is that they will probably seek to have an expanded buffer zone inside Gaza around the border with Israel – an area that’s basically clear – that nobody will live in or be allowed in. I think they also plan to divide Gaza into at least two parts, probably three.”
David Des Roches

Des Roches also said that Israeli military operations to “root out Hamas fighters from the civilian population…causes an immense amount of damage that fewer and fewer people regard as appropriate or proportionate or legal.”