In an age of abundance and ceasefires, Gaza starves, and the war won’t stop
https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2025/6/27/in-an-age-of-abundance-and-ceasefires-gaza-starves-and-the-war-wont-stop
Israel and Iran fought for 12 days, firing bombs, drones and missiles at each other, with the US also joining in. Then it stopped.
Last month, India and Pakistan attacked each other, and the world feared the outbreak of an all-out war between the two nuclear powers. But then, after four days, it stopped.
In Gaza, we haven’t been so lucky. The word “ceasefire” doesn’t apply to us – even after 20 months of slaughter, death, and starvation. Instead, as wars erupt and end elsewhere, Gaza is neglected, slipping down the news agenda, and disconnected from the internet for days.
World leaders who can end wars decisively can’t deliver medicine to Gaza, can’t bring in food aid without daily bloodshed. That inadequacy has left us Palestinians in Gaza isolated, abandoned, and feeling worthless. We feel humiliated and degraded, as if our dignity has been erased.
‘A murderous freefall’
Sam Rose, director of UNRWA affairs in Gaza, says the situation in the enclave and the killings near aid distribution hubs are getting “immeasurably worse” and show no sign of ameliorating, considering how much Palestinians are in need of food.
“This will continue because people are so desperate to get food, they are making impossible choices and taking impossible risks,” Rose told Al Jazeera, referring to more than 600 people killed in the past five weeks while waiting for food.
“And it gets worse because we had a population on the verge of starvation three months ago and those conditions are getting immeasurably worse – this needs to come to an end,” Rose said, speaking from Amman, Jordan.
The militarisation of aid forces people to travel long distances through conflict zones, “which means that those who are in greatest need are at greatest risk of not being able to get that assistance”, he said. “It is treating people in an incredibly undignified way.”
No aid organisation would have been allowed to continue operating in light of the number of people killed each day near its hubs, Rose said, “but for some reason this is allowed to pass”.
“It’s a murderous freefall.”
