Copyright The Boston Globe
Aid officials wanted Zikim opened to ferry more supplies into northern Gaza, which frequently had shortages during the war. This year, monitors backed by the United Nations said parts of northern Gaza were suffering from famine, a finding that Israel disputed. Hundreds of trucks are now entering Gaza daily, although many are carrying commercial goods for sale rather than aid handouts. UN officials say they still face Israeli restrictions on what goods they can bring into Gaza. Israel’s military campaign razed huge swaths of Gaza, leaving hundreds of thousands of Palestinians living in tents amid the rubble. The cease-fire also carved Gaza in two for the time being, with Hamas controlling a pocket of territory along the coast and Israeli forces controlling a buffer zone in the other half. The enclave, already densely populated before the war, has become even more crowded, with the vast majority of residents hemmed into the half still controlled by Hamas. “Living conditions in Gaza remain appalling,” Caroline Seguin, an official with the aid group Doctors Without Borders, said in a statement. “After being forcibly displaced repeatedly, many Palestinians are still living in makeshift tents and without access to running water and electricity, next to piles of rubbish and overflowing sewage.” The World Bank has assessed the cost of rebuilding Gaza at more than $70 billion, and it is still unclear who might pay for it. The United States has said funds for reconstruction will not go to the half of Gaza controlled by Hamas. Under a peace plan put forward by President Trump, the Palestinian militant group is supposed to lay down its arms, which it has shown little inclination to do so far. For now, Israel says it is complying with the terms of the cease-fire by allowing hundreds of trucks of humanitarian aid into the enclave daily. Under the truce’s stipulations, Israel committed to allowing about 600 trucks of supplies per day into Gaza, which include both aid shipments and commercial goods for sale. Israel also agreed to authorize the import of equipment to repair infrastructure damaged in the war, and to reopen Gaza’s border with Egypt, the Rafah crossing, to allow Palestinians to travel. Over a month into the cease-fire, however, Israel has yet to reopen the Rafah crossing. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel said last month that Israel would consider reopening the crossing if Hamas followed through with returning the bodies of the remaining hostages in Gaza. The war began when Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing about 1,200 people, according to Israeli authorities. More than 200 others were seized as hostages and brought back to Gaza, touching off the two-year crisis. Israel has killed more than 65,000 Palestinians in Gaza during the war against Hamas, including thousands of children, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and combatants. Also Wednesday, the Israeli military said it killed four armed militants who posed an “immediate threat” in areas of southern Gaza under its control. In Khan Younis, one person was killed while approaching Israeli troops across the so-called yellow line. In Rafah, three people were killed while troops in the area were working to destroy underground tunnels. Israel’s president and high-ranking military officials, meanwhile, condemned attacks a day earlier by Jewish settlers against Palestinians in the West Bank, calling for an end to a growing wave of settler violence in the occupied territory. President Isaac Herzog described the attacks as “shocking and serious,” adding a rare and powerful voice to what has been muted criticism by top Israeli officials of the settler violence. Herzog’s position, while largely ceremonial, is meant to serve as a moral compass and unifying force for the country. Herzog said the violence committed by a “handful” of perpetrators “crosses a red line,” adding in a social media post that “all state authorities must act decisively to eradicate the phenomenon.” His remarks, and those of two high-ranking military officials, came after dozens of masked Israeli settlers attacked the Palestinian villages of Beit Lid and Deir Sharaf in the West Bank on Tuesday, setting fire to vehicles and other property before clashing with Israeli soldiers.
