If there were any hopes that Trump’s visit to the Middle East would bring an end to Israel’s war in Gaza, these have been dashed. On Wednesday, in his first press conference in Israel since December 2024, Benjamin Netanyahu announced that the war could only end when Israel occupies the entire territory of Gaza, Hamas is eradicated, and mass displacement of Palestinians to overseas destinations (referred to in Israel as the “Trump Plan,” although the president has long distanced himself from the idea) has taken place. Such demands leave only room for a limited, temporary ceasefire at best. On Thursday, Netanyahu ordered his truce negotiating team back from Qatar.
In the past two weeks, Israel has escalated its bombing campaign, killing hundreds of Palestinians, the vast majority of them civilians. It issued evacuation orders for parts of northern and southern Gaza. Israel’s grand plan is to launch major ground operations (codenamed “Gideon’s Chariots”) and occupy most or all of the Gaza Strip. According to Israeli media, the invasion will start in the coming days.
The US, meanwhile, appears to be distancing itself from Israel. Washington is keen to conclude a nuclear agreement with Iran—against Israel’s wishes. US officials conducted direct negotiations with Hamas, breaking a long-held taboo. In his visit to the region, Trump skipped Israel and met with a host of Arab leaders, celebrating Gulf investments in the US. He even had a warm meeting with Syria’s interim president Ahmed al-Sharaa, a former Jihadi rebel, while avoiding Netanyahu.
Alongside bombardment, the most urgent issue is Israel’s blockade and the risk of famine for Gaza’s population of more than two million people, about half of whom are children. On 2nd March, Israel banned the entry of food, medication, water and other humanitarian aid to the Strip. After more than two months of blockade, the stocks of food, which had built up during the ceasefire that Israel unilaterally ended on 18th March, eventually ran out. Before 7th October, Gaza’s farmers produced food for local consumption, but the farms are almost entirely destroyed, the livestock killed. Fishermen going to sea have been shot and killed by the Israeli military. There is evidence of widespread malnutrition, which is particularly affecting children, the elderly and the sick.
Israel’s plan is to use humanitarian aid as part of its grand strategy to force the relocation of the population, concentrating two million people in enclaves covering as little as 25 per cent of the Gaza Strip, as Israeli media has reported. Aid would be distributed in a handful of compounds, operated by US contractors and protected by the Israeli military, by a newly formed organisation called the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation. This plan has been denounced by humanitarian organisations as unworkable and illegal. The UN and others have said they will not cooperate with it.
With the blockade now in its 82nd day, images of emaciated children continue to circulate in the news and on social media, and outrage is growing. Public figures who have not commented on the war, or were known for their support for Israel, now express horror. More than 300 Israelis living in Britain wrote to Keir Starmer demanding that the UK does not stand by while starvation is taking place, calling for a suspension of the Trade and Partnership agreement as long as Israel is preventing the entry of food. Similar initiatives have emerged also in Europe.
With the White House publicly expressing its wish to end the war, a gap is opening between the US and Israel, allowing other countries to escalate their criticism. Earlier this week, the UK, Canada and France published a strongly worded statement, threatening to take specific sanctions. The next day, the UK imposed sanctions on West Bank settlers and suspended free trade negotiations between the two countries. EU foreign ministers voted to review the body’s association agreement with Israel, threatening trade and scientific ties.
And yet these steps, unprecedented as they are, have yet to translate to policy, or to have material impact. In the meantime, there is no indication that Israel is willing to acknowledge the catastrophe it has created in Gaza. About 100 trucks of aid were allowed into Gaza on Tuesday, an amount described by one UN official as a “drop in the ocean”. While food is waiting in warehouses in neighbouring countries, Israel is unlikely to allow it in without unambiguous international pressure, such as through a UN Security Council resolution.
Israel has been bombing Gaza for more than 19 months; this is the longest war in Israel’s history. And yet the Security Council has yet to demand an end to the hostilities. In March 2024, the UNSC called for a one-month ceasefire during Ramadan, which was not observed by Israel (resolution 2728). In June 2024, the UNSC said that it “welcomes” a three-phase ceasefire proposal and urged “full implementation”, but did not make any demands (resolution 2735).
The daylight between Israel and the US opens room for decisive international intervention. Distance is growing between Trump and Netanyahu, but Trump is fickle and unreliable. Without pressure from US partners, he may choose to walk away rather than force Netanyahu to end the war. A UNSC intervention is long overdue. Virtually all of Israel’s wars ended with an intervention by the council. Whether in 1967, 1973, 1982 or 2006, a Security Council resolution calling for a ceasefire was a crucial step towards the ending of hostilities.
Such resolutions typically came within days or weeks of the outbreak of fighting. But the Gaza conflict is nearing the two-year mark. This war could enter its third year without significant external intervention. With no end for a policy of starvation, and a looming threat of mass ethnic cleansing, the worst may yet be to come.
