The cemetery contains the grave of her husband, who was killed during Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza, alongside thousands of other graves belonging to families across the devastated territory.

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Fatima, a mother of three, has told Al Jazeera of the unbearable tension she felt knowing that the Israeli military’s search operations were focused on that cemetery.

“We were all on edge… we knew the operation was at al-Batsh cemetery, and everyone was scared it would be their loved one’s grave next. I imagined the machinery approaching my husband’s grave, and I said, ‘No, God.’”

Fatima’s husband, Mohammad al-Shaarawi, was killed in an Israeli drone strike on December 11, 2024. The attack targeted him with a group of friends in Tuffah. At the time, Fatima and her children were displaced in southern Gaza.

“Even the dead were not spared,” Fatima says, describing a violation of the last remnants of their right to mourn and preserve dignity.

“Corpses scattered, bones, bags thrown … they were bulldozing graves, dumping the remains as if they were nothing.”

During the search and recovery of captive Israeli policeman Ran Gvili, about 250 graves were examined in a short period using heavy military machinery and bulldozers.

The operation led to the exhumation of both old and recent graves, the destruction of many tombstones, and a significant alteration of the cemetery’s landscape, according to aerial images of the site.

“I used to always visit him. On holidays, on his birthday, with the kids. The strange thing is that my children didn’t feel they were going to a sad place; they felt they were really going to visit their father,” Fatima says.

After the forced mass evacuation of tens of thousands from Shujayea in Gaza City amid intensive Israeli attacks in June 2024, Fatima could no longer reach the cemetery, surrounded by rubble, debris and military machinery.

The risk persisted after the ceasefire was declared in October 2025 because the cemetery lies near the so-called “yellow line” under Israeli military control.

“No one knows what they took, what remains were returned … if anything at all,” Fatima says, hoping that phase two of the ceasefire will allow her to visit the cemetery to check on her husband’s grave.

“We, the people of Gaza, didn’t even have the luxury of mourning properly, and now they’ve taken away the graves of our loved ones after death,” she adds.

Israel’s history of desecrating cemeteries
The Israeli military has wantonly bombed, bulldozed and desecrated Palestinian graves in Gaza multiple times over the years, drawing condemnation from human rights organisations as a flagrant violation of international humanitarian law.

The Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor documented that the Israeli army has destroyed or severely damaged approximately 21 out of 60 cemeteries in Gaza, exhuming remains, mixing them or causing them to be lost, leaving thousands of Palestinian families with crushing uncertainty about the fate of their relatives’ bodies.

Among instances of Israeli destruction are:

Beit Hanoon cemetery in northern Gaza
Al-Faluja cemetery in Jabalia, northern Gaza
Ali Ibn Marwan cemetery, Gaza City
Sheikh Radwan cemetery, Gaza City
Al Shuhadaa Eastern cemetery, Gaza City
Tunisian cemetery, Gaza City
Cemetery of Church of St Porphyrius, Gaza City
Khan Younis cemetery in the Austrian neighbourhood
The Gaza War Cemetery, in Tuffah, housing fallen soldiers during World Wars I and II from the United Kingdom and several Commonwealth nations, has suffered significant damage from Israeli bombardment but is not yet completely destroyed, according to local assessments. Damage has also been reported to the Deir el-Balah War Cemetery.

Additionally, earlier this month, Euro-Med called for urgent international intervention “to halt the crimes of widespread destruction and land levelling being carried out by the Israeli army in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, until specialised teams and the necessary equipment are allowed to recover the bodies of victims, identify them, and ensure their dignified burial”.

Hamas also condemned the exhumation of hundreds of graves and described the act as “unethical and illegal, reflecting the international system’s failure to hold the occupation accountable for its unprecedented crimes in modern times”.

Buried without farewell
For Madeline Shuqayleh, the exhumation of al-Batsh cemetery ripped open the wound of where her sister and niece were buried.

On October 28, 2023, her sister, Maram, and her four-month-old daughter, Yumna, were killed in an Israeli strike in central Gaza. The family did not immediately know of their deaths, as they were displaced in Deir el-Balah, while her sister stayed in the north with her husband’s family.

“Imagine knowing your sister was killed and buried without knowing how, where, or what happened to her. It was a crushing shock in every way.”

Maram and her daughter were buried in al-Batsh cemetery. “After a lot of effort, we found the place. When we visited, the grave was there, the tombstone intact … the pain was immense,” she added. “But now, to this moment, they’ve deprived us … as if they killed her again.”

The family still does not know what happened to the bodies of Maram and her daughter, or whether the exhumed graves were restored.

The UN and international human rights organisations have documented multiple cases of missing bodies and the deterioration of burial sites after cemeteries were bulldozed or destroyed during Israeli military operations.

In April 2024, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk noted the discovery of mass graves at al-Shifa and Nasser hospitals, containing hundreds of corpses, including women, the elderly, and wounded. Some were found bound and naked, raising “serious concerns” over possible grave violations of international humanitarian law.

‘My father has no grave today’
Rola Abu Seedo experienced compounded grief with her family after the bulldozing of her father’s grave by the Israeli army in a temporary cemetery at al-Shifa.

Rola had been displaced to the south with her mother and four siblings, while her father refused to leave and remained in their northern home until his death.

Her father remained in Gaza City under a severe blockade and a collapsed health system, suffering from diabetes, high blood pressure and a previous stroke, relying on medications that were no longer available.

“At that time, there was famine and no medicines,” Rola told Al Jazeera. “The medical report noted respiratory problems, and his condition worsened.”

On April 28, 2024, her father died, and the family did not learn of his death immediately. “Communications were nearly cut off; my father couldn’t charge his phone to reach us.”

A relative performed a burial and preserved the grave location, placing a simple marker sent to the family, who planned to move it later to an official cemetery once conditions stabilised.

But after another major Israeli incursion around al-Shifa in March 2024, bulldozers levelled the cemetery, leaving no grave markers.

“Our relatives went back to find the grave after the operation, but they said they couldn’t locate it and the area where he was buried had been bulldozed,” Rola said.

About a year ago, with news of potential grave transfers from al-Shifa to Beit Lahiya in northern Gaza, a committee of forensic authorities and the Red Crescent participated in digging operations based on residents’ testimonies.

Rola’s family searched for her father’s remains again, but to no avail.

“They dug in the spot we were sure was his grave … but they didn’t find a body.” To this day, the family does not know the whereabouts of her father’s remains.

“We still don’t know if they took the bodies, mixed them, or moved them,” she says. “My father has no grave today.”

“It’s as if they not only deprived us of our loved ones while they were alive, but also denied us the farewell after death.”

After being relentlessly decimated by bombs and starved of medical aid during Israel’s genocidal war, Gaza’s healthcare system remains on the brink of collapse despite nearly two months of a ceasefire.

Doctors in the war-ravaged, besieged enclave say they are struggling to save lives because Israel is not allowing the most essential medical supplies in. Sweets, mobile phones and even electric bicycles are permitted to enter, but antibiotics, IV solutions and surgical materials are banned.

“We are facing a situation in which 54 percent of essential medicines are unavailable, and 40 percent of the drugs for surgeries and emergency care – the very medications we rely on to treat the wounded – are missing,” Dr Munir al-Bursh, the director general of Gaza’s Ministry of Health, told Al Jazeera.

The ministry describes the shortages as unprecedented, stating that Israel is allowing just five trucks carrying medical supplies into Gaza a week. Three trucks deliver supplies to international organisations such as the UN and its partners, and just two to government-run hospitals.

That number is a tiny fraction of the aid Israel is obligated to supply Gaza under the ceasefire agreement – affecting other areas of Palestinian lives.

Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza continues unabated, with some 600 violations of the ceasefire in the two months.

“At least 600 trucks should be entering the Gaza Strip every single day, but what is entering is very little,” said Al Jazeera’s Hind Khoudary, reporting from Gaza City.

“Cooking gas is only at 16 percent of what is needed; there is a shortage of shelters, tents, tarps and everything Palestinians need to shelter from the rain. We see Palestinians collecting wood, cartons and anything they can light up a fire with.”

People living with chronic illnesses are bearing the burden of such restrictions.

Naif Musbah, 68, who lives in the Nuseirat refugee camp, has colon cancer – and the supplies he needs to be treated are not available.

“I need colostomy bases and bags so I can attach them to the stomach and the device in order to be able to pass stools. They are not available, nor are the bases, and we end up soiling ourselves. The situation is extremely difficult. There’s also no gauze, cold packs, adhesive tape, gloves or disinfectant solution – nothing,” Musbah told Al Jazeera.

With no way to manage his condition, the sick Palestinian man says he feels as if the war has robbed him of his dignity.

Meanwhile, doctors have been improvising with what little they have left, while the families of patients search for simple items to make the lives of their loved ones easier – items, they say, that should not be this hard to find.

During Israel’s genocidal war – which has spanned more than two years – nearly all of Gaza’s hospitals and healthcare facilities were attacked, with at least 125 health facilities damaged, including 34 hospitals.

According to Gaza’s Health Ministry, more than 1,700 healthcare workers, including doctors, nurses and paramedics, have also been killed in Israeli attacks.

Yasser Abu Shabab, who had worked in cooperation with the Israeli army, was killed in tribal clashes in Gaza, the public broadcaster KAN said, citing anonymous security sources.

Israeli TV channel i24 said that Abu Shabab succumbed to his injuries at Soroka Medical Center in southern Israel.

Amit Segal, an Israeli political analyst for Channel 12, called the militiaman’s death “a bad development for Israel” as “Hamas viewed him as a strategic threat to its rule.”

Last July, Hamas ordered the Gaza gang leader to surrender within 10 days, accusing him of collaborating with Israel and looting humanitarian aid.

Earlier, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu admitted that Israel is supporting an armed group in Gaza that opposes the Palestinian resistance group Hamas, following comments by a former minister that Israel had transferred weapons to it.

Israeli and Palestinian media have reported that the group Israel has been working with is part of a local Bedouin tribe led by Yasser Abu Shabab.

The European Council on Foreign Relations (EFCR) think tank describes Abu Shabab as the leader of a "criminal gang operating in the Rafah area that is widely accused of looting aid trucks".

Knesset member and ex-defence minister Avigdor Liberman had told the Kan public broadcaster that the government, at Netanyahu's direction, was "giving weapons to a group of criminals and felons".

The Iranian fishing vessel called the Issamohamadi had been abandoned off the coast of Somalia following their seizure last week of the Hellas Aphrodite, which had been carrying a load of gasoline from India to South Africa. The pirates used the Issamohamadi, a type of traditional ship known across the Persian Gulf as a dhow, as a “mother ship” for a series of assaults capped by their taking of the tanker.

A team from the ESPS Victoria, a Spanish frigate, boarded the dhow and said the Issamohamadi’s original crew on board were in “good condition, safe and free.” Iran has not acknowledged the seizure of the ship.

The pirate group “operating in the area has been definitely disrupted,” the EU naval force’s Operation Atalanta said in a statement. EU forces “have gathered evidence and intelligence of the incident that together with the evidence collected on board Merchant Tanker Hellas Aphrodite, will be submitted to support the legal prosecution of the perpetrators.”

Piracy off the Somali coast peaked in 2011, when 237 attacks were reported. Somali piracy in the region that year cost the world’s economy some $7 billion, with $160 million paid out in ransoms, according to the Oceans Beyond Piracy monitoring group.

The threat was diminished by increased international naval patrols, a strengthening central government in Somalia, and other efforts.

However, Somali pirate attacks have resumed at a greater pace over the last year, in part due to the insecurity caused by Yemen’s Houthi rebels launching attacks in the Red Sea corridor over the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip. The Houthis have signaled they’ve stopped their attacks as a shaky ceasefire holds in Gaza.

In 2024, there were seven reported incidents off Somalia, according to the International Maritime Bureau. So far this year, multiple fishing boats have been seized by Somali pirates. The Hellas Aphrodite represents the first commercial ship seized by pirates off Somalia since May 2024.

We carried him to Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital, where the doctors fought for his life. There were moments when the heart monitor barely registered a heartbeat. We all thought we had lost him forever, but Ahmad, with the stubbornness he was known for, challenged death itself.

He survived. Two days later, he was transferred to the European Hospital, where doctors operated to stop the bleeding in his brain and removed roughly one-third of his skull to reduce the pressure. He spent two weeks in the intensive care unit on oxygen and mechanical ventilation. He lost his ability to speak and became paralysed on his left side. His eye nerve was also damaged from the head trauma, and he is at risk of losing his eyesight.

After he regained consciousness, he was kept in the hospital for several more weeks before being transferred to a hospital run by the Red Crescent, where he received physiotherapy for a month and a half. The plan was to stabilise him for several more months before doing a surgery to insert an artificial bone to cover his brain.

But on one of Ahmad’s final days at the hospital, the Israeli army bombed so close to the facility that shrapnel and rubble hit the building. Large debris fell just a few centimetres from Ahmad’s head in the room he was in. That terrified his family and the doctors. They decided it was too dangerous for him to remain without a skull bone in such conditions, so he was transferred back to the European Hospital for surgery.

A synthetic bone was implanted to reconstruct the missing part of Ahmad’s skull. He remained in the hospital for two weeks after the surgery before he was discharged. He was supposed to be on a nutrient-rich diet to recover, but soon famine hit Gaza.

His family couldn’t buy any milk, eggs or any other nutrient-rich foods to help Ahmad heal. Some days, my aunt Iman, Ahmad’s mother, could not even find a kilo of flour. Malnutrition ate away at his recovery. The artificial bone in his skull began collapsing. If one was to gently press the soft area of his head, their fingers would sink in almost 2cm (three-quarters of an inch).

Today, Ahmad lives in a nightmare: a severe head injury, brain bleeding, one eye damaged, half of his body paralysed. He urgently needs reconstructive skull surgery, eye surgery and continuous, intensive physiotherapy.

Despite everything, his mother has tried to keep him integrated so he won’t fall into despair. A few weeks ago, she enrolled him in a tent school so he wouldn’t fall behind his peers. Every day, she would take him there with a notebook and pen. But when they would get back to their tent and take out the notebook, the pages would always be blank.

Eventually, my aunt went to speak to his teachers about this. They told her that he cannot write for more than two minutes before the pain in his head becomes unbearable. He would cry, throw the pen away and lay his head on the table.

His mother tried to teach him at home, but he must sleep one hour before studying and half an hour after, and even then, he struggles to absorb information.

Ahmad is one of 15,600 sick or injured Palestinians who need urgent treatment outside Gaza. Since October 2023, the World Health Organization (WHO) has evacuated more than 7,600 patients from the Gaza Strip, two-thirds of them children. But in recent months, those evacuations have slowed to a trickle.

After the latest ceasefire began on October 10, the first medical evacuation took place two weeks later and included just 41 patients and 145 companions.

The Rafah crossing with Egypt remains closed. Israel now allows medical evacuations only through the Karem Abu Salem crossing in small and unpredictable numbers. Israel controls who gets on the list for evacuation and who gets approval to leave. The process is painfully slow. At the current rate, it would take years to evacuate everyone. Many will not make it.

But Israel is not the only barrier. Even when patients get approval, that does not mean they will leave. They still need funding to pay hospital bills and a foreign government willing to grant them visas.

While medical evacuations are recommended by local hospitals, the process itself is managed by the World Health Organization, which is trying to press foreign governments to cover evacuations, but the list is too long, and few countries are willing to accept patients from Gaza. In many urgent cases, families cannot wait so they try to secure funding or contact foreign hospitals themselves.

People wait. Days, months pass. Patients’ conditions worsen. Some pass away waiting.

Ahmad was initially classified as “not a priority” because he had his first surgery. But famine caused his condition to deteriorate. After repeated attempts by local doctors to prove that Ahmad deserved evacuation, he finally got approval. His family felt joy they hadn’t felt in months.

But then came the shock.

They were told they were responsible for securing treatment themselves, and the funding required for Ahmad’s treatment in a hospital abroad was unaffordable for a displaced family living in a tent. His parents – a teacher and a professor – work, but they do not receive regular salaries. They still pay the bank monthly instalments for a mortgage on their home, which was bombed into ruins. Their meagre income barely covers life in a tent.

But they have not given up. Ahmad’s brother, Yousef, is regularly contacting hospitals abroad, trying to find one that would take on his treatment. His father, Hassan, is writing to contacts abroad, hoping to find anyone who can help.

They keep fighting, but Ahmad’s condition is getting worse. He has now started forgetting the names of family members.

So many children like Ahmad are languishing in Gaza, waiting to be evacuated. Israel, as an occupier, bears the main responsibility. But what is the world doing to save these children?

Wealthy governments that funded and supported the genocide have looked away. They either accept a few cases or none at all. Their refusal to act, to acknowledge Palestinian children’s suffering, to accept their humanity is yet another sign of their moral bankruptcy.

It revealed something deeper: a tectonic shift driven by dramatic demographic change, internal fractures within the Haredi community, and the unravelling of a political bargain that for decades linked the state’s ruling coalitions to Haredi parties.

For decades, the political architecture that sustained Haredi political power rested on a simple transactional logic: in return for predictable Knesset support, Haredi parties secured budgets, institutional autonomy, and protections for religious life.

Under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s long tenure, that arrangement – fed by growing state resources and generous allocations to Haredi education and social systems – became entrenched.

Although in the past the ultra-Orthodox parties and community tended to support peace initiatives – most notably the Oslo Accords which passed in the Knesset thanks to their backing – the growing radicalisation within Israeli society in recent years has not bypassed the ultra-Orthodox sector.

Despite the historically complex relationship between the ultra-Orthodox community and Zionism, there was a clear expression of support from the ultra-Orthodox parties and public for Israel’s military onslaught in Gaza.

But two years of genocide in Gaza, massive defence spending, and growing demands from broad segments of the Israeli public to rebalance “the burden of occupation” have put that compact under unprecedented strain.

Calls from both the nationalist right and its liberal critics to reorder the relationship between the state and Haredi society – essentially to renegotiate the status quo – have exposed how brittle the old bargain really is.

The original “status quo” pact between Israel’s founders and Haredi leaders enshrined four core arrangements. These included Shabbat as the state day of rest; kosher standards in state institutions, including the army and hospitals; personal status governed by religious law; and autonomy for Haredi education under the “independent education” framework.

But conspicuously absent from that founding compromise was a clear settlement on military service.

Mass phenomenon
The exemption of Haredi yeshiva students from conscription emerged only after statehood, as a temporary concession to a shattered European Torah world – initially a few hundred students spared in 1948.

What began as narrow, exceptional relief gradually ballooned into a mass phenomenon: tens of thousands exempted, while public debate has raged in the background, with several attempts made to enshrine into law the ultra-Orthodox exemption from conscription.

At the same time, Haredi Israelis have gone from constituting roughly 10 percent of the population in 2009 to around 14 percent today – an increase measured in tens of thousands of people in just a decade and a half.

Rapid demographic growth concentrates young people in a community whose social and educational systems are often detached from core labour market skills such as English, maths and science. The result is a paradox: a community that receives substantial state support while remaining economically marginalised, and increasingly resentful of efforts to change that reality.

These stresses have produced fractures inside the Haredi world. Deep hierarchies, rivalries between Lithuanian and Sephardi leaderships, and diverging attitudes towards Zionism and the state all complicate a single, unified response.

Some factions remain fiercely anti-Zionist, rejecting the legitimacy of the state; others pragmatically collaborate with secular coalitions to defend communal autonomy. Thursday’s rally itself, and the deliberate absence of political speeches, reflected these internal tensions: a show of mass force that nevertheless concealed real disagreements among Haredi leaders and constituencies.

At the same time, new sociopolitical currents are reshaping the attitudes of younger Haredim. Exposure to smartphones and the internet, economic hardships, and increased contact with non-Haredi Israelis have radicalised some segments of the community and opened them to alternative political narratives.

Some young Haredim have even volunteered for military service or joined extremist paramilitary units – Netzah Yehuda – an alarming development that has drawn international scrutiny.

Stark choice
Simultaneously, non-Haredi religious-nationalist politicians – most visibly the likes of National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir – have cultivated influence among some Haredi youth via social media, through messaging that blends religious symbolism with militant nationalism. These cross-currents have intensified tensions between Haredi rabbis and Religious Zionist clerical figures, for example over access to sensitive holy sites.

What unites most Haredim right now is opposition to forced conscription. That opposition is not monolithic, however, and the coalition against conscription spans wildly different actors, from pragmatic communal leaders who fear the loss of religious autonomy, to ideologues who oppose the state on theological grounds.

The state, for its part, faces a stark choice: preserve the old status quo – risking economic instability over the long term, and widening public resentment – or press for structural changes that will inevitably provoke political and social upheaval.

The broader lesson of recent weeks is that Israel’s delicate compromise between religion and state is cracking under the combined pressures of demographics, war and economic realities. The government cannot indefinitely subsidise an educational ecosystem that leaves large cohorts unequipped for modern employment, while simultaneously demanding more soldiers for an expanding occupation.

If the state seeks to maintain both a viable economy and its expansionist military agenda, it must find ways to integrate more Haredim into the workforce and national service, without causing mass protests and widespread disruption. If Haredi communities seek long-term viability, they must reopen their relationship with Zionism and state institutions. Neither path is easy, and both will be bitterly fought.

Although this entire episode can be viewed as an internal Israeli affair among different social groups, it cannot be separated from the broader crisis Israel is generating within the Jewish world itself. This crisis is the consequence of the growing militarisation and the neoliberal policies that Israel upholds to sustain a Sparta-like state, whose very existence revolves around maintaining a vast military apparatus.

The implications of this reality extend far beyond Israel’s borders, shaping how the Jewish world understands itself and its moral relationship to power, war and nationhood.

The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Eye.

But as these luxuries return in abundance, he says the essentials are still missing, including basic foods like eggs and vital medicines such as antibiotics.

“Can you imagine that there is chocolate in Gaza while there are no antibiotics? Or there are fruits but no wound dressings or sutures?” Shrafi, a resident of Gaza City, told Middle East Eye.

“Here in Gaza, there is a shortage, or even near absence, of essential items that the human body needs, such as meat, chicken, fish, and eggs, which are basic components of a healthy diet.”

After the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas took effect on 10 October, Israeli authorities partially reopened the Kerem Shalom border crossing in southeast Gaza.

For the first time since the Israeli army sealed the borders on 2 March, pushing the Strip into a state of starvation that has claimed the lives of hundreds of Palestinians, goods and international aid were allowed in.

Alongside some fruits and vegetables, the permitted items included carbohydrates and starches such as wheat flour, semolina, rice, pasta, canned corn, and potatoes; sugar like chocolate, candies, and jam; fats such as butter, processed cheese, and canned cream; and other secondary goods including cigarettes and soft drinks.

However, animal proteins remain largely restricted. Eggs are completely missing, dairy products are mostly unavailable, and frozen chicken and beef are allowed only in very limited quantities, making their prices unaffordable for the vast majority of residents.

For example, when available, one kilogram of frozen chicken now costs around 80 shekels (around $25).

“I don’t feel any improvement in the food situation [after the ceasefire], because the items available in Gaza are unhealthy,” Shrafi said.

“Canned and dried foods cannot replace basic natural foods like eggs and fresh meat. So there is no recovery from the effects of famine.”

Shrafi said that on several occasions, he went from pharmacy to pharmacy in search of certain medicines but could not find them.

“My daughter suffered from an infection in her toe, and I could not even find painkillers to ease her suffering,” he added.

“Antibiotic pills are missing, and if available, they are sold at exorbitant prices far beyond the reach of ordinary citizens, who have been crushed over two years of ongoing extermination.

“Pharmacies, medical supply stores, and hospital departments in Gaza are completely empty of many essential items that patients need.”

'A fraction of what is needed'
According to Gaza’s Ministry of Health, Israeli authorities still impose severe restrictions on the entry of medicines and medical supplies and equipment, even after the ceasefire agreement.

“These persistent restrictions have led to shortages in drugs reaching 56 percent, while shortages in medical consumables are at 68 percent, and laboratory supplies at 67 percent,” said Zahir al-Wahidi, director of the Health Information Unit at Gaza’s Ministry of Health.

“Orthopaedic surgeries face an 83 percent shortage, open-heart surgeries 100 percent, and kidney services and bone fixators 80 percent. The most severe gaps are in emergency services, anaesthesia, intensive care, and medications for surgical procedures.”

Traders and international organisations operating in Gaza must obtain permission from Israeli authorities for the items they can bring into the blockaded Strip.

The restrictions are imposed either through direct orders and lists of banned goods, or indirectly by leaving import requests for certain items pending or denying them outright.

As a result, many essential supplies have been unavailable for more than two years, while other items flood Gaza.

“What has entered over the past year is only a fraction of what is needed, six or seven small shipments that do not cover the requirements for a large number of drugs and consumables, which should cover two years of deprivation,” Wahidi added.

‘Abnormal’ weight gain
Over the past three weeks, dozens of truckloads have entered Gaza, reviving its markets for the first time in months. Hundreds of street vendors now display the vibrant colors of chocolates, various types of coffee, and some fruits.

“Most of these goods consist of carbohydrates, sugars, and starches,” Abdallah Sharshara, lawyer and legal researcher from Gaza, told MEE.

“These include flour and various types of cheese used in sweets and pizza, in addition to sugar and flour derivatives used in confectionery production.

“It is clear that this focus on importing such items indirectly pushes people to rely on them as their main food source, while also forcing humanitarian organisations to focus on purchasing and distributing these products, as they are the only ones available in the local market.”

Sharshara explained that Israeli authorities also create conditions that “discourage traders” from bringing in high-risk products, such as eggs, which may spoil during the long waiting periods.

He noted that Israel is deliberately allowing certain food items into Gaza to “cover up the visible signs of weight loss seen in the population over the past year.

“There is now an abnormal increase in people’s weight. It appears that the Israeli occupation is trying to conceal the crime of starving Palestinians by creating an opposite image, one of rapid and unnatural weight gain,” he said.

Sharshara shared that he personally had lost around 20 kilograms over the past year during Israel’s blockade of Gaza, but is now gaining weight rapidly.

“I had lost weight because of the limited and repetitive food options we were forced to eat throughout the past year,” he said. “Now, I eat the same portions, but they lead to weight gain because I am compelled to consume carbohydrates, processed cheese, and manufactured meat, that’s what’s available.

“They’re forcing us to gain weight systematically.”

In several posts on social media, people in Gaza shared the same impression, noting that they can find different kinds of secondary items, but not the essential items that have been missing for around two years.

“Israel is creating a misleading impression that the blockade on the Palestinian people has been lifted, as people are now eating a lot of pizza and sweets, giving the illusion of comfort or abundance,” Sharshara said.

“Fresh meat and eggs are still banned from entering Gaza, and fishermen are only allowed to fish within a very limited maritime area.

“The goal of allowing goods to enter partially is to prevent anyone from claiming that Israel is blocking them completely. But in reality, when you divide these goods by the actual needs of the population, the per-person share is extremely small.

“That’s why we say that even if Israel allows some goods in, they do not truly reach the people.”

Hedges tells host Steve Clemons that there are no guarantees that the US-brokered deal “will actually thwart the genocidal project that Israel is intending to carry out in Gaza and … the West Bank”.

While a parade of US officials visited Israel to signify commitment to the ceasefire, Israel continued to restrict food and medicine to millions of Palestinians, and Israeli forces continued to occupy more than half of the Gaza Strip.

Foreign ministers from seven Arab and Islamic-majority countries have met in Turkiye’s largest city Istanbul to discuss the possibility of establishing an international stabilisation force in Gaza, as well as the ceasefire in the territory.

One of the aims of the meeting on Monday was to get the countries closer to establishing the force, which would help maintain the ceasefire in the Palestinian enclave, which has been on rocky ground since it came into effect on October 10.

In that time, Israel has repeatedly violated the ceasefire, including last week when it launched another round of deadly attacks, killing more than 100 people – including 46 children – before “resuming” the ceasefire. In total, at least 236 Palestinians have been killed by Israel in Gaza since the ceasefire began.

Foreign ministers from Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Jordan, Pakistan, and Indonesia attended the meeting alongside their Turkish counterpart. Some of them may contribute troops to a stabilization force.

Here’s what you need to know.

that is the status of the Gaza international stabilisation force?

Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan addressed reporters after the meeting, and said that conversations were still ongoing over the proposed international force for Gaza, which was included in United States President Donald Trump’s 20-point Gaza peace plan.

The body, which is expected to manage security inside the Gaza Strip, is still unformed and its responsibilities have still not been publicly defined.

Fidan said that the countries attending the meeting would “decide, based on the contents of this definition, whether to send soldiers or not”.

Several countries involved in Monday’s meeting have previously called for a United Nations Security Council resolution establishing the force if they are to be involved. And the potential members of the force want its mandate to be clearly defined.
They had previously had what Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan described as a “fruitful” meeting on the topic with Trump in late September.

What is preventing the formation of the international force?

There is still a fundamental lack of trust between the Arab and Islamic countries involved and Israel. This is largely a result of Israel’s actions since the ceasefire began, and its continued attacks on Gaza.

Until now, Israel has largely failed to meet its end of the ceasefire deal. In addition to those killed, hundreds more have been wounded. Israel is also not allowing Palestinians in Gaza to rebuild their homes, or permitting the agreed-upon number of aid trucks to enter the besieged enclave.

For its part, Israel claims Hamas has not returned the bodies of dead captives quickly enough. Hamas, however, says the work is complicated because of the huge amount of rubble created by Israeli attacks and because Israel destroyed most of the heavy equipment that is needed to search for bodies during its war on Gaza. Hamas also points out that, since the ceasefire began, Israel has blocked new machinery from entering the Strip.

Fidan said that Israel was making excuses to try and end the ceasefire and that the Israelis are not meeting their obligations under the agreement, adding that this was the joint viewpoint of the meeting’s attendees.

He also called on Israel to stop its regular ceasefire violations and to allow access to humanitarian aid in Gaza – another topic that was discussed at the meeting.

The proposed stabilisation force members are essentially worried that they are being asked to send troops to Gaza when it is not certain that Israel is fully committed to the ceasefire. The international forces’ soldiers would therefore be in a situation where they are at risk of being attacked, and policing on the ground while Israel continues to bomb.

What is the Turkish position on the ceasefire?

Fidan said that there are still major differences between Hamas and Israel that may not be resolvable in the short term, but that Turkiye is working towards peace.

Erdogan has been highly critical of Israel’s numerous violations of the ceasefire.

“We all see that Israel’s record on this matter is very poor,” Turkiye’s president said in remarks picked up by Turkish state news agency Anadolu.

“We are facing an administration that has massacred over 200 innocent people since the ceasefire agreement and continues its occupation and attacks on the West Bank,” Erdogan added.

“We cannot allow the annexation of the [occupied] West Bank, the changing of Jerusalem’s status, or attempts to damage the sanctity of the Al-Aqsa Mosque.”

How are relations between Turkiye and Israel?

Turkiye has a long history of relations with Israel – it was the first Muslim-majority state to recognise it in 1949.

But ties between the two countries hit an all-time low as a result of the war on Gaza, in which Israel has killed nearly 69,000 Palestinians.

Erdogan has heavily criticised Israel’s actions during the war, while some analysts believe Israel may be trying to build support for a future attack on Turkiye.

Turkiye has been crucial in ceasefire negotiations by encouraging Hamas to accept Trump’s peace plan.

It has also offered to take part in the international force for Gaza, but Israeli officials – including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Foreign Minister Gideon Saar – are adamant that their country won’t accept a Turkish presence in Gaza.

By Justin Salhani

The poll found that 67 percent of respondents think the US is the main decision-maker when it comes to Israel’s policy and IDF actions in the Strip.

Just 24% said Israel is the one calling the shots, while 9% were unsure.

The survey also asked whether Israel has effectively become a “client state” of the US, a notion both Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and senior American officials — including US Vice President JD Vance while visiting Israel — have rejected. On Sunday, Netanyahu insisted that Israel remains a “sovereign state,” describing its ties with Washington as a “partnership” rather than dependency.

Still, nearly seven in ten respondents (69%) agreed with the characterization, including 23% who said they “strongly agree,” while only 25% disagreed.

Beyond the US-Israel power dynamic, the poll conducted with the Midgam Institute also painted a picture of a public deeply divided on key political and social issues.

A slim majority of Israelis (51%) said they support revoking voting rights for citizens who do not perform military or national service, with 32% saying they “strongly support” the idea. Forty-two percent opposed it.

Opposition voters showed overwhelming backing for the proposal (68%), while coalition supporters were more evenly split, with nearly half (49%) opposing it.

On the contentious ultra-Orthodox draft issue, 40% said Likud MK Boaz Bismuth’s proposed conscription bill is intended mainly to bring Haredi parties back into the governing coalition, compared to 28% who believe the aim is genuinely to draft ultra-Orthodox men into the IDF.

Among coalition voters, 37% said they believe in the bill’s stated purpose; among opposition voters, 60% viewed it as a political maneuver.

The survey’s findings came amid escalating tensions over military draft exemptions for the ultra-Orthodox community. On Thursday, some 200,000 Haredi men jammed the entrance to Jerusalem for what organizers called a “million man” protest against conscription.

The rally followed a recent crackdown on ultra-Orthodox draft evasion, during which more than 870 apparently Haredi men have been arrested — a small fraction, roughly 7%, of the 6,975 officially classified as draft dodgers in recent months.

A majority of respondents to the Channel 12 poll (53%) said they would not vote for a party that supports legislation allowing Haredim to avoid military service, compared to just 24% who said they would.

The sentiment was especially pronounced among opposition voters, with 81% saying they would refuse to back any party promoting such an exemption.

Marking three decades since the assassination of then-prime minister Yitzhak Rabin, 67% of Israelis told pollsters they fear the country could see another political murder.

Concern levels were consistent across political lines, hovering around 70% among both right-wing and center-left voters.

Asked to reflect on Rabin’s legacy, 51% said they view his contribution to the state as positive, while 28% described it as negative. One-third (33%) said Israel would be in better shape today had he not been killed; 22% said the opposite.

Finally, the poll addressed reports about the possible appointment of Yair Netanyahu, the prime minister’s son, who has a history of inflammatory comments, to a senior post in the World Zionist Organization.

Three-quarters of respondents (75%) said such an appointment would be inappropriate, including 61% who called it “completely inappropriate.” Even among coalition voters, 58% opposed the idea.

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