Israel, Palestine, Gaza, West Bank June 2025-

Israel, Middle East & Arab World

30 April 2025
Israel, Gaza, and the Starvation Weapon
This week, chaos erupted at the launch of a new Israeli- and U.S.-backed food distribution operation in Gaza, with thousands of Palestinians scrambling to receive aid and Israeli armed forces firing warning shots above the crowds. The new program, which comes after more than two months of an Israeli blockade on humanitarian aid in Gaza, has drawn sharp criticism from groups including the United Nations, which has described it as inadequate and “a weaponization of aid” in what is fast becoming “the hungriest place on earth.”
Israel’s blockades of Gaza have become “a major test for international law,” writes Boyd van Dijk in a recent essay. The International Criminal Court has charged Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant with “orchestrating a criminal starvation policy against Gaza’s civilian population”—the “first time in history that a major court has centered a war crimes prosecution on this particular charge.” Although the ICC case faces a steep battle, writes van Dijk, “the precedent it establishes could redraw the legal boundaries of war and force states to reckon with rules they once thought would never apply to them.”
The ICC Tests a Rarely Prosecuted War Crime
Amid a war in which tens of thousands of civilians have been killed by more direct means, Israel’s serial blockades of Gaza may at first appear a secondary issue. But the tactic—and the justifications Israeli officials have offered for using it—has become a major test for international law.

4 June
US vetoes resolution for unconditional Gaza ceasefire at UN security council
Russia, China, France and the UK all voted in favour of ‘immediate, unconditional and permanent ceasefire’
(The Guardian) It was the fifth time that the US has vetoed a security council draft ceasefire resolution in order to protect Israel. Washington vetoed a similar resolution in November, under the Biden administration, on the grounds that the ceasefire demand was not directly linked to the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages held by Hamas.
Israeli-Backed Aid Sites in Gaza Close Temporarily After Deadly Shootings
The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation said it was working to improve operations, a day after health workers said at least 27 Palestinians were killed near a distribution center.
(NYT) … The pause in operations came after days in which dozens of Palestinians trying to reach one of the foundation’s sites in the southern Gaza city of Rafah were killed after coming under fire, according to local health workers. …

1 June
Palestinians gunned down while trying to reach food aid site in Gaza, hospital says
Witnesses say Israeli forces opened fire on people near distribution point run by Israel-backed foundation
More than 30 Palestinians were killed by Israeli fire on Sunday as they went to receive food at an aid distribution point set up by an Israeli-backed foundation in Gaza, according to witnesses, and a hospital run by the Red Cross confirming it was treating many wounded.

31 May
Hamas suggests changes in response to Gaza ceasefire proposal
Israel and US envoy reject group’s proposal to free 10 living hostages and 18 bodies in exchange for release of Palestinian prisoners