US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken is expected in the Middle East today, where he wants to secure a several-week truce in the war in the Gaza Strip, where the Palestinian population is threatened with mass starvation after five months of siege, aerial bombardment and fighting between Israeli army and Hamas.

Close negotiations have intensified in recent days. As part of them, the head of Mossad, Israel’s intelligence agency, went to Qatar, an emirate that plays a mediating role, along with Egypt and the US, after the compromise proposal allegedly made by Hamas, opening the door to a ceasefire for a few weeks, while for some time he demanded, in vain, a final cease-fire.

But the head of the Palestinian Islamist movement Ismail Haniya accused Israel on Tuesday of “sabotaging” the negotiations by conducting a large-scale operation on the Shifa hospital in Gaza City from Monday. The Israeli army confirmed yesterday that it had killed “dozens” of Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad fighters in and around the building complex of the specific health facility and that it had arrested “more than 300 suspects”.

At the same time, non-governmental organizations and UN agencies do not stop warning against the risk of immediate famine in the Palestinian enclave, especially in its northern part, where access is difficult to impossible and where it is estimated that some 300,000 are currently people.

“One hundred percent of the population” of the Gaza Strip is experiencing “a situation of acute food insecurity,” US Secretary of State Blinken said yesterday. “It’s the first time that an entire population” is in this situation, he added on the eve of his new tour of the region, in the framework of which he will be in Saudi Arabia today and tomorrow Thursday in Egypt.

The US Secretary of State is expected to discuss “efforts being made to immediately conclude a ceasefire agreement that will guarantee the release of all remaining hostages” as well as “intensification of international efforts to increase humanitarian aid (in the Strip Gaza) and coordination for the post-war situation in Gaza’.

Rafa and Canada

As the US top diplomat heads to the Middle East from Asia, an Israeli military delegation will head to Washington in the coming days, where they are expected to discuss how Hamas could be targeted “without launching a large-scale ground attack.” in Rafa,” US President Joe Biden said this week.

Beyond the threatened famine, the international community is worried about the consequences of a large-scale Israeli ground operation in Rafah, what Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu calls Hamas’s “last” bastion, on the southern edge of the Gaza Strip, where nearly 1.5 million people, most of them forcibly displaced.

The US, Israel’s main ally, has been pressing for an all-out attack on Rafah, which would cause even more civilian casualties, “exacerbate the already very serious humanitarian crisis, worsen the anarchy in Gaza and further isolate more Israel on the international stage,” according to the White House.

Canada has decided to stop supplying Israel with weapons, an AFP source in the Canadian government said yesterday.

Canadian foreign minister Melanie Jolie, who went to the Middle East last week, confirmed that Ottawa had not approved “any permits” to export military equipment to Israel since January 8.

The head of Israeli diplomacy, Israel Katz, described this decision by the Canadian government as “unfortunate”, which “undermines Israel’s right to defend itself”. “History”, he added in his laconic statement, will “judge this decision of the Canadian government harshly”.

The war broke out on October 7, triggered by an unprecedented offensive by Hamas’ military arm into Israeli territory that killed more than 1,160 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli data.

According to the latest tally by the Hamas Health Ministry, Israeli military operations in retaliation have claimed the lives of at least 31,819 people, the majority of them women and children.

Israel’s political leadership vows to “eliminate” Hamas, which it characterizes, like the US and the EU, as a “terrorist” organization.

“Absence of political will”

More than 1.1 million Gazans, nearly half the enclave’s population, are facing a “catastrophic food situation” that threatens to turn into mass starvation, UN agencies warn.

In fact, “the entire population of Gaza is currently dependent on food aid, but half the population is now experiencing (…) what is called a ‘critical level of hunger,'” said yesterday Philippe Lazzarini, the commissioner general of the Office of Relief and of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), during a press conference in Jerusalem.

The “main obstacle” to aid entering the Gaza Strip is “the absence of political will,” he added, recalling that before the war broke out, “500 to 700 trucks a day” entered the enclave but “today we are at 100 or 150 trucks, depending on the day”.

Less than 24 hours after the war broke out, Israel imposed a total siege on the Gaza Strip and is scrutinizing all aid, reducing the number of trucks entering the enclave through just two crossing points.

In the face of the state of emergency, several countries proceeded to drop food parcels from the air, while a sea corridor was created from Cyprus, but everyone emphasizes that these supply routes cannot replace land routes.

A second ship loaded with humanitarian aid is expected to sail from the Cypriot coast within days, following the arrival in the Gaza Strip on March 15 of a ship belonging to the Spanish NGO Open Arms, carrying 200 tons of food donated by the American NGO World Central Kitchen.

These foods, which include rice and flour among others, finally began to be distributed yesterday in the northern part of the Gaza Strip by the UN’s World Food Program (WFP).