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As we mark six months of the most brutal of conflicts in Gaza, a few thoughts. 

First, we’re at the end of the most consequential of weeks in this bloody six-month period.

I say it with a great deal of hesitation and perhaps some naivety (given how many moments for hope have come and gone) but maybe there is a little sense of momentum right now.

After the killing of foreign aid workers, it’s been a week in which American influence seemed finally to have a humanitarian impact.

After a call between President Biden and Prime Minister Netanyahu, the Israeli government announced it would open Ashdod port for the delivery of aid.

It also said a key northern border crossing to Gaza, Erez, would open.

Then came the announcement that Israeli troops would pull out of southern Gaza, leaving just one battalion inside the strip.

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Palestinians ride bicycles past the ruins of houses and buildings destroyed during Israel’ military offensive, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, in the northern Gaza Strip March 31, 2024. REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa
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Palestinians ride bicycles past ruined homes in the northern Gaza Strip. Pic: Reuters

People walk in the ruins of houses in Gaza City in March. Pic: Reuters
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Pic: Reuters

The White House spokesman, John Kirby, says this is a temporary “rest & refit” for the soldiers but also says he doesn’t believe it’s the prelude for a new offensive.

Some reporting from Israel suggests the IDF might be shifting to targeted anti-terror operations over large ground offensives.

Israeli negotiators have also gone back to the table in Cairo, reportedly with a new mandate for hostage/ceasefire talks. The CIA director, the prime minister of Qatar and the Egyptian spy boss are also there.

Could all this amount to a moment for the guns to fall silent, the hostages to come home and a flood of aid to get in?

Well, many of us have wondered this before over the past six months and we’ve been wrong.

Israelis have again called for more action to free the hostages six months after the Hamas attack. Pic: Reuters
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Israelis have renewed calls for more action to free hostages taken by Hamas. Pic: Reuters

Read more:
Israel withdraws almost all troops from southern Gaza
Why Israel pulled out troops – and what could happen now

My second observation?

Well, in all of this, a key piece of the path to peace is still totally absent.

Who will have authority in Gaza? Who governs Gaza? A UN blue beret force? An Arab peacekeeping mission? Palestinian leaders? But which ones?

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Inside hospital after Israeli raid

Six months of war and the ‘day after’ is, just maybe, getting closer.

But no one has any sense of what it looks like. That represents profound political failure and a damning absence of American leadership.

A final thought as we mark six months of this bloodiest of chapters in a decades-long conflict: Remember that international reporters have been prevented from entering Gaza (except on short, restricted military facilities) by Israel and by Egypt since the start.

The reporting has come from a dwindling number of remarkable Palestinians journalists who can’t rest.

At a moment of profound importance, where modern state-led warfare has been redefined, eyewitness journalism has been intentionally restricted.

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‘At least 798 killed’ at Gaza aid points – as medical charity warns acute malnutrition at all-time high

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'At least 798 killed' at Gaza aid points - as medical charity warns acute malnutrition at all-time high

At least 798 people in Gaza have reportedly been killed while receiving aid in the past six weeks – while acute malnutrition is said to have reached an all-time high.

The UN human rights office said 615 of the deaths – between 27 May and 7 July – were “in the vicinity” of sites run by the controversial US and Israel-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF).

A further 183 people killed were “presumably on the route of aid convoys,” said Ravina Shamdasani, from the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.

Its figures are based on a range of sources, including hospitals, cemeteries, and families in the Gaza Strip, as well as non-governmental organisations (NGOs), its partners on the ground, and Hamas-run health authorities.

Aid agency Project Hope said on Thursday that 10 children were among at least 15 people killed as they waited for its clinic in Deir al Balah to open.

Omar Meshmesh carries the body of his three-year-old niece Aya - one of the victims of the clinic attack. Pic: AP
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Ten children were reportedly killed when Israel attacked near a clinic on Thursday. Pic: AP

The GHF has claimed the UN figures are “false and misleading” and has repeatedly denied any violence at or around its sites.

Meanwhile, Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) – also known as Doctors Without Borders – said two of its sites were seeing their worst-ever levels of severe malnutrition.

Cases at its Gaza City clinic are said to have tripled from 293 in May to 983 in early July.

“Over 700 pregnant or breastfeeding women and nearly 500 children are now receiving emergency nutritional care,” MSF said.

The humanitarian medical charity said food prices were at extreme levels, with sugar at $766 (£567) per kilo and flour $30 (£22) per kilo, and many families surviving on one meal of rice or lentils a day.

It’s a major concern for the estimated 55,000 pregnant women in Gaza, who risk miscarriage, stillbirth and malnourished infants because of the shortages.

The GHF began distributing food packages in Gaza at the end of May, after Israel eased its 11-week blockade of aid into the coastal territory.

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US aid contractors claim live ammo fired at Palestinians

It has four distribution centres, three of which are in the southern Gaza Strip.

The sites, kept off-limits to independent media, are guarded by private security contractors and located in zones where the Israeli military operates.

Palestinian witnesses say Israeli forces have repeatedly opened fire towards crowds of people going to receive aid.

The Israeli military says it has fired warning shots at people who have behaved in what it says is a suspicious manner.

It says its forces operate near the aid sites to stop supplies from falling into the hands of militants.

Read more:
GHF aid distribution linked to increased deaths
Gaza situation ‘apocalyptic’, says UN expert

After the deaths of hundreds of Palestinians trying to reach the aid hubs, the United Nations has called the GHF’s aid model “inherently unsafe” and a violation of humanitarian impartiality standards.

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In response, a GHF spokesperson said: “The fact is the most deadly attacks on aid sites have been linked to UN convoys.”

The GHF says it has delivered more than 70 million meals to Gazans in five weeks and claims other humanitarian groups had “nearly all of their aid looted” by Hamas or criminal gangs.

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At least 798 people have been killed at Gaza aid points, the UN says

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'At least 798 killed' at Gaza aid points - as medical charity warns acute malnutrition at all-time high

At least 798 people in Gaza have been killed while receiving aid in six weeks, the UN human rights office has said.

A spokesperson for the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights said 615 of the killings were “in the vicinity” of sites run by the controversial US and Israel-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF).

A further 183 people killed were “presumably on the route of aid convoys,” Ravina Shamdasani told reporters in Geneva.

The office said its figures are based on numbers from a range of sources, including hospitals, cemeteries and families in the Gaza Strip, as well as NGOs, its partners on the ground and the Hamas-run health authorities.

The GHF has claimed the figures are “false and misleading”. It has repeatedly denied there has been any violence at or around its sites.

The organisation began distributing food packages in Gaza at the end of May, after Israel eased its 11-week blockade of aid into the enclave.

It has four distribution centres, three of which are in the southern Gaza Strip. The sites, kept off-limits to independent media, are guarded by private security contractors and located in zones where the Israeli military operates.

Palestinian witnesses say Israeli forces have repeatedly opened fire towards crowds of people going to receive aid.

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US aid contractors claim live ammo fired at Palestinians

The Israeli military says it has fired warning shots at people who have behaved in what they say is a suspicious manner.

It says its forces operate near the aid sites to stop supplies falling into the hands of militants.

Read more:
GHF aid distribution linked to increased deaths
Gaza situation ‘apocalyptic’, says UN expert

After the deaths of hundreds of Palestinians trying to reach the aid hubs, the United Nations has called the GHF’s aid model “inherently unsafe” and a violation of humanitarian impartiality standards.

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Listen to The World with Richard Engel and Yalda Hakim every Wednesday

Tap to follow

In response, a GHF spokesperson told the Reuters news agency: “The fact is the most deadly attacks on aid sites have been linked to UN convoys.”

The GHF says it has delivered more than 70 million meals to Gazans in five weeks and claims other humanitarian groups had “nearly all of their aid looted” by Hamas or criminal gangs.

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Ten children among at least 15 killed waiting for Gaza health clinic to open, says aid group

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Ten children among at least 15 killed waiting for Gaza health clinic to open, says aid group

Ten children and two women are among at least 15 killed in an airstrike near a Gaza health clinic, according to an aid organisation.

Project Hope said it happened this morning near Altayara Junction, in Deir al Balah, as patients waited for the clinic to open.

The organisation’s president called it a “blatant violation of international humanitarian law, and a stark reminder that no one and no place is safe in Gaza“.

“No child waiting for food and medicine should face the risk of being bombed,” added the group’s project manager, Dr Mithqal Abutaha.

“It was a horrific scene. People had to come seeking health and support, instead they faced death.”

Operations at the clinic – which provides a range of health and maternity services – have been suspended.

Some of the children were reportedly waiting to receive nutritional supplements, necessary due to the dire shortage of food being allowed into Gaza.

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Israel‘s military is investigating and said it was targeting a militant who took part in the 7 October terror attack.

“The IDF [Israel Defence Force] regrets any harm to uninvolved individuals and operates to minimize harm as much as possible,” added.

The deaths come as an agreement over a 60-day truce hangs in the balance – with President Trump cautiously saying it could happen “this week, or next week”.

Elsewhere in Gaza, the Nasser Hospital reported another 21 deaths in airstrikes in Khan Younis and in the nearby coastal area of Muwasi.

It said three children and their mother were among the dead.

Israel said its troops have been dismantling more than 130 Hamas infrastructure sites in Khan Younis over the past week, including missile launch sites, weapons storage facilities and a 500m tunnel.

On Wednesday, a soldier was shot dead when militants burst out of a tunnel and tried to abduct him, the military added.

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Do Trump and Netanyahu really get along?

Eighteen soldiers have been killed in the past three weeks – one of the deadliest periods for the Israeli army in months.

A 22-year-old Israeli man was also killed on Thursday by two attackers in a supermarket in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, said the Magen David Adom emergency service.

People on site reportedly shot and killed the attackers but information on their identity has so far not been released.

Read more:
IDF chief says conditions ‘created’ for Gaza ceasefire
What is the possible Gaza hostage and ceasefire deal ?

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Lack of food and water ‘lethal’ for Gaza children

Negotiations over a proposed 60-day ceasefire are ongoing and President Trump reportedly put “heavy” pressure on Israel’s leader, who visited the US this week.

A major sticking point is said to be the status of the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) inside Gaza during the 60-day ceasefire and beyond, should it last longer.

However, Sky News understands the Israeli government thinks the chances of a permanent truce are “questionable”.

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More than 57,000 Palestinians have been killed in the war – more than half are women and children, according to Gaza’s Hamas-controlled health ministry.

Its figure does not differentiate between civilians and fighters.

The war began in October 2023 after Hamas killed around 1,200 people in Israel and kidnapped 251 others.

Some of them remain In Gaza and are a crucial part of ceasefire negotiations, which also include a planned surge in humanitarian aid into the strip.

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