Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Even as President Trump and members of his entourage in Doha, Qatar, discussed how to end the Israeli war on Gaza, the Israeli government ramped up its bombardment of the Palestinians there.
The National reports that on the margins of Trump’s visit, negotiations continued in Doha, centering on a halt to the fighting, the release of the Israeli hostages still held by Hamas, and allowing humanitarian aid into the besieged Strip after more than two months of Israeli boycott. Sources told the UAE-based newspaper that representatives of the US, Egypt, Qatar and Israel also considered methods of bringing the fighting to an end and achieving a truce so that rebuilding can begin.
It is not clear how seriously we should take Trump’s expressions of determination to bring the Gaza fighting to an end, which were clearly made to please his Arab hosts. Just a few months ago he was endorsing the ethnic cleansing of the 2.2 million Palestinians from Gaza. It is certain that the US could strong-arm Israel into halting its attacks, since the Israelis depend on the Pentagon for constant replenishment of weapons and ammunition, and Washington could just cut them off.
In the meantime, the extremist-fascist cabinet of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has if anything ramped up its indisputably genocidal campaign on the civilians of Gaza.
Back when Israel first bombed the al-Shifa hospital, the US press was all aflutter with protestations that the Israelis would never do a horrible thing like that, which contravenes the Geneva Conventions. Then-President Biden ran interference for Tel Aviv.
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs reports, “On 13 May, Israeli forces hit both Nasser and the European Gaza hospitals, the two main hospitals in Khan Younis. The director of field hospitals at the MoH, Dr. Marwan Al-Hams, reported that this is the second attack on Nasser Hospital within two months. It rendered 40 inpatient beds and 10 intensive care unit beds out of service. The hospital’s director informed WHO that two people were killed and 12 others, including patients and medical staff, were injured.”
As for the European hospital, “Israeli forces targeted the European Gaza Hospital with a series of airstrikes, hitting the internal yards and the hospital’s surroundings. Nineteen people, including five females, were reportedly killed and more than 40 were injured, including four journalists.”
Just in the past week, the Israeli military killed 275 Palestinians and wounded 949. Typically two-thirds of such victims are women and children.
Nor are health workers given any consideration. The mighty Israeli army managed to kill a volunteer pharmacist and her family, and then a midwife and her family earlier this month. The Israelis have killed nearly 2,000 aid workers — UN, NGO staffers, and locals — since they began their campaign.
The Israelis continue to bomb schools that serve as refugee shelters. Almost all Palestinians in Gaza are now refugees.
Then there is the use by the Netanyahu government of starvation of civilians as a tool of war.
OCHA explains, “According to the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) snapshot on the Gaza Strip, which was published on 12 May, the entire population of 2.1 million people is projected to face high levels of acute food insecurity between 11 May and the end of September 2025, with half a million people (one in five) facing starvation, noting that the results mark a significant deterioration…”
The IPC says that people are truly desperate in Gaza. Of the households it surveyed, “A third reported collecting garbage to sell for food, while a quarter indicated that no valuable garbage remains.”
That bears repeating. Some 25% of households in Gaza are out of food and can’t even find garbage to eat or sell.
“Starve,” Digital, Midjourney, 2025.
If conditions continue as they are, the IPC analysis “projects that 71,000 children aged 6 to 59 months and nearly 17,000 pregnant and breastfeeding women are expected to require urgent treatment for acute malnutrition.”
OCHA says, “In April, Nutrition Cluster partners screened close to 60,000 children and identified 2,500 cases of acute malnutrition, including 169 with severe acute malnutrition.” This was double the rate from February.
Special report: Gaza’s children starve as Israel withholds all food supplies | BBC News
Special report: Gaza’s children starve as Israel withholds all food supplies | BBC News
Acute malnutrition is the loss of body fat and muscle. Severe acute malnutrition is the next stage. When you see children with stick-like limbs, that’s marasmus, a sure sign of severe acute malnutrition. It sentences children to a lifetime of physical and cognitive impairment.
Since the Israelis have destroyed or badly damaged all the hospitals, it isn’t even sure that the outbreak of famine can be reliably detected. Once famine hits, it is too late for a lot of people.
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