Palestinians check the damages following Israeli bombardment in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip on Dec. 14, 2023, amid ongoing battles between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas. (Credit: Said Khatib/AFP)
Concerns regarding the conflict between Israel and Palestine continue to echo throughout the global diplomatic sphere, as it seems several of Israel’s stronger relationships are starting to crack.
In Gaza, aid trucks carrying food are being intercepted, not by Hamas, as Israel so often claimed, but by hungry Palestinians, some who haven’t eaten for days, desperate for a bite of anything to eat.
Philippe Lazzarini, UNRWA’s commissioner-general, told reporters people are taking food from the trucks and eating it right away. There have also been reports of people forced to eat donkey meat, sacrificing animals normally kept to pull wagons and carry goods.
Palestinian children hold pots as they queue to receive food cooked by a charity kitchen, amid shortages in food supplies, as the conflict between Israel and Hamas continues, in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip Dec. 14, 2023. (Credit: Saleh Salem/Reuters)
Israel controls the flow of aid into the enclave and, even with the opening of Kerem Shalom crossing yesterday, supplies are a fraction of what they were before the war, which has caused two million people to be displaced.
Diplomats disagree
As starvation in Gaza sets in, tensions continue to rise among international diplomats embroiled in the conflict. Various allies of Israel are finding themselves in troubled waters, navigating strained relations as the civilian death toll nears 19,000 in the Strip.
Several significant statements surfaced following US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan’s visit to Israel. In meetings with Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu and several Israeli officials, Sullivan spoke about transitioning to “lower-intensity” military operations in Gaza, with little clarification as to what “lower” means. He hopes the transition will take place “in the near future, but I don’t want to put a time stamp on it.”
A Palestinian man exhales smoke as he observes the operations of Israeli troops at the entrance of the Jenin refugee camp in the occupied West Bank on Dec. 13, 2023, as battles continue between Israel and the militant movement Hamas in Gaza. (Credit: Marco Longari/AFP)
Some might see this as a soft touch, considering Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant’s comments from the same series of meetings, in which he said Hamas “is not easy to destroy.”
“It will require a period of time — it will last more than several months.”
Meanwhile at the White House, spokesperson John Kirby said that the US wants the war to end “as soon as possible,” but that they are “not dictating terms to the Israelis about how long it has to be.”
Kirby also said the States still “adhere to the promise and the vision of a two-state solution.”
Palestinians react to an Israeli bombardment in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip. (Credit: Mahmud Hams/AFP)
In the UK, the Israeli ambassador Tzipi Hotovely told Sky News that she doesn’t believe that an independent Palestinian state should be established: “The answer is absolutely no.”
"Why are you obsessed with a formula [the two-state solution] that never worked, that created this radical people on the other side.”
In response to her remarks, UK Prime Minister Sunak told reporters, "Our long standing position is that the two-state solution remains the right outcome here?”
Spain, too, reiterated its support for a cease-fire during the EU summit in Brussels. Spanish PM Pedro Sanchez said “The cease-fire should open the door to diplomacy and to the realization of a two-state solution.”
Palestinians check the damages following Israeli bombardment in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip on Dec. 14, 2023, amid ongoing battles between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas. (Credit: Said Khatib/AFP)
And in France, officials shared their concern for the safety of the 40 Agence France-Presse (AFP) journalists who are still in Gaza.
Christophe Lemoine, deputy spokesperson for the French Foreign Ministry, said France has "concerns about the heavy toll paid by journalists in the context of the conflict between Israel and Hamas.”
"Civilians must be protected, and that is especially the case for journalists. They have to be able to freely and completely safely do their work.”