Bombings, starvation and repeated displacement have pushed Gaza’s society to the brink, analysts say.
Through its unrelenting war on Gaza, Israel has killed over 59,000 Palestinians, injured 143,000 others, and pushed hundreds of thousands into forced starvation caused by its blockade on the enclave and its militarised distribution system.
More than 100 Palestinians have starved to death as a result in recent weeks, 80 of them children.
Whatever its ultimate intention, according to analysts, Israel has pushed the people of Gaza to the breaking point.
“Israeli policy has left Gaza uninhabitable,” said Derek Summerfield, a United Kingdom-based psychiatrist who has written on the effects of war and atrocity.
“It’s destroyed the idea of a society and every institution that might serve it, from universities to hospitals to mosques. It’s become a sociocidal war,” he added, describing a conflict intended to destroy a society’s entire structures and sense of identity. “People have been left with nothing, and are feeling they can’t go on.”
The constant spectre of death and the complete devastation of Gaza have driven many Palestinians there to desperation. Some are trying to leave – even temporarily – due to the horrors they have experienced and in a conflict that may continue for months or years to come.
Others continue to cling to their homes in defiance of escalating Israeli aggression.
Famine in Gaza
The mass starvation that aid agencies have warned about has become a reality for Palestinians in Gaza, as aid workers and journalists join the ranks of the hungry and the malnourished.
On Wednesday, more than 100 aid agencies issued an open letter urging the Israeli government to work with the United Nations and allow aid into Gaza.
media has called for action to protect all journalists trapped in Gaza, many of whom are no longer able to report due to their own acute hunger and deteriorating health. AFP agency made a similar call.
“Famine isn’t just physical, it’s mental,” said Alex de Waal, executive director of the World Peace Foundation at Tufts University, who has written extensively on famine.
“It dehumanises and degrades the sufferer … It’s the experience of – and then the memory of – having searched through garbage for food and everything you have done to survive.”
“You need to remember, starvation is an act, and as often as not a criminal one,” he continued.
“It’s also one that takes time. It’s not like dropping a bomb… Starvation can take 60 to 80 days. Semi-starvation, such as we’re seeing in Gaza, can take longer.
“Israel has had ample and stark warnings that its actions are leading to mass starvation. This should surprise no one.”
“This isn’t just about starving kids. It’s about dismantling a society and reducing its people to desperate, starving victims,” de Waal added. “It also encourages the abuser to think of the sufferer as dehumanised, so it becomes self-justifying.”
A strategy of annihilation
Through its 21-month war, Israel’s leaders have repeatedly claimed their war on Gaza was to “defeat Hamas” and rescue the captives held in the territory.
However, with every new offensive, its critics around the world have accused it of either turning a blind eye to the humanitarian consequences of its actions or actively seeking to punish Palestinians and force starvation upon them.
“I don’t know if you can call this a strategy,” said Yossi Mekelberg, a senior consulting fellow at Chatham House.
“I don’t know how much is planned, how much is tactical, cynical, opportunistic or just incompetence. It all depends where you look.”
Mekelberg broke down the factions competing for final say in Israeli policy, from the messianic ambitions of ultranationalist government ministers, such as Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich, who would like to see the Palestinians of Gaza and the West Bank expelled, to a security establishment that Mekelberg described as divided over whether it should continue or end the war.
“Lastly, you have the cynical and the opportunistic,” he continued, “which is essentially Benjamin Netanyahu and his adherents. To them, this is all about politics and surviving for another day,” Mekelberg said of the prime minister, who is on trial on multiple corruption charges.
The legacy of destruction
The consequences of Israel’s actions in Gaza will last generations, analysts said.
Those who survive Israel’s current war will carry its scars, as will their descendants, while those who leave are unlikely to be allowed to return.
“Israel has adopted a formula in the last few weeks where it is making conditions in Gaza intolerable and unable to support human life,” said Mouin Rabbani, co-editor of Jadaliyya.
“If it can reduce life to such a level and at the same time increase the level of chaos and anarchy [across Gaza], the thinking is that people will leave.”
Once they have been forced from their homeland, either through the conditions that Israel has imposed, or via the one-way entrance into what Israeli government ministers call a “humanitarian city”, while many critics call it a concentration camp, it intends to construct along the border with Egypt, they won’t be allowed back, Rabbani said.
Hardly a day has gone by since Israel’s assault upon Gaza began in October 2023 that its war has not dominated headlines.
In recent weeks, as starvation and the extent of the near-total destruction that Israel has visited upon the enclave have grown, so too has the disquiet among the international community.
However, in the face of the protests, and with ceasefire negotiations supposedly ongoing, Israel’s war has shown few signs of slowing.
That has left Gaza’s population, in the words of Summerfield, left to “wander Gaza; starving, alone and hunted”.
