Trump arrives in Middle East as Gazans face starvation
Donald Trump kickstarted his four-day diplomatic tour of the Middle East today, amid a warning from the world’s leading body of food emergencies over the devastating toll of Israel’s total blockade of the Gaza Strip.
According to a new report from the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification initiative, one in five Gazans are already starving while the territory’s entire population is experiencing acute food insecurity.
Over 100,000 metric tons of food aid - enough to feed one million people for four months - is sat waiting just a few miles away, across the border in Egypt. But, since Israel renewed its military offensive against Hamas at the start of March, it has not allowed any shipments of humanitarian aid - food or medical supplies - to enter Gaza.
All 25 bakeries supported by the UN World Food Programme inside the strip have been closed for weeks after stocks of wheat flour and cooking fuel ran out.
The US and Israel - which accuse Hamas of previously siphoning off aid delivered to Gaza - have proposed their own scheme to use private security contractors to distribute food rations inside the strip. But aid organisations in Gaza are refusing to co-operate, saying a plan to distribute food from Israeli-designated locations in military-occupied areas violates their principles of neutrality and international law.
There is no end to the blockade in sight. On 4 May, Israel’s security cabinet approved a new plan to ramp up its military offensive, displace Gazans to the South and re-occupy the strip indefinitely. Israeli officials say this new offensive - dubbed Operation Gideon’s Chariots - will begin once Trump finishes his tour of the Gulf later this week.
Trump’s trip to Saudia Arabia, Qatar and the UAE, on the face of it, appears to be largely about strengthening business ties and investment. This afternoon, he signed a $142 billion agreement with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to provide "state-of-the-art warfighting equipment" to Saudi Arabia, in return for Riyadh investing $20bn in artificial intelligence in the US.
Yet Arab officials will likely also attempt to persuade Trump to in turn exert pressure on Netanyahu to stop Operation Gideon’s Chariots from going ahead.
While dismissed by Netanyahu, speculation is swirling about a growing rift between the US President and his Israeli counterpart.
Yesterday, the last living American hostage in Gaza, 21-year-old dual US-Israeli citizen Edan Alexander, was freed after the US cut its own deal with Hamas. Washington reportedly did not brief Israel on the effort to release Alexander until after the deal was reached. And Trump’s accompanying statement - that the hostage’s release was “a step taken in good faith… to put an end to this very brutal war” - seemingly contradicts the stated intentions of Netanyahu’s government, as it prepares for a new ground offensive.
The two leaders are also diverging on Iran. When Netanyahu arrived in Washington last month to finalise plans for a military attack on Iran, Trump instead announced to the world that he was opening nuclear talks with Tehran.
It’s also noteworthy that the deal Trump has negotiated with Yemen’s Houthis to halt attacks on US ships does not include any promise from the group to stop targeting Israeli ships.
All of which points to Trump’s self-interested, America-first agenda. But it doesn’t mean he will decide it’s in his interest to persuade Netanyahu to end Israel’s aid blockade on Gaza or refrain from re-occupying the Gaza Strip. After all, the mass displacement of Palestinians in Gaza was advocated for by Trump himself in his own plan to build the “Riviera of the Middle East”.
That said, the Israeli Prime Minister is facing domestic pressure to re-think further military action in Gaza.
Recent polls indicate that over 70 per cent of Israelis believe the government should prioritise a ceasefire to release all remaining hostages over its goal of “total victory” over Hamas. And the number of reservists showing up for duty is declining amid growing anger that Netanyahu is putting his own political career - which depends on coalition support from ultra-nationalist religious extremists - ahead of the survival of remaining hostages.
Caitlin Allen
Deputy Editor
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