Editor’s Note: This article appeared in Vatican News 14 July. It has been edited for style, with hyperlinks added.
After 21 months of the Israeli offensive in Gaza, humanitarian agencies are warning of an imminent operational collapse. What little aid is being delivered to those remaining in the Strip risks stopping entirely. Meanwhile, the civilian death toll is on the rise. On Sunday, at least 95 Palestinians were killed in Israeli strikes, including children collecting water and market-goers in Gaza City.
The United Nations Relief and Works Agency has confirmed the death of yet another malnourished infant, as eight U.N. agencies signaled that without fuel, their work may soon come to a halt. Gaza’s Health Ministry now reports more than 58,000 deaths and 138,000 wounded since the war began on October 2023.
The high and rising death toll comes as no surprise, given the Israeli military has intensified its bombardment. As of the morning of 14 July, it conducted more than 100 new air raids in the previous 24 hours alone. Ground operations also continue across northern Gaza. Aid is scarce, and attempts to collect it have proven deadly after two people were killed near an aid center in Rafah on Sunday, the latest victims since the controversial U.S. and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation stepped in after other agencies were banned or blocked from entering the territory.
The international community faces growing pressure to act. UNRWA head Philippe Lazzarini warned on 11 July that Gaza has become “the graveyard of children and starving people,” calling the aid blockade a “cruel and Machiavellian scheme to kill.”
International criticism is also growing over Israel’s controversial plan to build a “humanitarian city” in Rafah. The proposed encampment would house tens of thousands of displaced Palestinians on its ruins. According to Israeli media, construction could take more than a year and cost up to $15 billion.
Former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has publicly condemned the plan, calling it a form of ethnic cleansing. “It is a concentration camp,” he told The Guardian, warning that such a facility — where entry is forced and exit restricted — would strip Palestinians of their freedom and dignity under the guise of humanitarian care. Opposition leader Yair Lapid has echoed this concern, saying Israel risks irreparable moral damage.
Human rights groups and U.N. officials warn the proposed “city” would effectively imprison Palestinians without process or choice, turning aid infrastructure into a tool of control. The plan, they say, cannot be reconciled with international law or human dignity.
These are rights the world once swore to protect — hard-won in the wake of colonial rule, apartheid and two devastating world wars. They are enshrined in the founding of the United Nations, in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and in the shared hope that never again would entire populations be subjected to such systematic dehumanization.
However, in Gaza today, those promises continue to be broken.