Gaza Snapshots, May 2024

“The State Department Says Israel Isn’t Blocking Aid. Videos Show the Opposite,” Prem Thakker, The Intercept, May 18, Video still, courtesy The Intercept. Screenshot by author.

A media watcher’s portal to the crisis in Gaza. Updated weekly.

June 24

Ben Rhodes, former deputy National Security Advisor for Strategic Communications and Speechwriting and author of The World As It Is, has written a cover piece in Foreign Affairs (17) in which he comments on the “maximalist position” the US has taken with respect to Gaza. ‘Accept what we cannot achieve. We cannot achieve giving support to Israel to eradicate Hamas in Gaza, They are not even based there.’

What’s wrong with this picture?

June 17

The IDF initiates a “pause” of hostilities in order to allow humanitarian aid to enter Gaza.

PM Netanyahu abruptly dismisses the War Council, the group previously tasked with ending the war.

What’s wrong with this picture?

June 2–3

Biden releases Israeli plan for an enduring cessation of hostilities with Hamas.

Bibi refuses to accept the Israeli proposal, says ‘Hamas is not destroyed, they must be destroyed’ before the cessation of hostilities and the withdrawal of Israel’s occupying force.

But if Hamas is destroyed, hypothetically speaking, what is there to negotiate, whom is there to negotiate with?