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The 1967 Arab-Israeli War revisited

Published

3 years ago

June 9, 2023

I was ten years old after the 1967 Arab-Israeli War when Israel occupied the West Bank in June 1967. Then, I didn’t fully grasp what was happening to us. Arab radio stations transmitting from Cairo, Damascus and Baghdad had been galvanizing us into believing that Israel’s days were numbered and that Arab nationalism, which nearly replaced Islam as our de facto religion, would soon tear up the Zionist entity to smithereens.

We virtually worshipped Gamal Abdul Nasser, the legendary Egyptian president, who became a god-like figure among most Arabs from Bahrain to Casablanca.

It was far more abominable to curse the ultimate leader of Arab nationalism than to curse the Almighty. Under such circumstances, achieving victory over Israel, the darling of the West, was tantamount to indulging in day-dreaming.

I remember I once asked Professor Hamed Algar, Professor of Ottoman History at the University of California at Berkeley, for his opinion of Nasser.

He described him as “the second major disaster to hit the Muslim world after Mustafa Kemal Attaturk“.

So you can imagine the gigantic shock and disappointment we suffered when all of our dreams were crushed when all these charismatic leaders proved to be mere contemptible little men who excelled in rhetoric and in repressing their peoples but failed utterly in the confrontation with Israel in the 1967 Arab-Israeli War.

A Narrative Story pre-the 1967 Arab-Israeli War

Four years before I was born, a great calamity had befallen my family.
The Israeli army murdered three of my four paternal uncles, Hussein (28), Mahmoud (25), and Yousuf (23). The three, all simple and impoverished shepherds, were grazing their flock of sheep and goats near the village of Al-Burj along the so-called armistice line, 22 kilometers south-west of the West Bank town of Hebron. Together with my three uncles, a number of other relatives, including a woman, were also shot dead. In fact, the Israelis not only nearly wiped out my entire family, but also seized our sheep herd, upon which our total livelihood depended to a large extent.

This calamity condemned us to a life of misery and abject poverty for many years to come. The Red Cross and the Red Crescent didn’t run active services in our region at that time, so we were left to endure our fate alone. I remember my late father telling me that the Jordanian government gave us two goats free of charge, as compensation for the tragedy. My family viewed this as a kind of insult added to injury.

Thus, my family had to live in a cave for 21 years. The misery, the suffering, the poverty and the harshness of daily living were conspicuous aspects of our life. Interestingly, to this day, the Israeli government has neither apologized for the crime nor compensated us for our stolen property.

The 1967 Arab-Israeli War: Would zionist jews say “mea culpa”?

Imagine, just imagine, how rabid and vitriolic Jews would be if they were in my shoes. None the less, these self-absorbed and self-worshiping Zionists still have the Chutzpah to accuse their victims of being ” terrorists and anti-Semites.” Isn’t this discourse tantamount to fornicating with truth and history? Well, in the final analysis, shamelessness has always been and will always be the main feature of being a Zionist Jew!

I don’t know when these Jews will say mea culpa to their Palestinian and other victims. Perhaps when kosher pigs fly!!

Well, I do realize that it is too premature, probably naïve, to even evoke such a question. After all, Israel is still murdering Palestinian children nearly on a daily basis.

Many stories to tell!

Of course, our tragedy didn’t stop at losing three men and a number of other relatives murdered and hundreds of sheep stolen by the Israeli government. Much more had been seized from us six years earlier, in 1948, including our farming land in al-Za’ak, in what is now Israel. We were not even allowed to retrieve our belongings, such as bed coverings, household utensils and probably some money that had been left prior to the expulsion at the hands of armed Jewish gangs.

Anybody who might have tried would have been shot on the spot. I heard of several people who had ventured to reach their former homes just across the border, only to be shot dead after having dug their graves.

The take-no-prisoners policy was consistent with the Israeli strategy of ‘cleansing the indigenous Palestinian inhabitants who constituted the vast majority of the population in mandatory Palestine.

To implement this Nazi-like policy, various Israeli gangs, which came later to form the so-called Israeli Defense Forces (IDF), committed numerous wanton massacres against the Palestinians. Some of the most outrageous massacres included Deir Yassin, Dawaymeh, Tantura, Lud and Qastal, but there were many others. The atrocities, carried out knowingly and deliberately by the Jewish leadership, were aimed at terrorizing the Palestinians into leaving. The message was as clear as it was gruesome. “If you want to stay alive, you’ve got to leave.”

Israeli propaganda during the 1967 Arab-Israeli War would tell the world later that the ‘Arab refugees’ left their homes willingly and were not forced into leaving by the Jude-Nazi gangs. I say Judeo-Nazi because when Jews think, behave and act like Nazis they become Nazis.

Interestingly, the Zionists continue to shamelessly generate such big lies to deceive and mislead world public opinion. I strongly believe that Zionist Jews are God’s lying people.

They lie as often as they breathe; dishonesty seems to be a built-in Zionist character. You can not be Zionist and honest at the same time.

Moreover, you can’t support Israel unless you are either completely ignorant or irredeemably unconscionable or both.

Israel itself wouldn’t be able to survive five minutes in an environment ruled by truth, honesty and justice.

Zionist Jews would never admit that Israel and Jews ever did any wrongdoing or committed any crime.

A Zionist would even tell God Almighty “you’re a liar.” Didn’t Jews carry signs in the US reading “Allah is on my ass”? ( I got this quote from Alfred Lilienthal’s famous book The Zionist Connection).

Zionist Jews may not be the most murderous people under the sun. However, they are certainly the most dishonest and mendacious.

Moreover, there is no doubt whatsoever that Zionist Jews are the most racist people under the sun. For these Jews, the life of a single Jew is far more important than the lives of a million non-Jews. For them, non-Jewish life has no sanctity.

The 1967 Arab-Israeli War: Jordanian era

Under Jordanian rule (1951-67), i.e. pre the 1967 Arab-Israeli War, the most important concern for the Jordanian authorities was loyalty to King Hussein and his family. The King was nearly ‘a demi god’ and the entire country, including the media, the security forces and the people revolved around his figure. Hence, the claim often made that Jordan was a king with a country, rather than a country with a king, had a substantial degree of veracity.

Connections to the King and his Mukhabarat (intelligence apparatus) and immediate coterie would automatically put one in a preferential position.

Shouting “Ya’ish Jalalat al Malik al-Muaazam” (Long Live The King), would give one an automatic certificate of good conduct. No wonder, it was a despotic regime based on sycophancy, favouritism, and nepotism.

King Hussein never really made genuine efforts to push back recurrent Israeli incursions, forays and raids on Palestinian population centres in the West Bank pre the 1967 Arab-Israeli War, let alone liberate occupied Palestine. Indeed, the Commander-in-Chief of the Jordanian army in the late 1940s, when Israel was created, and up until March 1, 1956, was a British officer by the name of John Baggot Glubb who came to be known among Palestinians and Jordanians as Glubb Pasha, an honorary title. So, who in his right mind would have expected a British officer to fight the Jews on behalf of the Arabs?

As far as Palestinians were concerned, the most immediate priority for the Jordanian regime i.e. King Hussein was to make sure that they and other Jordanians didn’t pose a threat to the survival, security and stability of the Hashemite monarchy. A Palestinian would get a six-month prison term if an empty bullet cartridge was found in his possession.

And as the Israelis would do later, the Jordanians enlisted the ‘Makhatir’ (clan notables) to inform on every gesture of opposition to the Hashemite rule within their respective clans and areas. This in turn created a kind of police-state atmosphere all over the country.

Free-minded Palestinians who insisted on voicing their conscience were persecuted and dumped into the notorious El-Jafr prison in eastern Jordan where they were often tortured savagely, even to death. I know of a person from my town (Dura) who was tortured to death for his affiliation with the Communist Party.

Torture is still practiced in Jordan with the knowledge, blessing and encouragement of the United States and Britain. Some of the so-called ‘terror suspects’ held by the CIA were secretly flown to Jordan in order to be ‘softened up’ by Jordanian interrogators.

In the mid1950s, the Jordanian security forces on several occasions shot and killed demonstrators who were protesting the pro-Western policies of the government and the regime’s failure and inability to stop recurrent Israeli attacks. Some of these demonstrators were affiliated with or instigated by the Ba’ath party and the Communists who openly called for overthrowing the monarchy.

As a counterbalance to the leftists, who were quite active, especially in the West Bank, King Hussein allowed the Muslim Brotherhood to operate relatively freely. So it was a kind of divide-and-rule policy.

The leftists would accuse the Brotherhood of being British agents and the Brotherhood would retort by accentuating the atheism and enmity to Islam of the Communists and Ba’athists. Hussein’s relations with the Brotherhood remained relatively stable until the final years of his life when he introduced the one-man-one-vote law, aimed primarily at reducing to the minimum the number of parliament seats the well-organized Islamists could win.

Notwithstanding, the Muslim Brotherhood, or the Islamic Action Front, remains Jordan’s largest opposition party, despite government harassment and constant persecution.

The Muslim Brothers were not British agents or agents of any power. They only wanted to create an Islamic state in accordance with the Sharia. In other words, their strategy and goals were diametrically incompatible with those of the Communists and the Ba’athists. Hence, the mutual sullen hostility.

However, to be honest, the Jordanian regime, especially with regard to how the state treated its citizens, was not as bad and harsh as other Arab regimes, e. g., Syria, Iraq and Egypt. In non-political and non-security matters, the rule of law was generally observed and applied. In general, an individual’s dignity was upheld as long as he or she didn’t criticize the regime or undermine the ‘security of the kingdom.’

More to the point, King Hussein was truly an astute leader. Far from behaving with vindictiveness and vengefulness toward his political opponents, even those who sought to assassinate him and overthrow his regime. The King nearly always pardoned them, showing magnanimity and gallantry unmatched in modern Arab history.

Despite its authoritarianism and despotism, the Jordanian regime never persecuted us in any way even remotely comparable to what the Nazi-like Israelis have been doing to us since 1967. The Jordanians never demolished a home, bulldozed a farm or arrested people for years without charge or trial as Israel has been doing to us.

Yes, ‘wrongdoers’ were arrested and tried and often tortured, but their families wouldn’t be detained, their homes wouldn’t be bulldozed and their farms, orchards and olive groves wouldn’t be decimated as the Israelis routinely do. Jordan actually granted us full citizenship until the late King Hussein severed legal and administrative ties with the West Bank in 1988.

An outstanding exception occurred in 1970, during the so-called Black September events when the Jordanian army battled with PLO guerrillas who The King claimed were planning to take over Jordan and end the monarchy. Some atrocities were committed during these confrontations and many people, Palestinians and Jordanians, were killed. Nonetheless, the ‘September events’ should be considered a kind of anomaly in The King’s relations with the Palestinians.

In general, one can safely contend that there is no comparison between the Nazi-like Israeli occupation rule and the Jordanian era. The Jordanians were not really occupiers, they never behaved as occupiers. In many ways, The King was our king and the Kingdom was our kingdom. Yes, the regime was authoritarian and generally repressive, but, in all honesty, it cannot be compared to the Israelis whose barbarianism, brutal oppression, racism and savagery transcend reality.

Nonetheless, Jordan was (and still is) a weak and poor kingdom, economically, politically and especially militarily. The Israeli army routinely carried out cross-border incursions into the West Bank prior to 1967, murdering innocent villagers, and the Jordanian army was generally too weak and too unequipped to repulse the Israeli aggressors.

King Hussein must have calculated that maintaining a peaceable or even quasi-friendly modus vivendi with Israel was the best insurance policy for retaining his kingdom and the rule of his Hashemite dynasty. I think he was wrong in thinking this way. His non-hostility towards Israel didn’t prevent the Jewish state from pursuing its aggressive policies, which culminated in the occupation of the West Bank in 1967.

King Hussein did make a lot of contacts with Israel even before the 1967 Arab-Israeli War. For example, on September 24, 1963, the director-general of the Israeli prime minister’s office, Yaacov Herzog, met the King in the London clinic of the King’s Jewish physician, Dr. Emmanuel Herbert.

Another meeting took place in Paris in 1965 and Israel was represented by Golda Meir, who was accompanied by Herzog.

It is also believed that Hussein had lots of contacts with the Israeli state through the alumni offices of Boston University.

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Beyond Gaza: How Israel’s Expanding Wars Are Devastating the Middle East

Published

3 days ago

October 26, 2026

Syed M Sarmad Kazmi

Beyond-Gaza-How-Israels-Expanding-Wars-Are-Devastating-the-Middle-East

In Southern Lebanon, families can see the hills surrounding their villages but cannot go home. Israeli soldiers still occupy nearby ground, and houses continue to disappear beneath explosives and bulldozers. When it comes to Syria, farmers face Israeli checkpoints on familiar land. Farther east, Iran is living with the consequences of an unprovoked conflict that was launched by Israel and the United States together.

Though the conflicts differ, they raise one urgent question: How far might Gaza’s genocide, destruction, and displacement spread?

Gaza’s Genocide Has Become a Regional Warning

The scale of devastation in Gaza provides the clearest reason to take that question seriously. Israel’s military campaign has devastated hospitals and homes and repeatedly displaced innocent Palestinian families. Even the October 2025 ceasefire has not brought an end to these lethal, genocidal attacks.

The United Nations Commission of Inquiry’s findings addressed killings, serious harm and the deliberate creation of destructive living conditions, alongside evidence of genocidal intent.

Israel is looking to grab regional power. To make a greater Israel, it can cross any boundaries. The current Middle East war and the situation in Gaza and the West Bank are manifestations of Israel’s heinous designs to obliterate the region.

Lebanon’s Yellow Line Leaves Villages Beyond Reach

Unfortunately, Southern Lebanon offers the most disturbing comparison. Israel’s renewed invasion and bombardment during this year is a reflection of how far it can reach. The ensuing fighting displaced more than 1.2 million people in Lebanon.

However, a June framework for phased Israeli withdrawal promised a path towards restoring Lebanese control. Instead, troops retained positions behind a so-called Yellow Line, a term also used for Israeli-controlled territory in Gaza. An investigation also documented continued demolitions and described around 50 frontline villages left devastated.

In West Zawtar, about 70 families had returned by early October, despite damaged homes and missing services. From across the valley, residents watched Israeli forces demolish buildings in East Zawtar. Their farmers struggled to access olive groves, while surveillance drones circled overhead. It is unfortunate to see how a supposed model for withdrawal had become a landscape of uncertainty.

Syria Faces Raids, Detentions and a New Occupation

In Syria, Israel expanded its military presence after Bashar al-Assad’s government fell in December 2024. Troops entered the UN-monitored buffer zone beside the occupied Golan Heights and illegally established positions farther into southern Syria.

Residents of Quneitra and Daraa now describe raids, restricted roads, detentions, and damaged farmland. Syrians also protested incursions near the Golan Heights after reports of bulldozed olive groves and new checkpoints by Israel. For farming families, restricted fields eventually mean lost livelihoods.

A September UN investigation report identified 49 Syrians, including two children, illegally detained by Israeli forces and transferred across the border. Investigators warned that some actions could constitute war crimes. Israel says its deployment is temporary, necessary for security, and carries no territorial ambition. Syrian authorities and the UN dispute the legitimacy of the incursions.

Iran’s War Spreads Its Costs Beyond the Battlefield

On February 28, 2026, Israel and the United States jointly launched numerous strikes against Iran, beginning an unprovoked conflict that has shaken the wider region. Iranian counterattacks followed against US assets and infrastructure in Gulf countries, while fighting intensified in Lebanon.

The consequences reach well beyond the armed forces as Iranian families have endured casualties, damaged infrastructure and mounting economic pressure. International shipping through the Strait of Hormuz has been largely disrupted, pushing energy prices higher and exposing households throughout the region to rising costs.

This was eventually an unprovoked war on Iran, started by Israel and supported by the United States. After igniting the flames, Israel wants to gradually get away from this but is still passively supporting the wider conflict between Iran and the United States.

Yemen and Saudi Arabia Are Drawn Deeper Into the Crisis

The Israel-led war’s ripple effects now extend across the Arabian Peninsula. Israel has previously struck Houthi-controlled targets in Yemen, while the Houthis have attacked Israel and commercial shipping. Their separate conflict with Saudi-backed Yemeni forces also began long before the February 2026 assault on Iran.

By October, renewed Houthi missile and drone attacks had prompted Saudi interceptions and emergency alerts. Threats to airports and energy infrastructure are escalating. The renewed fighting also jeopardizes the Bab al-Mandeb shipping route and threatens families in Yemen, already exhausted by years of war.

Though Israel does not directly wage these conflicts, its military confrontation with Iran and allied groups is part of the escalation reshaping this fragile region.

In a nutshell, the evidence from Lebanon and Syria warrants independent investigation, just as the genocide findings in Gaza demand action rather than indifference.

In fact, for families waiting beside demolished villages or fleeing another round of airstrikes, the immediate demand is simpler: safety, the right to return, and a future that is not repeatedly erased by war.

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Israel’s AI Surveillance Is Turning Palestinian Daily Life Into a Digital Checkpoint

Published

3 days ago

October 26, 2026

Syed M Sarmad Kazmi

Israels-AI-Surveillance-Is-Turning-Palestinian-Daily-Life-Into-a-Digital-Checkpoint

In Hebron, an innocent Palestinian may face a facial scan before crossing a checkpoint. The AI-powered camera can compare that image with a lot of Israel’s records and help determine whether passage is allowed. Elsewhere, conversations and phone locations become intelligence, while algorithms help identify potential targets in Gaza.

Since Israel’s occupation increasingly operates through data as well as soldiers and barriers, a journey or phone call may generate dubious information Palestinians cannot see, correct, or refuse.

The Checkpoint That Knows Your Face

Hebron’s Old City offers a stark illustration of digital control. Israeli authorities have long imposed restrictions on Palestinians moving through its H2 area, where settlers and Palestinian residents live under sharply different rules.

A 2023 Amnesty International investigation documented Red Wolf, a facial recognition system used at military checkpoints. It scans Palestinians without their consent, compares their faces with stored images, and can affect permission to pass.

Red Wolf connects to a wider architecture of AI surveillance as follows:

Wolf Pack stores information about Palestinians, including addresses and family connections.
Blue Wolf lets Israeli soldiers retrieve records through handheld devices conveniently.
Red Wolf links biometric scans to checkpoint decisions and adds new faces to databases.

On the other hand, illegal Israeli settlers travelling nearby do not face comparable checkpoint requirements. The technology deepens an already unequal system.

A Landscape of Gates, Cameras and Lost Time

Digital surveillance becomes more consequential when movement is already restricted. A UN humanitarian assessment identified 925 movement obstacles across the occupied West Bank as of December 2025, including 89 permanently staffed checkpoints. Moreover, 32 of those checkpoints were in Hebron’s H2 area.

Eventually, these obstacles reshape ordinary days. Facial recognition adds another layer: someone waiting in line becomes a record in a surveillance system. A mistaken identification may carry consequences without meaningful recourse for the entire family.

Even a Private Conversation Becomes Intelligence

Illegal surveillance no longer stops at faces. A comprehensive study by Palestinian digital rights group 7amleh, titled Captive Voices, examines the interception, storage and algorithmic analysis of Palestinians’ spoken communications.

Voice data can reveal far more than the words exchanged. It may expose relationships, routines, emotional states and social networks. When such material is gathered without consent, personal conversations become another source of information for intelligence agencies.

The report also examines a hidden cloud infrastructure that can store and process recordings. So, the possibility of constant listening can encourage silence, undermining freedom to speak, organize, and maintain private relationships.

When an Algorithm Looks for Homes to Demolish

An Al Jazeera investigation held in September 2026 described ImiSight, an AI-assisted system that compares aerial imagery to detect changes in buildings and terrain. Israeli authorities are extending this approach into the occupied West Bank.

Although an algorithm cannot order a demolition on its own, it can identify structures faster, expanding an enforcement system that already threatens Palestinian homes and livelihoods.

When Algorithms Help Decide Who May Be Bombed

In Gaza, surveillance has intersected with decisions carrying immediate risks to human life. Human Rights Watch examined several Israeli military tools that process personal information and help plan genocidal attacks:

Lavender rates people according to suspected links with Palestinian groups.
The Gospel generates lists of structures considered potential targets.
Where’s Daddy? alerts operators when a person marked as a target reaches a location, often a family home.

These systems are not designed to independently launch weapons. Israeli leadership remains responsible for attack decisions. Yet automated assessments can create an appearance of certainty where the underlying data is incomplete, biased, or inaccurate.

Certainly, a phone’s estimated location cannot reliably establish where its owner is standing. Nor does an algorithmic suspicion score prove that a civilian is a lawful military target. Treating such outputs as decisive risks devastating mistakes, particularly in crowded residential areas.

The Digital Dimension of a Genocidal Campaign

The consequences of surveillance must be understood alongside the destruction Palestinians have experienced in Gaza through Israel’s genocide since October 2023.

This creates a grave question about technology’s role in a wider campaign of destruction. Surveillance does not, by itself, constitute genocide, but digital systems used to identify people, track displacement, or support genocidal attacks can contribute to it.

The UN commission warned that evidence raised concern about genocidal intent extending beyond Gaza into the occupied West Bank. That warning deserves particular attention as biometric controls and automated land monitoring become more deeply embedded in Palestinian life.

Who Is Accountable for the Data?

Responsibility does not disappear inside an algorithm. Israel’s leadership and military is responsible for the heinous genocide the world usually witness after centuries.

For innocent Palestinians, genuine digital freedom means more than keeping a password private. It means being able to move, communicate and live without discriminatory monitoring or the threat that an opaque calculation could shape their fate.

The camera at a checkpoint and the software behind a military screen may seem far removed from one another. Both reveal how illegal control over personal data can become control over everyday life—and, in the most dangerous circumstances, life itself.

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Gaza’s Food Supplies Are Being Choked Again as Israel Halts Commercial Deliveries

Published

1 week ago

October 18, 2026

Syed M Sarmad Kazmi

Gazas-Food-Supplies-Are-Being-Choked-Again-as-Israel-Halts-Commercial-Deliveries

For Palestinian families in Gaza, finding enough food has become a daily struggle. It is ultimately shaped by food shortages, soaring prices, and the uncertainty of whether supplies will arrive tomorrow. Unfortunately, after three years of Israel’s continuous genocide, many households have lost their incomes, farmland, and savings. It has left them increasingly dependent on humanitarian assistance and whatever remains available in local markets.

Recently, this fragile supply system suffered another setback when commercial deliveries of fresh produce, meat, and other essential goods stopped entering Gaza through key Israeli-controlled routes. Consequently, this deliberate interruption immediately raised many fears.

Israel’s Commercial Supply Restrictions Threaten Gaza’s Markets

Apparently, the latest interruption began under the cover of a dispute over payments imposed on merchants transporting goods into Gaza. But the real motive of Israel is to further accelerate genocidal activities in Gaza.

The disagreement remains unresolved, but its consequences extend directly to the innocent civilians. Nevertheless, Israel’s control over Gaza’s principal commercial crossings leaves Palestinian traders and consumers extremely vulnerable whenever access is interrupted. Fresh vegetables, fruit, meat, and other perishable products require regular deliveries, particularly where refrigeration and storage facilities have greatly been damaged.

Gaza’s Hunger Crisis Remains Far From Over

The latest restrictions come despite numerous international warnings that improvements in Gaza’s food security remain extremely fragile.

On October 16, Gaza’s Health Ministry stated that 466 Palestinians had died from starvation and malnutrition since 2024, with children accounting for approximately one-third of those deaths. The ministry also estimated that 74,200 children would require treatment for acute malnutrition through April 2027.

According to the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), more than 1.4 million Palestinians, representing 67% of Gaza’s population, are projected to experience Crisis-level food insecurity or worse between July and December 2026. Resultantly, around 212,000 people are projected to face Emergency-level conditions.

Although these projections cover several months, they demonstrate how vulnerable the population remains despite improvements following the October 2025 ceasefire.

The latest Al Jazeera report on Gaza’s malnutrition crisis also highlights rising nutritional problems among pregnant women and children, reinforcing concerns that disrupted supplies could reverse recent progress.

Food Prices Are Making Survival Increasingly Expensive

Ultimately, the presence of food in Gaza’s markets does not necessarily mean families can afford to buy it.

According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), average market prices during September remained approximately 204% above their pre-October 2023 levels. This means essential goods were, on average, costing roughly three times as much as before Israel’s genocide began.

These figures reflect a fragile economy where destroyed businesses, widespread unemployment and severely reduced household earnings have left families with little purchasing power.

Children Are Paying the Highest Nutritional Price

The consequences of inadequate food extend far beyond empty stomachs, particularly for innocent children whose growth and development entirely depend on balanced diets.

In a report, UNICEF warned that only one in three children under two was receiving the minimum recommended dietary diversity. Earlier assessments found chronic malnutrition affecting approximately one in eight children under five.

The Health Ministry of Gaza also reported that anaemia among pregnant women had increased from 41% before October 2023 to 61% in 2026.

Such nutritional deficiencies can weaken immunity, complicate pregnancy, and affect children’s development, especially when access to healthcare is limited.

Winter Could Turn Food Shortages Into a Deeper Emergency

Gaza’s approaching winter is creating additional dangers for families already struggling to obtain enough food.

On October 16, the UN warns that nearly one million displaced Palestinians could face flooding, freezing conditions and continuing insecurity during the coming months.

A more specific OCHA assessment identified approximately 279,000 people living in flood-prone displacement sites or unsafe buildings. These figures describe different risk categories rather than conflicting estimates of the same population.

Undoubtedly, for displaced families, winter affects much more than shelter. Heavy rainfall can damage stored flour, contaminate food supplies and make outdoor cooking increasingly difficult. Flooded roads may also interrupt deliveries to temporary settlements already lacking proper drainage and sanitation.

Moreover, children suffering from malnutrition are especially vulnerable when cold temperatures, inadequate shelter and illness occur together.

So, the need for cooking fuel, nutritious meals, clean water, and weather-resistant food storage will therefore become increasingly urgent as temperatures fall.

Gaza Cannot Recover While Food Access Remains Uncertain

Unfortunately, Israel’s genocide has left Gaza with devastated farmland, damaged infrastructure, and an economy struggling to provide even the most basic necessities. The latest commercial supply interruption threatens to deepen that suffering just as winter introduces new challenges.

With more than 1.4 million people projected to face serious food insecurity, ensuring uninterrupted food supplies is an urgent humanitarian responsibility. Gaza’s recovery must begin with the ability of its population to obtain enough food without facing another genocide each time the crossings are disrupted.

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