As U.N. Warns of Famine in Gaza, Cease-Fire Remains Elusive

Children in Rafah, on the southern Gaza Strip on Wednesday. Food shortages in the enclave are dire.Credit...Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

A top Hamas official on Wednesday appeared to raise the stakes for a cease-fire in the Gaza Strip, saying the militant group was ready to continue fighting and calling on Palestinians to defy Israeli restrictions and march to the Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem to pray at the start of Ramadan.

In a televised speech, Hamas’s political leader, Ismail Haniyeh, said the group was open to indirect negotiations with Israel, but that “any flexibility we show in the negotiation process is a commitment to protecting the blood of our people, matched by a readiness to defend them.”

He called on Palestinians in Jerusalem and the Israeli-occupied West Bank to march to the Aqsa mosque when the Muslim holy month of Ramadan begins around March 10. That creates the prospect of clashes between Palestinians and Israeli security forces around the mosque, one of the holiest sites in Islam and a longtime flashpoint in relations with Israel. Israel has restricted access to the Aqsa mosque for West Bank Palestinians, and it has severely limited movement within the West Bank since the start of the war in Gaza.

Matthew Miller, a State Department spokesman, declined on Wednesday to comment on Mr. Haniyeh’s call for a march to the mosque, which is part of a 35-acre site that is also holy for Jews, who call it the Temple Mount.

“I would just say, as it pertains to Al Aqsa, we continue to urge Israel to facilitate access to Temple Mount for peaceful worshipers during Ramadan, consistent with past practice and that’ll continue to be our position,” Mr. Miller said.

Displaced Palestinians in Rafah, where more than half of Gaza’s population is sheltering.Credit...Ibraheem Abu Mustafa/Reuters

President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi of Egypt, which is helping to broker the indirect talks between Israel and Hamas, expressed hope for a breakthrough, saying that, “God willing, in the next few days, we will reach a cease-fire agreement” to bring “real relief” to the people of Gaza.

His comments echoed President Biden’s prediction earlier in the week that a deal to pause the war and free the remaining hostages in Gaza could come as soon as Monday.

In a briefing for the news media on Wednesday, Israel’s defense minister, Yoav Gallant, said he was reluctant to comment on Mr. Biden’s forecast.

“I really hope he’s right,” Mr. Gallant said.

He spoke as Israel faces mounting international pressure to stop its devastating military offensive and increasing domestic pressure to secure the release of the hostages seized by Hamas and its allies during the Oct. 7 attack on Israel, which killed at least 1,200 people, according to Israeli officials.

Without a breakthrough, the death toll from Israel’s military campaign in Gaza is nearing 30,000, according to the territory’s health officials, and civilians and aid groups have described food shortages so dire that people were turning to leaves and bird food and other types of animal feed for sustenance.

“Our lives have become very miserable,” said Aseel al-Louh, 23, a university student in Deir al Balah in central Gaza, who said she had lost 11 kilograms, or 24 pounds, since the war began. She said she was eating one meal a day, usually some bread, hummus or canned beans. World Food Program nutrition bars, she said, were selling on the black market for six times the prewar price of similar products.

Members of the Jordanian Armed Forces airdrop aid parcels along the Gaza coast, on Tuesday. The conflict has decimated the territory’s ability to feed itself.Credit...Jehad Shelbak/Reuters

Her little sisters and brothers were also losing weight, she said in a Facebook message, adding that “everyone here” was.

In Israel, dozens of the hostages’ relatives began a four-day march from the Gaza border area to Jerusalem, aiming to step up pressure on Israeli leaders to reach a deal to release the captives.

Starting in Re’im, the site of the music festival where hundreds of people were killed and dozens were taken hostage, the demonstrators planned to walk about 13 miles a day and reach Jerusalem on Saturday.

Dekel Lifshitz, whose grandmother, Yocheved, was released from captivity in October, but whose grandfather, Oded, is still being held hostage, said he was marching to encourage the Israeli government to “make the right decisions, even if they’re hard.”

He said he wanted the hostages still in Gaza to know that “we are doing everything we can to bring everyone home as soon as possible,” adding: “Hold on just a bit longer and you’ll be with us.”

In Gaza, aid groups and Palestinians said that the lack of food was particularly acute in northern and central areas, where the United Nations and relief agencies said they have been struggling to deliver even small amounts of supplies amid Israel’s military campaign.

Aseel Ayman, who has been sheltering in northern Gaza, said she had shaken her family awake and had rushed to a nearby traffic circle after hearing people shouting that aid was arriving there. As about 500 people gathered in anticipation, her family waited for two hours, while some slept on the ground. But the aid never came.

Israeli army vehicles, returning from southern Gaza, in southern Israel, on Monday.Credit...Amir Cohen/Reuters

She had heard that food supplies had reached another part of northern Gaza, near a coastal highway known as Al-Rasheed Street, but she said the presence of Israeli troops made it too dangerous to go there.

“There was intense fear of going to Al-Rasheed Street to get the flour, because it’s either the bag of flour or your life,” Ms. Ayman said. She said her family often has nothing to eat besides a leafy green called khubeiza, the Arabic word for the common mallow plant. Canned mushrooms and rice were unaffordable, she said.

Ramesh Rajasingham, a U.N. humanitarian official, told the U.N. Security Council on Tuesday that at least a quarter of Gaza’s residents were “one step away from famine,” and one in six children under 2 in northern Gaza was suffering from acute malnutrition.

His remarks came the same day as the Gaza Health Ministry said that two infants at Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza had died from what it described as dehydration and malnutrition. The ministry did not provide further details.

The fighting, damage from the war and Israeli restrictions on essential goods entering Gaza have decimated the territory’s ability to feed itself through farming, livestock and fishing, Mr. Rajasingham said.

Farmers have had to abandon their crops to flee the fighting or because there is not enough water to sustain them; livestock have been killed or perished from lack of food and water; fishing, once an important source of food and income for Gazans, is now impossible because of Israeli security restrictions, he said.

His remarks echoed a new World Bank report that found Gaza’s total economic output had shriveled by more than 80 percent in the last quarter of 2023, calling it “one of the largest economic shocks ever recorded in recent history.”

Between 80 to 96 percent of Gaza’s agricultural infrastructure has been damaged or destroyed and about 80 percent of Gazans have lost their jobs, the report said, adding that “every resident of Gaza will live in poverty” in the short term.

A night scene in Rafah, on Wednesday. Gaza’s economy has been devastated by the war. Credit...Mohammed Abed/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images