Israel has been in the Gaza War for more than 19 months and there is little indication that it is relaxing. The opposite was shown last week, an intensification of violence in besieged Palestinian territory that killed hundreds of people and feared thousands of people about what was next.
This is a week for U.S. President Donald Trump to visit the Middle East, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. People hope to announce some kind of ceasefire, or the United States will put more pressure on Israel to take the negotiations seriously. This is especially true after Hamas released the U.S. and Israeli captives on Monday without exchanging anything.
Eventually, none of this happened and Trump returned to his idea that we were involved in everything left in Gaza’s future government while acknowledging that the Palestinians there were starving to death.
Israel also intercepted many missiles fired by Houthi rebels in Yemen and then attacked Yemen on Friday.
Let's take a closer look at the week that destroyed Gaza and make the Palestinians feel even more abandoned there.
At least 370 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli attacks since Sunday, according to figures compiled by Al Jazeera. Violence was particularly deadly in the second half of the week, with medical sources reporting at least 100 Palestinians killed on Friday and 143 killed on Thursday. Many of the murders were women and children.
These are the worst single-day death toll since the war began in October 2023.
The murders have brought the total death toll reported by the Gaza Ministry of Health to more than 53,000, although the death toll in the territory's government media office now exceeds 61,700 as it includes thousands of Palestinians still under the rubble, which are believed to be dead.
Israel’s attacks have targeted the entire Gaza Strip with special attention to the north. The hospital was repeatedly bombed by Israel.
The humanitarian crisis in Gaza was a complete blockade of all food and drugs since March 2, a decision made when the ceasefire is still underway, which is a violation of international law.
A report released by the Integrated Food Security Stage Classification (IPC) initiative on Monday said the Gaza Strip “still face the risk of famine” with 500,000 people facing hunger, with 93% of whom more than 2 million people at serious risk.
People have starved to death - Gaza authorities said last week that starvation killed 57 people.
Trump acknowledged that “a lot of people are starving” in Gaza and said the United States “have to take care of these” but rarely provides details. The United States supports a new body called the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, which says it will begin working in Gaza at the end of this month.
But the plan was rejected by the United Nations and other humanitarian groups, who say it would lead to more displacement of Palestinians in Gaza, as it would only disperse aid in some parts of Gaza and set a dangerous precedent for the provision of assistance in Warzones.
The United Nations reiterated its ability to provide assistance in the Gaza region, but Israel prevented it. It said it had enough aid to be prepared to provide to all Palestinians in Gaza for four months if Israel allowed trucks to come in.
Palestinians in Gaza have been telling the horrors of the past week, desperately calling on the world to take action and stop Israeli bombing.
In one of the worst areas in the Jabbaria refugee camps in northern Gaza, a civilian has a simple message - "Kill us or keep us alive."
"All (the strikes) are targeting civilians. All the houses are bombed - everything is gone," Ahmed Mansour told Al Jazeera. "What should a person do? They are all kidding. I'm going to the coast now. We've been displaced 50 times, either kill us or let us live."
Taher al-Nunu, a senior Hamas official, also called on Friday to put more pressure on Israel to open intersections to Gaza and “allow immediate access to hospitals in the Gaza Strip with humanitarian aid.”
The Israeli government has made it clear that despite extensive support for the deal at home, it is reluctant to agree to an agreement to end the war in exchange for all Israeli captives still in the Gaza Strip.
Instead, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu talked about a full-scale victory over Hamas, although it was hard to see what it would require.
Instead, the war continues to move forward, and Netanyahu said on Monday that preparations for “intensification of combat” are underway. Last week, he said Israel was planning a "full conquest" of Gaza.
Trump did not agree to a ceasefire deal this week, but there was no ceasefire deal when asked whether a deal was reached to return Israeli prisoners.
Meanwhile, Israeli newspaper Harez reported that Israel's position is "steady" and the United States "lost interest." A source told the newspaper that U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff "is no longer involved."
"He is waiting to hear what we want and since we don't want anything, he has nothing to do."