Israel in Gaza, more humanitarian catastrophe

[Opinion: I think it quite far-fetched to say Donald Trump is looking for peace—there’s no money in peace! What he’s looking for is a place in history and maybe a Nobel Peace Prize for ending a war he started. When the Israel minister for defence tells us his goal is the removal of Palestinians from Gaza, it’s not really about Hamas, is it?]

The Guardian view on Israel and Gaza: the threat of further humanitarian catastrophe

As Donald Trump looks for peace with Iran, Benjamin Netanyahu’s government escalates elsewhere – and Europe stands by

The Guardian: 29 May 2026

With his hands tied on Iran, PM Netanyahu seems bent on rekindling war elsewhere. Israel’s brutal escalation in Lebanon may be an attempt to gain ground while it can, or perhaps to destabilise the Iran peace initiative. The prospects for Gaza are grimmer.

This war has failed in its stated aim of destroying Hamas, while visiting untold horror on civilians. Israeli forces have expanded far beyond the half of territory they agreed to hold, attack Palestinians in an undefined zone around their positions and carry out airstrikes deeper into Gaza.

Netanyahu says he has ordered the military to take control of 70% of Gaza. That would force more than 2 million Palestinians into less than a third of what was already overcrowded territory.

Meanwhile, his defence minister, Israel Katz, has reaffirmed Israel’s intent to expel Palestinians from Gaza. He terms it “voluntary migration”. But if people leave because their homes and essential infrastructure are in ruins, food and medicine are desperately short, and they remain under military assault, that’s not voluntary: it’s ethnic cleansing. A choice between human-made humanitarian catastrophe or exile is no choice at all.