Gaza, once a bustling strip along the Mediterranean, now finds itself at the epicenter of a humanitarian crisis that has reverberated across the Middle East and the world. Since the launch of Israel’s "Gideon Vehicle 2" operation, the territory has endured relentless bombardment, forced displacement, and a deepening famine, as reported by Al-Ahram Weekly and Arab News. The offensive, described by Israel as targeting militant infrastructure, has been widely condemned as an assault on civilians, with international organizations sounding the alarm about the catastrophic toll on Gaza’s 2 million residents.
The numbers are staggering and paint a grim picture. According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), between October 7, 2023, and September 10, 2025, at least 64,656 Palestinians have been killed and 163,503 injured in the Gaza Strip. As of July 31, 2025, among 60,199 documented fatalities, 27,605 were men, 9,735 women, 18,430 children, and 4,429 elderly individuals. The violence, displacement, and deprivation have left virtually no one untouched.
In the past week alone, the Israeli army has intensified its campaign in Gaza City, demolishing high-rise buildings and launching ground attacks in the eastern suburbs of Sheikh Radwan and Tel Al-Hawa. Most residents, forced to flee repeated evacuation orders, have sought refuge in the central and western districts—though even these areas offer little safety. Salama Younes, a Palestinian journalist now living in a temporary shelter in southern Gaza, described the situation to Al-Ahram Weekly: “The situation worsens as the pace of killings and forced displacement accelerates. People do not know where to go or what to do after the evacuation orders. There is no safety for them or their families.”
The United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) has repeatedly called for a ceasefire, warning of the "unimaginable" scale of suffering and destruction. Its commissioner-general, Philippe Lazzarini, recently stressed, “Airstrikes are escalating in Gaza and the north, forcing more people to flee, uncertain of where to go.” In the four days before the article’s publication, ten UNRWA facilities—including seven schools and two clinics serving as shelters—were hit. The only operational medical center north of Wadi Gaza, the Shati Refugee Camp, was forced to suspend healthcare services. Water and sanitation services are running at half capacity, and UNRWA’s 11,000 staff are struggling to provide even the barest essentials.
The crisis is not only one of bombs and bullets but of hunger and disease. The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) has confirmed famine in the Gaza Governorate. According to its analysis, 100 percent of the 1.98 million people in Gaza, Deir Al-Balah, and Khan Yunis are currently experiencing, or are expected to experience, crisis or worse levels of food insecurity between August 16 and September 30, 2025. OCHA reported that, as of September 10, the Gaza Ministry of Health had documented 404 deaths linked to malnutrition since October 2023—including 141 children. The World Health Organization (WHO) has warned that Israel’s evacuation orders threaten humanitarian operations serving nearly one million Palestinians, as health and nutrition partners have suspended activities at many primary care centers. Out of 49 outpatient facilities, 12 have ceased services amid ongoing airstrikes.
Gaza’s health system is on the brink of collapse. About half of the Strip’s functioning hospitals are in Gaza City, accounting for 36 percent of hospital beds and 50 percent of intensive care beds. Yet 94 percent of hospitals have been damaged or destroyed, and the remaining facilities—such as Al-Shifa and Al-Ahli hospitals—are operating at over 300 percent capacity. Treating mass casualties has become a daily ordeal. Acute diarrhea, accounting for 37 percent of reported health cases, is rampant as chlorine shortages undermine water safety, compounding the threat of disease outbreaks.
Displacement has become a central element of Israel’s military strategy. According to OCHA, over 82 percent of Gaza remains under Israeli military control, evacuation orders, or overlapping restrictions as of September 20, 2025. Between September 7 and 10, military operations in Gaza City forced people southward to Deir Al-Balah and Khan Yunis. On September 9, a new evacuation order affected Gaza City and 67 UNRWA facilities, with at least 197 of the agency’s buildings—over half of its infrastructure—falling within areas under Israeli control or evacuation orders.
The regional consequences are profound. Relations between Israel, under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and its neighbors Jordan and Egypt have reached record lows, as reported by Arab News. Both countries, the only Arab states with peace treaties with Israel, have sharply criticized what they describe as Israel’s collective punishment, mass bombings of civilian infrastructure, weaponization of aid, forced displacement, and ethnic cleansing. At an emergency Arab and Islamic summit in Doha earlier this month, Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi called Israel an “enemy,” while Jordan’s King Abdullah urged Arab and Muslim countries to take practical steps to confront Israel’s extremist government.
Jordan and Egypt have coordinated their positions, warning against the forced displacement of Gazans and Israel’s steps to annex parts of the West Bank—moves that threaten their national security. For Egypt, the idea of 2 million Gazans being forced into Sinai is a red line. For Jordan, Israel’s banning of UNRWA activities is seen as a dangerous attempt to close the Palestine refugee file and force host countries to settle refugees permanently. Both countries insist that a two-state solution, with an independent Palestinian state on 1967 borders, is the only acceptable settlement.
The international response has been mixed. Several Western countries, including the UK and France, have formally recognized Palestinian statehood in September 2025—a move that has prompted Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu to rebuke them for "rewarding Hamas" and to double down on his vow never to allow a Palestinian state west of the Jordan River. The Israeli government, described by Arab News as the most extreme in the country’s history, has accelerated settlement expansion in the West Bank, approved thousands of new units, and imposed heavy fines on the Palestinian Authority, further weakening the prospect of a viable Palestinian state.
Meanwhile, the United States has continued to provide Israel with political cover, complicating efforts to halt the violence or force a change in policy. Both Jordan and Egypt have warned that the peace treaties with Israel are now in jeopardy, a development that could have far-reaching implications for the region’s stability and the future of diplomatic initiatives like the Abraham Accords.
As the world watches Gaza’s tragedy unfold in real time, the voices of those on the ground—journalists, aid workers, and ordinary families—bear witness to a crisis that is both immediate and historic. The choices made in the coming weeks will shape not only the fate of Gaza’s people but the prospects for peace and justice across the region.