As the war in Gaza grinds on into its 22nd month, international alarm is mounting over Israel’s planned military offensive in Gaza City, a move the United Nations warns could obliterate any remaining hope for peace or humanitarian relief in the region. On August 27, 2025, Sam Rose, the acting director of Gaza operations for the U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), delivered a stark warning to The Associated Press: if Israel proceeds with its offensive, "all hope is gone that we’re ever going to see the end to this."
For the hundreds of thousands still living in Gaza City, the prospect of evacuation looms large—and, according to Israeli officials, is "inevitable." But the reality on the ground is far more complex and harrowing. Rose, who spent months in Gaza earlier this year, emphasized that many residents are too old, too young, too ill, or otherwise incapacitated to flee. As Israeli tanks and armored vehicles close in on the city’s outskirts, he described the daily existence of Gaza’s population as one of "abject fear, in abject cruelty, abject humiliation, that has no control whatsoever over their day-to-day, their minute-to-minute lives." He urged the world to consider what that means, especially for parents and children who "have grown up knowing nothing but this."
Instead of launching another offensive, Rose argued, every effort should be made to provide essential services and support to keep people alive. Before the war erupted with the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on October 7, 2023, UNRWA was feeding 1.2 million people a day in Gaza. Now, the agency’s ability to respond has been crippled. Rose revealed that 6,000 trucks loaded with lifesaving aid—including food, medicine, fuel, and water—have been stuck outside Gaza for months, unable to enter due to Israeli restrictions. "That’s enough food to feed everyone, enough soap to give everyone, enough nappies, diapers," he said, expressing frustration at the bottleneck that has left critical supplies just out of reach.
The humanitarian crisis is further compounded by the sheer scale of need. The United Nations estimates that the amount of aid currently entering Gaza is far below the roughly 600 trucks a day that crossed the border before the war. The backlog of supplies is so severe that Hadja Lahbib, the European Commissioner for Humanitarian Aid and Crisis Management, described "mountains" of aid sitting at the Gaza border. She denounced the planned military offensive and called on Israel to allow urgent access, pleading, "Let us save lives."
Despite a recent agreement between the European Union and Israel to ramp up aid for Gaza, Lahbib said the initiative has not worked out. The urgency of the situation is clear: nearly half a million people—about one-fourth of Gaza’s population—are now facing catastrophic hunger. This grim assessment comes from a famine report published in early August 2025 by the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, an international consortium of food security experts. The report warned that many Gazans are at risk of dying from malnutrition-related causes if the situation does not improve rapidly.
Yet, the Israeli government has pushed back hard against these warnings. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has repeatedly denied that starvation exists in Gaza, dismissing the famine declaration by international experts as "an outright lie." Israeli officials maintain that they have allowed sufficient aid to enter the territory during the conflict, despite having blocked all aid into Gaza for two and a half months earlier this year. According to Israel, the blame lies elsewhere for the suffering within Gaza’s borders. However, the United Nations and humanitarian groups insist that the aid currently reaching Palestinians is a mere fraction of what is needed to stave off disaster.
The political and military context surrounding the crisis is equally fraught. On the same day as Rose’s warning, Israeli and U.S. officials convened in Washington to discuss the future of Gaza after the war. The talks took place against a backdrop of mounting international outrage over a recent double Israeli strike on Nasser Hospital in southern Gaza, which killed 22 people, including journalists and emergency responders. Gaza health officials reported that two more people succumbed to their injuries on August 27, bringing the death toll higher. The Israeli military has said it will investigate the incident but has so far offered no explanation for striking twice or evidence to support its claim that six of the dead were militants.
The Nasser Hospital attack has only intensified calls from global leaders for Israel to reconsider its military strategy and recommit to diplomatic talks. Pope Leo XIV added his voice to the chorus, urging Israel to halt what he called "collective punishment" and the forced displacement of Palestinians in Gaza. The pontiff’s intervention underscores the growing sense of urgency and moral outrage felt by many in the international community.
As the humanitarian situation deteriorates, the debate over responsibility and solutions has grown ever more polarized. While Israel insists that it has done what it can to facilitate aid, international agencies and European officials contend that bureaucratic obstacles and security restrictions are exacerbating the crisis. The European Union’s recent efforts to expand aid deliveries have, according to Commissioner Lahbib, failed to make a meaningful difference on the ground. "Mountains" of aid remain undelivered, while Gazans continue to face hunger, disease, and displacement.
For many observers, the impending offensive in Gaza City represents a tipping point. The United Nations’ Rose warned that if the operation proceeds, "all hope is gone" for ending the cycle of violence and suffering. The prospect of further displacement for those unable to evacuate—whether due to age, illness, or sheer exhaustion—raises profound ethical and humanitarian questions.
Meanwhile, the broader geopolitical dynamics remain tense. The meeting in Washington between Israeli and U.S. officials signals ongoing concern among key allies about the endgame in Gaza and the potential for the conflict to spiral even further out of control. Yet, with no ceasefire in sight and the humanitarian crisis deepening by the day, the path forward remains uncertain.
In the midst of these competing narratives, one fact stands out: the people of Gaza are enduring unimaginable hardship, with little agency over their own fate. As international leaders debate, aid trucks wait, and military operations loom, the question that haunts many is a simple one—how much longer can Gaza endure?
