Israel's attack on Qatar was an escalation, but its invasion of Gaza City is even more consequential

Among the many uncertainties in the wake of Israel's walk out on Hamas's leaders in Qatar, none looms larger than the future of its invasion of Gaza City.

Israel's government claims capturing the city is essential to defeating the remnants of Hamas, where many of its remaining fighters are believed to be holding out.

But for Palestinians and their supporters around the world, Israel's offensive amounts to an appalling exercise in ethnic cleansing.  

With Israel refusing to say if or when people can return, the order to leave — via airdropped leaflets on Tuesday — is being viewed as an expulsion rather than a safety measure, as Israel says it is.   

Their removal would not only deprive Palestinians of their homes and livelihoods, but many fear the loss of the territory's cultural heart and largest population centre will choke off any hope for the possibility of a future Palestinian state.

Which is why, faced with repeated Israeli calls to flee Gaza City, many Palestinians are refusing to go.

"The land is ours and there's no way we will leave it – death is death," said Alaa Marzouq, 30, one of hundreds of protestors who staged a demonstration in Gaza City this week in front of cameras of Palestinian journalists who file regularly for international news outlets.

"We are here to confirm to the entire world that we will stay here in Gaza and we will never leave Gaza," said Ahmed Al-Hato, 53, who joined the protest waving a sign that said, "Steadfast in Gaza till death."

Israeli military forces in Gaza have been steadily conquering more of the once-densely packed city of one million residents, demolishing highrise buildings as they go.

The families of some of the roughly 20 Israeli hostages believed to still be alive in Gaza have been among the most urgent voices inside Israel urging the IDF (Israel Defence Forces) to stand down, fearing their loved ones will also die in Gaza City's rubble.

Now, in the aftermath of the Qatar assassination strike on Hamas, other prominent Israeli voices are also weighing in.

"The Israeli government is conducting a dangerous manoeuvre of walking on the edge of chaos," the Institute for National Security Studies said in a post on Wednesday, following Israel's attempt to assassinate Hamas's leadership in Doha, Qatar. 

As Israel's leading military think tank, the ranks of the INSS are filled with former senior members of the country's military and security services.

The group warned: "Further entanglement in a military operation to capture Gaza City, without any mediation channel" carries unnecessary risks.  

Qatar had been acting as the primary mediator between Israel's government and the militant group, but Israel's surprise attack on a Hamas building in the country's capital has upended that dynamic. While Hamas has indicated it is still open to a diplomatic settlement, it's unclear now who would mediate it. 

The INSS says without such a political process  to lock in any military advantages Israel gains from its invasion, the offensive should stop and wait until there is a diplomatic path forward.

But in the hours since the attempted decapitation strike in Doha, the Netanyahu government's response has been to push ahead even harder.

In a statement Wednesday, the IDF announced it was "expanding its activities in Gaza City."

"The IDF will increase the pace of targeted strikes, based on precise intelligence, with the aim of dismantling Hamas's terrorist infrastructure, disrupting its operational readiness, and reducing the threat to IDF troops as part of the preparations for the next stages of the operation," said the statement.

Canada has joined other European countries in condemning Israel's actions in Gaza and also proclaiming its intention to recognize a Palestinian state. While such recognition would be unlikely to lead to much immediate improvement in the lives of Palestinians, it could increase the diplomatic pressure on Israel.

Crucially for Israel, however, U.S. President Donald Trump has voiced very little opposition to either its Gaza City invasion, nor its efforts to drive the territory's population into tiny enclaves of land in the south.

And so with continued U.S. Backing and in the absence of any meaningful political or economic sanctions from elsewhere, the Netanyahu government has largely brushed off the scathing criticisms and instead continued to blame Hamas for Palestinian suffering.

According to Israel, it's Hamas that's hiding among civilians; it's Hamas that's stealing food; it's Hamas that refuses to surrender — common refrains that are often presented without evidence even if, in some cases, there is an aspect of truth to them.

Israel's government has repeatedly insisted that while some people in Gaza may be hungry, there is no mass starvation, despite the findings of the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) — the world's top famine experts.

And again on Wednesday, as it has throughout the war, Israel's government posted photos of pallets stacked full of humanitarian aid that it says were delivered into the beleaguered territory,  along with photos of bustling markets filled with food.   

Where 200,000 people used to live, is now a flattened wasteland devoid of Palestinian life or intact homes.

Israel says it's building two new aid distribution sites to accommodate people from Gaza City to be run by the controversial Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, or GHF. The US non-profit group was set up to bypass and marginalize aid distribution by UN agencies, but its activities have exacted a horrendous cost in Palestinian lives.

Doctors Without Borders has called the GHF a "slaughter masquerading as humanitarian aid" after more than 500 people were killed as they tried to obtain food just in the first month of its operations.  

Opponents also see the GHF as yet another means of drawing Palestinians out of Gaza City to the southern part of the enclave. 

During this week's tour, the IDF said there would be no limits on the amount of food and humanitarian supplies delivered at the new sites.

But in an unusual joint news conference this week, private aid agencies operating in Gaza unanimously pushed back against the Israeli narratives and its displacement plan for Gaza City.

"We are seeing the systematic destruction of Palestinian life," said Caroline Willeman of Doctors Without Borders, who just left Gaza after spending several months working in hospitals there.

On the existential issue of the famine in Gaza: she said it's ongoing and the IDF images of truckloads of aid waiting to be delivered don't show the immense numbers of hungry people needing to be fed.

"While we can't say there is nothing entering anymore, it is absolutely not in balance with the enormous needs of a malnourished population," said Willeman.

Oxfam's top field person in Gaza City, Mahmood Alsaqqa, concurred.

"The number of cases of people who are starving and malnutrition cases are increasing," he said.

Salma Altaweel of the Norwegian Refugee Council who's also based in Gaza City said there are nowhere near enough tents, or temporary shelters.

Israel has permitted just 1,175 tents to enter the territory in recent weeks, whereas more than 86,000 are required, she said.

"Thousands of families have no tents, no shelter items and have no choice but to stay," said Amjad Shawa, who speaks for a Palestinian NGO association.    

Other families, he said, cannot afford the cost of paying someone with a truck to help them move.   A one-way trip to the southern part of Gaza can cost upward of $700 US, a fortune for families that have exhausted their money buying food that has skyrocketed in price.

Hospitals have also been told by Israel to move their patients and their equipment out of the city, something Dr. Rami Al Shaya of Al Awda Hospital said is utterly impractical.

"How will we evacuate the equipment?" he asked. "This is madness – [the conditions] we are facing are like in a science fiction movie."

While it's unclear how many people remain in Gaza City,  the humanitarian groups estimate the number could be as high as 200,000 people.   

And at any moment, those who remain know their tents could be shredded by an incoming Israeli strike.

Mariam Abu Jarad, 49, was behind the wheel of an aging pickup truck stacked to the tipping point with all of her family's belongings, including a large black water tank that used to be attached to the outside of their home.

"I swear I don't know where we are going," she said, motioning to her four children and husband who were clinging to suitcases as her vehicle tried to navigate the rough roads.

She said her family had been living in a tent at the base of one of the highrise towers in Gaza City that was toppled by Israel.  When the IFD blew it up, she says the force of the explosion sent debris flying everywhere,  blowing apart her tent and setting on fire the belongings of many of the families around here.

"There is no life in Gaza,"  she said.  "Its all fear."

Foreign correspondent

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