To force through the latest US-Israeli plan in occupied Palestine, the Israeli government deliberately ran down the clock before announcing a total blockade on Gaza just minutes after the first phase of the cease-fire ended on March 2. This gives Hamas only until March 12 to accept Israel’s new terms or face renewed war in Gaza.

In the same meeting, Netanyahu declared that there would be “no free meals” in Gaza, effectively admitting to using collective starvation as a coercive tool. This policy deliberately impacts nearly two million of the 2.3 million Palestinians in Gaza, who have already endured a genocidal war that lasted more than fifteen months and a deliberately manufactured famine — one that will have lasting consequences for generations.

To sell the blockade-induced starvation of Palestinians in Gaza to the international community, a spokesperson from Netanyahu’s office used a mocking rhyme, claiming “the supplies are there, but Hamas don’t share” — while falsely remarking that there is “enough food [in Gaza] to fuel an obesity epidemic.” In reality, food supplies in Gaza are projected to run out in less than two weeks, triggering panic, massive price hikes, and desperate efforts from the government in Gaza to combat price gouging.

Prohibited under international law, Israel’s latest flagrant starvation campaign has been described by international NGO Oxfam as a “reckless act of collective punishment” that is using vital humanitarian aid as “a bargaining chip” for a people who are urgently “in need of everything.”

Ever since the Nakba of 1948, Israel has used a strategy of stalling and delaying negotiations to maintain territorial control. From UN Resolutions 181 and 242 to the Oslo Accords and its current refusal to uphold the cease-fires in Gaza and Lebanon, Israel has engaged in smokescreen actions to expand its settlements and military control. These tactics maximize territorial gains while making life increasingly unlivable for Palestinians in the occupied territories as well for those in Lebanon and Syria who remain under the shadow of Israeli military occupation.

The starvation of Gaza is occurring against the backdrop of US president Donald Trump calling for his country to “take over Gaza” and forcefully displace its inhabitants. Trump has even shared an AI-generated video depicting the besieged strip transformed into a riviera-themed resort city called “Trump Gaza.”

Now, Netanyahu’s latest blockades on food and humanitarian aid appear to affirm that the objective of US and Israeli policy in Gaza is not simply the return of Israeli captives, but the forced removal of Gaza’s Palestinian population. This is further evidenced by Hamas’s repeated offers of an all-for-all captive exchange deal in exchange for permanently ending the war, which have unsurprisingly gone unanswered.

Israel has systematically violated the cease-fire from the moment it went into effect: bombing Gaza for three hours past the agreed-upon start time on January 19, continuing to kill Palestinians, and even blocking over half a million displaced Palestinians from returning to northern Gaza citing the continued captivity of a single Israeli captive as justification. In the first three weeks of the cease-fire alone, over one hundred Palestinians were killed in Gaza, while in the occupied West Bank, Israel launched its largest military assault and land grab since the Second Intifada. These escalations reflect a deliberate strategy to make Palestinian life untenable, further entrenching the conditions of occupation.

Israel’s weaponization of vital aid and food entry into the besieged and devastated Gaza Strip comes just two days into Ramadan, marking the second consecutive year where Palestinians in Gaza have faced collective starvation during the holy month. In a further escalation, Israel has also abandoned its long-standing policy of not destroying Palestinian homes during the month of Ramadan.

Emboldened by unconditional US and EU support, its ongoing occupations of Syrian and Lebanese territory, the inability of regional Arab regimes to prevent the genocide, and the eroding moral legitimacy of global international order, Israel has operated with complete impunity as it ramps up its attacks on the West Bank and prepares to resume its destruction of Gaza.

In the wake of relentless Israeli obstruction and deliberate escalation, both Gaza and the West Bank are deepening humanitarian catastrophes. By weaponizing starvation in Gaza while conducting its largest ethnic cleansing campaign in the West Bank since 1967, Israel’s complete disregard for international law underscores the urgent need of preventing a second Nakba in Palestine.