The Guardian’s view on Gaza’s misery: Don’t let the Palestinian death toll rise in this dark winter | Editorial

WHow can we call for a ceasefire when the shooting has not stopped? The killings in Gaza diminished when the truce was announced last October, but they have not ended. The Israeli strike Thursday morning on one of the few hospitals still functioning, which killed six people and injured 28 others, was the first against a health facility since then. But this was not an anomaly. About four Palestinians have died on average per day since the ceasefire was declared.

The Israeli military said it hit a Hamas commander and other fighters in the attack on the Nasser hospital, without providing evidence. His record does not inspire confidence in the accuracy of his account. Many UN experts and health activists have warned against the deliberate targeting of medical facilities and healthcare workers. Israeli military personnel also described the shocking level of civilian deaths tolerated as “collateral damage” by targeting even low-level fighters after the brutal Hamas attacks of October 7, 2023.

Many Palestinians are dying because of the war. With more than four-fifths of Gaza’s buildings destroyed, storms and cold are proving deadly, killing at least four children and a woman last weekend. The UN says 940,000 people are in makeshift shelters in areas at risk of flooding. Sewage flows into the tents. In desperation, families risk returning to their ruined homes – some dying when a building collapses.

Reconstruction is the real need, but even the basics are lacking: the UN says Israel is blocking 150,000 ready-made tents, as well as other essential goods, including sanitation equipment and nutrient-rich peanut butter. As the occupying power, Israel has a responsibility under international law to meet the needs of the people of Gaza. Providing the help they desperately need should be the absolute minimum expected.

Even Donald Trump’s Netanyahu-friendly Peace Council has urged Israel to allow in all humanitarian supplies and said its response was insufficient – ​​but it shows no intention of actually using its influence. Israel says it has let in trucks and tents, but reconstruction cannot begin until Hamas “completely disarms.”

Former army chief Gadi Eisenkot has six weeks to form a government after last month’s elections, in which Benjamin Netanyahu lost his mandate. Substantial improvements are unlikely, even if Mr. Eisenkot succeeds; The plight of civilians in Gaza was more of an issue in the US midterm elections than in the Israeli elections.

But as Israel gradually begins to digest the extraordinary shift in international opinion underscored by the US midterm elections – with around three in 10 Americans now believing it committed genocide – other governments have a new opportunity to push for change. They must use not only words but actions. Mr Netanyahu suggested that Israel could become an isolated “super-Sparta”. However, it depends – for security, trade and diplomacy – on the United States and Europe.

Other countries are having to pay, too: Shockingly, the World Food Program said last month it had had to cut the number of people it could help by half a million due to falling funding. Israel’s obstruction increases the cost of relief, and its ban on humanitarian groups is another obstacle. Now is the time to apply maximum pressure to ensure that Palestinians can survive this winter – and have a future worth living for.