Palestinians who fear being killed or seriously injured during rushes to obtain aid are being forced to pay exorbitant fees to take out money to buy food.
Repairing a damaged bank note. A cottage industry making such fixes has sprung up in Gaza because of the shortage of cash.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu faced opposition at home and abroad on Friday as his office said that the Israeli military would take control of Gaza City. Adam Rasgon, a reporter for The New York Times in Jerusalem covering Israeli and Palestinian affairs, describes what’s happening.
The military leadership has said it prefers a new cease-fire instead of renewed fighting, and the military’s chief of staff previously raised concerns about troop exhaustion.
Al-Sabra neighborhood in central Gaza City last month. In a statement on Friday morning, Benjamin Netanyahu’s office stopped short of saying Israel would conquer the entire territory.
International allies and families of hostages condemned Benjamin Netanyahu’s plan to take control of Gaza City, with the British prime minister calling it “wrong.”
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel in Jerusalem last month. His office said that the Israeli military “will prepare for taking control of Gaza City” while distributing aid to civilians “outside the combat zones.”
The announcement appeared to stop short of saying explicitly that Israel would take full control of the Gaza Strip, which Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said was his intention earlier.
The Israeli military says it controls about 75 percent of Gaza. The coastal strip stretching from Gaza City in the north of the enclave to Khan Younis in the south is the main area that is outside Israeli control.
Steve Witkoff went to the Palestinian enclave amid growing pressure on Israel to ease a deepening hunger crisis there. Hamas derided the visit as a “propaganda show.”
Carrying handouts from the Israel-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation in central Gaza on Friday. Hundreds of Palestinians have been killed in the past two months while trying to secure aid.
Obtaining humanitarian aid can be difficult and dangerous, and though some essentials are available at markets, they are prohibitively expensive for many Gazans.
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