After almost five months of Israeli operations in Gaza, the humanitarian situation in the Palestinian enclave is more than critical. The UN now believes that famine is inevitable and that a halt to the fighting is necessary to avoid a massacre. With the threat of an Israeli offensive on the town of Rafah, there is no longer a combat-free zone in which to take refuge.

Intense diplomatic negotiations – in which the United States and Qatar are playing a leading role – are under way to reach a new 40-day truce during Ramadan. The release of the 132 Israeli hostages is also at the centre of concerns: part of the Israeli population is putting pressure on its government to find them as quickly as possible. Washington, Israel’s staunch ally, is beginning to harden its position vis-à-vis Netanyahu in order to find a way out of the conflict, with Joe Biden’s support for an increasingly controversial Israeli operation weighing on his presidential campaign…

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