The US president says he is looking for a solution to ‘bad things’ happening in Gaza, including starvation. Donald Trump also predicted progress on Ukraine-Russia peace talks “in two or three weeks”, as he talked to reporters on the final day of his Middle East tour.
Published On 16 May 202516 May 2025
Half a million people in the Gaza Strip, or one in five Palestinians, are facing starvation.
The entire rest of the population is suffering from high levels of acute food insecurity, according to a recent report by the UN’s Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC).
“The risk of famine in the Gaza Strip is not just possible – it is increasingly likely,” the IPC says.
For more than 73 days, Israel has blocked all food, water, and medicine from entering Gaza, creating a man-made crisis, with the IPC warning that famine could be declared any time between now and September.
Famine is the worst level of hunger, where people face severe food shortages, widespread malnutrition, and high levels of death due to starvation.
According to the UN’s criteria, famine is declared when:
Famine is not just about hunger; it is the worst humanitarian emergency, indicating a complete collapse of access to food, water and the systems necessary for survival.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), since Israel’s complete blockade began on March 2, at least 57 children have died from the effects of malnutrition.
Israel is using starvation as a weapon of war. A report released by Doctors of the World (Medecins du Monde) this week states that in just 18 months, acute malnutrition in Gaza has risen to levels similar to those found in countries enduring protracted humanitarian crises spanning several decades.
Starvation is when the human body is deprived of food for so long that it suffers and often dies.
Estimates say the body can last up to three weeks without food, but the length of time varies between individuals.
Starvation occurs over three stages. The first begins as early as when a meal is skipped, the second occurs with a prolonged period of fasting where the body uses stored fat for energy.
The third, and often fatal, stage is when all stored fats have been depleted and the body turns to bone and muscle as sources of energy.
Children are most vulnerable to Israel’s continued blockade of essential food items.
More than 9,000 children have been admitted to hospital for treatment for acute malnutrition since the start of the year, according to the United Nations.
The IPC projects that between now and March 2026, nearly 71,000 children under the age of five will suffer from acute malnutrition, including 14,100 children facing severe cases of malnutrition.
The effect of malnutrition on children varies, but the first 1,000 days of a child’s life, which includes the pregnancy up to two years, are critical for a child’s healthy development.
Malnutrition leads to an out-of-proportion height-to-weight ratio, stunted growth and eventually, death.
Earlier this month, at Kamal Adwan Hospital in Beit Lahiya, in northern Gaza, Dr Ahmed Abu Nasir said the situation has become worse than ever due to the blockade.
“Children are in their growing stage and badly need certain nutrients, including proteins and fats,” the paediatrician told Al Jazeera. “These are not available in the Gaza Strip, particularly in the north.”
Pregnant and breastfeeding women will also need to be treated for malnutrition, with 17,000 women facing this risk.
The entire population of Gaza, about 2.1 million people that remain, are facing levels of food shortages that threaten their existence.
Earlier this month, Ahmad al-Najjar, a displaced Palestinian in Gaza City, told Al Jazeera, “Finding a single meal has become an impossible quest.”
Despite large numbers of trucks carrying vital supplies piling up on the border between Egypt and the Gaza Strip, Palestinians in Gaza have resorted to selling rubbish to afford the eye-wateringly inflated food prices.
Some 93 percent of Gaza’s population is at risk of levels of food insecurity above the crisis levels indicated by the IPC. If the situation does not change, the IPC has indicated that of those 2.1 million people:
In essence, in as little as a month, Gaza’s entire population could be starving.
The features of malnutrition and starvation are unmistakable in Gaza, with severely underweight children and babies. In children, severe protein deficiency causes fluid retention and a swollen abdomen.
Food insecurity across the Gaza Strip is severely affecting all areas of the blockaded enclave.
All 25 bakeries supported by the World Food Programme (WFP) closed at the beginning of April due to the lack of supplies, and food stocks for most of the 177 hot meal kitchens are reportedly exhausted.
Certain governorates are experiencing more severe levels of hunger. According to the IPC:
The IPC says Israel’s continued blockade “would likely result in further mass displacement within and across governorates”, as items essential for people’s survival will be depleted.
UN stresses adherence to principles of neutrality and independence in delivering life-saving humanitarian aid to Gaza.
The United Nations has said it will not take part in a US-backed humanitarian operation in Gaza because it is not impartial, neutral or independent, as Israel pledged to facilitate the effort without being involved in aid deliveries.
“This particular distribution plan does not accord with our basic principles, including those of impartiality, neutrality, independence, and we will not be participating in this,” deputy UN spokesperson Farhan Haq told reporters on Thursday.
The US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation will start work in Gaza by the end of May under a heavily criticised aid plan that the UN aid chief Tom Fletcher described as a “fig leaf for further violence and displacement” of Palestinians in Gaza.
Speaking to reporters in Antalya, Turkiye, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Thursday acknowledged the criticisms and said Washington was open to any alternative plan to get aid to civilians “without Hamas being able to steal it”.
“We’re not immune or in any way insensitive to the suffering of the people of Gaza, and I know that there’s opportunities here to provide aid for them,” Rubio said after speaking with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu earlier on Thursday.
“There are criticisms of that plan. We’re open to an alternative if someone has a better one,” he said.
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said on Thursday that the UN “has a solid and principled operational plan to deliver humanitarian aid and life-saving services at scale and immediately across the Gaza Strip”.
Israel has accused Hamas of stealing aid, which the group denies, and has blocked the delivery of all humanitarian assistance to Gaza since March 2, demanding Hamas release all remaining captives.
A report by the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification initiative released on Monday said the Gaza Strip “is still confronted with a critical risk of famine” after more than a year and a half of devastating war, with the vast majority of its approximately 2.1 million people at severe risk.
In a bid to address some concerns, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation has asked Israel to expand an initial limited number of so-called secure aid distribution sites in Gaza’s south to the north within 30 days. It has also asked Israel to let the UN and others resume aid deliveries now until it is set up.
“I’m not familiar with those requests, maybe when they went into Jerusalem, but I will tell you that we appreciate the effort of the United States,” Israel’s UN Ambassador Danny Danon told reporters on Thursday.
“We will not fund those efforts. We will facilitate them. We will enable them,” he said. “We will not be the ones giving the aid … It will be run by the fund itself, led by the US.”
Israel and the US have urged the UN and aid groups to cooperate and work with the foundation.
It is unclear how the foundation will be funded. A Department of State spokesperson said no US government funding would go to the foundation.
A fact sheet on the foundation, circulating among the aid community last week, listed respected former UN World Food Programme chief David Beasley as a potential adviser. However, a source familiar with the effort said Beasley was not currently involved.
Israeli settlers assaulted a Palestinian woman who tried to stop a group from trespassing in the occupied West Bank.
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77 years after the Nakba, one in five people in Gaza faces starvation as Israel blocks all aid.
Gaza is starving. As Palestinians mark 77 years since the Nakba, families are still under bombardment, cut off from aid and struggling to survive. With US President Donald Trump touring the Gulf, what will it take to bring relief to Palestinians?
The Nakba. It’s a concept that accompanied me from birth until I lived through it myself these past two years.
I was born a refugee in the Khan Younis camp, known by the city’s residents as the largest gathering of refugees expelled from their lands during the Nakba, when Israel was founded in 1948.
Whenever someone asked me my name, it was always followed by: “Are you a refugee or a citizen?”
As a child, I would ask: “What is a refugee?”
I attended a school run by UNRWA, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees, and my documents always had to include proof that I was a refugee.
I received treatment at UNRWA clinics, always needing to bring that refugee card.
I spent a lot of time trying to understand what being a refugee meant. How did my grandparents flee their land in Beit Daras, a village north of the Gaza Strip that no longer exists? How did my grandfather end up in this camp, and why did he choose this place?
Before Israel’s war on Gaza, May 15, or Nakba Day, the day Palestinians commemorate the Nakba, was a unique occasion. Everyone paid attention to it, seeking out people who had lived through it to hear their stories.
When I began working as a journalist in 2015, Nakba Day was one of the events I looked forward to covering. That year, I went along with colleagues to the Shati camp, west of Gaza City.
It would be my first time writing about the Nakba, and my first visit to a refugee camp in 13 years, since we had moved from camp life to village life in al-Fukhari, south of Khan Younis.
When I entered the camp, memories of my childhood in Khan Younis came flooding back: the small, crowded houses, some newly built, others still original structures.
It was nice that the commemoration falls in May, with good weather.
Elderly men and women sat by their doors, just as my grandmother did when I was a child. I used to love sitting with her; she seemed used to open spaces, like her pre-1948 home in Beit Daras.
We sat with elderly women, all over 70. They talked about their homeland, the stability they had in their lands, their simple lives, the food they grew and ate, and the heartbreak of not being able to return.
We met many – from Majdal, Hamama, and al-Jura, all depopulated villages and towns taken over by Israel in 1948. Whenever I met someone from Beit Daras, we’d share memories, and laugh a lot, talking about the maftoul (Palestinian couscous) the town was famous for.
The visit was light-hearted, filled with laughter and nostalgia, despite these people having been forced into camp life after the occupation drove them from their towns in horrific ways.
I began to understand those Nakba stories more deeply when my grandfather began to tell me his own story. He became the central character in my Nakba reports every year, until his death in 2021.
He estimated he was about 15 years old at the time. He was already married to my grandmother, and they had a child.
He would describe the scenes as I sat in awe, asking myself: How could the world have stood by silently?
My grandfather told me they had a good life, working their farm, eating from their crops. Each town had a specialty, and they exchanged produce.
Theirs was a simple cuisine, with lots of lentils and bread made from wheat they ground in stone mills. Until that dreadful displacement.
He said the Zionist militias forced them to leave, ordering them to go to nearby Gaza.
My grandfather said he shut the door to his home, took my grandmother and their son – just a few months old – and started walking. Israeli planes hovered overhead, firing at people as if to drive them to move faster.
The baby – my uncle – didn’t survive the journey. My grandfather never wanted to go into the details, he would only say that their son died from the conditions as they fled.
After hours of walking, they reached Khan Younis and, with nowhere else to go, he pitched a tent. Eventually, UNRWA was set up and gave him a home, the one I remember from my childhood. It was so old; I spent years visiting them in that asbestos-roofed house with its aged walls.
That memory of being forced into exile became their wound. Yet, the idea of return, the right to go home, was passed down through generations.
The Nakba was a memory passed down from the elderly to the young.
But in the war that Israel began waging on Gaza on October 7, 2023, we lived the Nakba.
We were forcibly displaced under threat of weapons and air strikes. We saw our loved ones arrested before our eyes and tortured in prisons. We lived in tents and searched everywhere for basic provisions to save our children.
My grandfather told me they fled under threat of weapons and planes – so did we.
He said they searched for flour, food, and water while trying to protect their children – so are we, right now in the 21st century.
Perhaps in 1948, the media was more primitive. But now, the world watches what’s happening in Gaza in many formats – written, visual, and audio – and yet, nothing has changed.
Never did I imagine I’d live through an existential war – a war that threatens my very presence on my land, just as my grandparents lived through.
The repeated scenes of displacement are so painful. They’re a cycle, one that we have been cursed to live through as Palestinians again and again.
Will history record this as Nakba 2023?
Years from now, will we speak of this Nakba just as we’ve spoken about the original one for 77 years? Will we tell stories, hold commemorations, and hold close memories of the dream of return that has stayed with us since childhood?
Since I realised what it meant to be called a refugee and learned I had a homeland, I’ve been dreaming of returning.
This pain, we can never forget it. I still remember the camp and my life there.
I’ll never forget the moment Israel destroyed my house and made us homeless for two years, 24 years ago.
Now we live our painful days searching for safety, fighting to survive.
We will tell future generations about this war, the war of existence.
We resist hunger, fear, thirst, and pain so we can remain on this land.
The Nakba hasn’t ended. The 1948 Nakba continues in 2025.
Israeli forces destroyed homes in the occupied West Bank and killed dozens in Gaza as Palestinians marked 77 years since the Nakba. Israel’s ‘brutality’ has displaced 85-year-old Nakba survivor Mohammed once again, but he says this time it’s worse.
Published On 15 May 202515 May 2025
Palestinian photojournalist Fatma Hassouna was killed the day after she learned a film about her life in Gaza would be shown at the Cannes Film Festival. Al Jazeera’s Hind Toussiate spoke with the director of the film, Sepideh Farsi.
Published On 15 May 202515 May 2025
May 15 marks Nakba Day when millions of Palestinians commemorate the ethnic cleansing of Palestine in 1948.
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Palestinians held marches in the occupied West Bank city of Ramallah to commemorate the Nakba, or “catastrophe”, of their mass dispossession during the creation of Israel in 1948.
More than 50,000 people have been killed in Gaza since October 2023 and an aid blockade threatens famine, while Israeli leaders continue to express a desire to empty the territory of Palestinians.
In the West Bank, too, occupied since 1967, Israeli forces have displaced tens of thousands from refugee camps as part of a major military operation.
This year marks the 77th anniversary of the Nakba, during which an estimated 750,000 Palestinians fled or were expelled from their lands after Israel declared itself an independent state in the territory.
In Ramallah city, Palestinian flags and black ones branded “return” flew at road intersections on Wednesday, while schoolchildren were bussed into the city centre to take part in the weeklong commemoration.
At one event, young boys wearing Palestinian kuffiyeh scarves waved flags and carried a giant replica key, a symbol of the lost homes in what is now Israel that families hope to return to.
No events were planned in Gaza, where more than 19 months of war and Israeli bombardment have left residents destitute and displaced.
Moamen al-Sherbini, a resident of the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis, told the AFP news agency that he felt history was repeating itself.
“Our lives here in Gaza have become one long Nakba, losing loved ones, our homes destroyed, our livelihoods gone.”
Nearly all of Gaza’s 2.4 million people have been displaced at least once during Israel’s war.
In early May, Israel’s security cabinet approved plans for an expanded military offensive in Gaza, aimed at the “conquest” of the territory while displacing its people en masse, drawing international condemnation.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said his government is working to find third countries to take in Gaza’s population, months after United States President Donald Trump suggested they be expelled and the territory redeveloped as a holiday destination.
“Nakba Day is no longer just a memory – it’s a daily reality we live in Gaza,” said 36-year-old Malak Radwan, speaking from Nuseirat in the centre of the enclave.
“This is a miserable day in the lives of Palestinian refugees,” said 52-year-old Nael Nakhleh in Ramallah, whose family comes from the village of al-Majdal near Jaffa in what is now Israel.
Palestinian refugees maintain their demand to return to the villages and cities in current-day Israel that they or their relatives were forced to leave in 1948. The “right of return” remains a core issue in the long-stalled negotiations between Israel and Palestine.
At the heart of any place is its people. This section gathers faces and figures of children, elders, farmers and merchants, capturing a moment in each of their lives.
Traditional dress, expressions and gestures reflect a culture rich in diversity. Muslims, Christians, Jews, and Bedouins appear side by side, revealing a land defined not by division, but by coexistence.
Each face carries its own story of life, labour, joy, or longing.
Drag the slider or click on an image to see it in more detail.
Families, neighbours and friends gathered for the camera to record their moments together.
Video shows the moment an Israeli missile hits Gaza’s European Hospital in Khan Younis.
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Dozens of Palestinians have been killed in intense Israeli attacks across Gaza, including attacks on hospitals and refugee camps. UN aid chief Tom Fletcher says Israel is using mass starvation as a weapon by deliberately blocking aid deliveries.
Published On 14 May 202514 May 2025
Every year on May 15, Palestinians around the world mark the Nakba, or catastrophe, referring to the ethnic cleansing of Palestine in 1948.
Having secured the support of the British government for the creation of a Jewish state in Palestine, on May 14, 1948, as soon as the British Mandate expired, Zionist forces declared the establishment of the State of Israel, triggering the first Arab-Israeli war.
Zionist military forces expelled at least 750,000 Palestinians from their homes and lands and captured 78 percent of historic Palestine. The remaining 22 percent was divided into what are now the occupied West Bank and the besieged Gaza Strip.
The fighting continued until January 1949 when an armistice agreement between Israel and Egypt, Lebanon, Jordan and Syria was forged. The 1949 Armistice Line is also known as the Green Line and is the generally recognised boundary between Israel and the West Bank. The Green Line is also referred to as the (pre-) 1967 borders, before Israel occupied the rest of Palestine during the 1967 war.
Israel’s military occupation of Palestine remains at the core of this decades-long conflict that continues to shape every part of Palestinians’ lives.
Between 1947 and 1949, Zionist military forces attacked major Palestinian cities and destroyed some 530 villages. About 15,000 Palestinians were killed in a series of mass atrocities, including dozens of massacres.
On April 9, 1948, Zionist forces committed one of the most infamous massacres of the war in the village of Deir Yassin on the western outskirts of Jerusalem. More than 110 men, women and children were killed by members of the pre-Israeli state Irgun and Stern Gang Zionist paramilitary organisations.
Palestinian researcher Salman Abu Sitta documented detailed records of what happened to these 530 villages in his book, The Atlas of Palestine.
Some six million registered Palestinian refugees live in at least 58 camps located throughout Palestine and neighbouring countries.
The UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) provides assistance and operates hundreds of schools and health facilities for at least 2.3 million Palestinian refugees in Jordan, 1.5 million refugees in Gaza, 870,000 refugees in the occupied West Bank, 570,000 refugees in Syria and 480,000 refugees in Lebanon.
The largest camps in each are Baqa’a in Jordan, Jabalia in Gaza, Jenin in the occupied West Bank, Yarmouk in Syria, and Ein el-Hilweh in Lebanon.
More than 70 percent of Gaza’s residents are refugees. About 1.5 million refugees live in eight refugee camps around the Gaza Strip.
According to international law, refugees have the right to return to their homes and property from which they have been displaced. Many Palestinians still hope to return to Palestine.
The plight of Palestinian refugees is the longest unresolved refugee problem in the world.
I had closely followed the genocidal war in Gaza for nine months when an opportunity came around to volunteer as part of a medical mission organised by the United Nations, World Health Organization and the Palestinian American Medical Association.
As a trained nephrologist, a doctor who treats patients with kidney disease, I felt there was a critical need for specialised medical care amid the collapse of the healthcare system in Gaza and the high number of medical specialists who had been killed.
I also felt it was my duty as a Muslim to help the people of Gaza. Islam teaches us that whoever saves one life, it is as if he had saved all of humanity; taking care of others is an act of worship, and standing up against injustice is a moral obligation.
I believe my degrees are not meant to simply hang on the walls of an air-conditioned office or help me drive the nicest car or live in an expensive neighbourhood. They are a testament to the fact that I have taken an oath to dedicate my expertise to the service of humanity, to maintain the utmost respect for human life and to offer my medical knowledge and compassion to those in need.
So on July 16, I departed for Gaza with a few other medics.
We entered the strip through the Karem Abu Salem crossing. We went from observing the prosperity, comfort and wealth of the Israeli side to recoiling at the destruction, devastation and misery of the Palestinian side. We basically saw what apartheid looks like.
On our short trip through southern Gaza to reach our destination in Khan Younis, we saw many buildings bombed, damaged or destroyed. Homes, schools, shops, hospitals, mosques – you name it.
The amount of rubble was sickening. To this day, I can’t unsee the landscapes of destruction I witnessed in Gaza.
We were accommodated in Al-Nasser Hospital because it was too dangerous to stay at any other place. We were welcomed and cared for so much that I felt embarrassed. We were seen as saviours.
I treated patients with kidney problems, worked as a primary care physician and sometimes helped during mass casualty events in the emergency room.
Dialysis requires clean water, sterile supplies, reliable electricity, medications and equipment that must be maintained and replaced – none of which was guaranteed under the Israeli blockade. Each dialysis session was a challenge. Every delay increased the risk of my patients dying. Many of them did die – a fact I struggled to accept, knowing that under normal circumstances, many of them could have been saved and lived normal lives.
I remember the smiling face of one of my patients, Waleed, a young man who suffered from kidney failure caused by early-onset high blood pressure, a condition that, with access to proper treatment, could have been managed appropriately.
Dialysis was Waleed’s lifeline, but he couldn’t get an adequate number of sessions due to the Israeli blockade causing severe shortages of medical supplies. Malnutrition and worsening living conditions only accelerated his decline.
I remember how short of breath he was, his body overloaded with fluid and his blood pressure dangerously high. And yet, every time I saw him, Waleed greeted me with a warm smile, his spirit somehow intact, his mother always by his side. A few months after I left Gaza, Waleed passed away.
Another patient of mine was Hussein, a gentle, kind-hearted, deeply respected man. His children cared for him with love and dignity.
He suffered from severe hypokalaemia and acidosis: His body’s potassium levels were dangerously low, and acid built up to toxic levels. To address his condition, he needed basic medications: potassium supplements and sodium bicarbonate pills.
These were simple, inexpensive, life-saving medicines, and yet, the Israeli blockade did not allow them in. Because he could not find these pills, Hussein was hospitalised multiple times for intravenous potassium supplementation.
Despite his immense suffering, Hussein remained gracious, brave and full of faith. When speaking, he always repeated the phrase Alhamdulillah (praise be to God). He passed away a few weeks ago, I was told.
Waleed and Hussein should be here – smiling, laughing, living happily with their families. Instead, they became casualties of siege and silence. These are two of so many tragic stories I know of and I witnessed. So many beautiful lives that could have been saved were lost.
Despite this grim reality, my colleagues in Gaza continue to do their utmost for their patients.
These are medics who are bruised in every way. They are not only battling the daily struggles of life like all other Palestinians in Gaza but also witnessing daily horrors of headless babies, amputated limbs, fully burned human beings and sometimes the lifeless remains of their own loved ones.
Imagine working with no anaesthesia, limited pain medications, very few antibiotics. Imagine surgeons scrubbing with plain water, children undergoing amputations with no sedation, full-body burns patients’ dressings being changed with no pain relief.
Still these healthcare heroes just keep going.
One of the nurses I worked with, Arafat, made a deep impression on me. He was living in a makeshift shelter with multiple family members. It offered no protection against the elements – the cold winter, the scorching heat or the drenching rain.
He starved – like all other Palestinians in Gaza – losing 15kg (33lb) in nine months. He walked 2km to 3km (1 to 2 miles) every day to work with worn-out sandals, facing the danger of Israeli drones bombing or shooting him in the street.
And yet, the smile never left his face. He took care of more than 280 dialysis patients, treating them with care, attentively listening to their anxious families and uplifting his colleagues with light humour.
I felt so small next to heroes like Arafat. His and his colleagues’ resilience and persistence were unbelievable.
While in Gaza, I had the opportunity to visit Al-Shifa Hospital with a UN delegation. What once was Gaza’s largest and most vital medical centre was reduced to ruins. The hospital that was once a symbol of hope and healing had become a symbol of death and destruction, of the deliberate dismantling of healthcare. It was beyond heartbreaking to see its charred, bombed-out remains.
I stayed in Gaza for 22 days. It was an absolute honour to visit, serve and learn life from the resilient people of Gaza. Their relentless courage and determination will stay with me until I die.
Despite witnessing what I could have never imagined, I did not have the urge to leave. I wanted to stay. Back in the United States, I felt profound guilt that I left behind my colleagues and my patients, that I did not stay, that I did not do enough.
Feeling this constant heartache, I cannot understand the growing number of people who are accustomed to the daily reports of Palestinian deaths and images of torn bodies and starving children.
As human beings and as health workers, we cannot quit on Gaza. We cannot stay silent and passive. We must speak out and act on the devastation of healthcare and attacks on our colleagues in the Gaza Strip.
Already fewer and fewer healthcare workers are being allowed to enter Gaza on medical missions. The current blockade has prevented all medical supplies from going in.
We, as healthcare professionals, must mobilise to demand an immediate lifting of the siege and free access to medical missions. We must not stop volunteering to help the struggling medical teams in Gaza. Such acts of speaking out and volunteering give our colleagues in Gaza the hope and comfort that they have not been abandoned.
Let us not allow Gaza to be just a symbol of destruction. Instead, let it be the example of unbreakable spirit.
Stand, speak and act – so history remembers not just the tragedy but also the triumph of human compassion.
Let us uphold human dignity.
Let us tell Gaza, you are not alone!
Humanity is on your side!
The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera’s editorial stance.
In the heart of the occupied city of Ramallah, a governor leads her people through a month of grief, defiance and hope.
With rare access to the governor of Ramallah and el-Bireh, this film offers an intimate portrait of life under Israeli occupation in the West Bank. Over one month, Governor Laila Ghannam navigates her city, which is marked by protests, mourning, celebration and resilience.
Amid political tensions, she reveals how Ramallah functions under occupation – how it breathes, resists and supports its most vulnerable. Moving between high-level politics and everyday encounters, Ghannam reflects on the emotional and political landscape of her people, offering a powerful glimpse into the quiet strength and steadfastness of Palestinians.
One Month in Ramallah is a documentary film by Sawsan Qaoud.
As Gaza lies in ruins, who will lead its reconstruction, and what future awaits under siege without a political roadmap?
Gaza is in ruins, more than a million displaced, and there is no clear leadership in sight. If the war ends, who takes charge, and how can rebuilding start under the blockade? This episode dives into Gaza’s power vacuum, crumbling infrastructure, and rising fears of permanent exile. What will it take to secure justice, agency, and return?
Presenter: Stefanie Dekker
Guests:
Dr Mohammed Mustafa – Emergency physician
Jenan Matari – Palestinian storyteller and producer
Nizar Farsakh – Lecturer at The George Washington University
Hamas has released Edan Alexander, a dual United States-Israeli national and soldier, as it seeks to revive ceasefire negotiations and an end to Israel’s punishing blockade on the besieged and bombarded Gaza Strip.
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) confirmed on Monday evening that it had facilitated the soldier’s transfer. An image was released showing Alexander with Hamas members and a Red Cross official.
Hamas said it had released Alexander as a goodwill gesture towards US President Donald Trump, who is visiting Arab Gulf nations this week.
Fighting briefly stopped to allow for the handover after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel would permit safe passage for the release.
“Edan Alexander, American hostage thought dead, to be released by Hamas. Great news!” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform.
“The government of Israel warmly welcomes soldier Sergeant Edan Alexander who has been returned from Hamas captivity,” a statement from Netanyahu’s office said.
“The government of Israel is committed to the return of all hostages and missing persons – both the living and the fallen,” the statement added. Families of the captives have accused Netanyahu of putting his own political survival above that of the captives still held in Gaza.
In a statement, ICRC President Mirjana Spoljaric welcomed Alexander’s release while calling for a lasting ceasefire in Gaza.
“We are relieved that one more family has been reunited today. This nightmare, however, continues for the remaining hostages, their families, and hundreds of thousands of civilians across Gaza,” Spoljaric said.
Alexander’s mother reportedly arrived in Israel on Monday and was flown to the Re’im military base, where the two were expected to be reunited later in the evening, according to Al Jazeera’s Hamdah Salhut, reporting from Amman, Jordan, because Al Jazeera is banned from Israel.
Despite the release, Israel has made no commitment to a broader ceasefire. “There’s nothing in exchange, no release of Palestinian prisoners, no pause in the fighting,” Salhut said. “If there are going to be any sort of negotiations, they’re going to happen under fire,” Salhut added, referring to the Israeli government’s prevailing line.
Akiva Eldar, an Israeli political analyst, said Alexander’s release has spurred joy as well as frustration in Israel. “What we see is that what President Trump can do, Netanyahu is not able – or not willing – to do,” he told Al Jazeera from Tel Aviv.
The Israeli prime minister has faced widespread calls to end the Gaza war to secure the captives’ release but has said he plans to expand Israel’s offensive.
“Today is a crucial point,” Eldar explained. “Because the Israeli public is aware of the fact that if you want a deal, if you want your sons back at home, you can do it. But for that, you have to be a leader like President Trump and not like Netanyahu.”
Al Jazeera’s Hind Khoudary, reporting from Deir el-Balah in central Gaza, said there seems to be no change forthcoming in Palestinians’ daily suffering: “Palestinians are devastated. They’re exhausted. Palestinian families are unable to feed their children. They’re saying their children are going to bed hungry.”
“The IPC [Integrated Food Security Phase Classification] report issued today said 93 percent of Gaza’s population is living through acute food insecurity. This is because of the blockade that has been imposed on the Gaza Strip,” Khoudary said.
“Palestinians are asking, ‘What’s next? What is this release going to bring? Are there any positive negotiations? Is there any glimpse of hope of a ceasefire?’” she added.
And the bombardment continues, Gaza’s Ministry of Health said an Israeli strike on a school-turned-shelter killed at least 15 people on Monday.
Humanitarian organisations have warned that Gaza is on the verge of mass starvation. The IPC reported that half a million Palestinians face imminent famine.
According to the IPC, 70 days after Israel blocked entry of essential supplies, “goods indispensable for people’s survival are either depleted or expected to run out in the coming weeks.”
The head of the UN’s World Food Programme, Cindy McCain, urged immediate international action. “Families in Gaza are starving while the food they need is sitting at the border,” she said. “If we wait until after a famine is confirmed, it will already be too late for many people.”
Catherine Russell, Executive Director of UNICEF, also issued a stark warning. “The risk of famine does not arrive suddenly,” she said. “It unfolds in places where access to food is blocked, where health systems are decimated, and where children are left without the bare minimum to survive.”
Hunger, she added, has become “a daily reality for children across the Gaza Strip”.
Netanyahu and his hardline government remain committed to escalating the military campaign in Gaza.
Far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, a key coalition partner, reiterated his position that the war must continue and humanitarian aid should be blocked from entering the territory.
“Israel has not committed to a ceasefire of any kind,” Netanyahu’s office said in a statement, claiming military pressure had compelled Hamas to release Alexander. Critics have countered that the release came about purely because of direct US contacts with Hamas.
Netanyahu met US figures, including Trump envoy Steve Witkoff and Ambassador Mike Huckabee, on Monday. His office described the meeting as a “last-ditch effort” to push forward a captive-release deal before the fighting widens.
Huckabee said Trump and his administration “hope this long-overdue release” of Alexander “marks the beginning of the end to this terrible war”.
Israel plans to send a delegation to Doha on Tuesday for talks but made clear military operations would persist. “The prime minister made it clear that negotiations would only take place under fire,” his office said.
The IPC says a full 100% of Gaza now experiences acute food insecurity while half-a-million people face starvation.
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Protesters in Basel condemned Israel's participation in the Eurovision Song Contest amid the ongoing war in Gaza.
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