We are Israeli historians teaching in Jerusalem who have been writing publicly about the war since early 2024. The processes that Jonathan Whittall describes, the result of a siege and an unprecedented assault on international humanitarian organisations, have been known to anyone willing to listen, in Israel and in the west, for a very long time (I saw many atrocities as a senior aid official in Gaza. Now Israeli authorities are trying to silence us, 3 August).
Israel’s siege, which has fluctuated in its totality since 7 October, limited the amounts of food, medication and essential supplies allowed into the Gaza Strip, culminating in a complete siege from March to May 2025. Israel’s assault on international organisations started with a campaign against Unrwa, the UN agency dedicated to the care for Palestinian refugees, and developed into a set of regulations aimed at intimidating international non-governmental organisations (INGOs) and obstructing their ability to work in the occupied Palestinian territories.
The effect has been the replacement of reputable humanitarian organisations by an Israeli-funded private enterprise (the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation), with no experience in humanitarian aid or commitment to human wellbeing. The result is the reported starvation to death of more than 100 Palestinians and the shooting of Palestinians who sought aid, killing and injuring many thousands. Human life in the Gaza Strip has become exceedingly cheap.
For us, as Israeli citizens who believe in the sanctity of all human life, the current moment represents our own failure, alongside the failure of international law, the international community and most media outlets. During Whittall’s term in office as head of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), it has been an unrelenting source of information regarding the systematic assault on human life in the occupied territories. We applaud Whittall for speaking out. OCHA and other INGOs need the backing of governments and the international community to restore a human-oriented humanitarian system and save those who can still be saved.
Dr Lee Mordechai
History department, Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Prof Liat Kozma
Department of Islamic and Middle Eastern studies, Hebrew University of Jerusalem
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