Israel allowed a trickle of aid to enter Gaza last week while pinning its hopes of assuaging condemnation of the two-month-long blockade of the territory by this week permitting the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, an Israeli-backed logistics group, to begin rigidly controlled deliveries that are barely a drop in the ocean of what the population needs.
While foreign journalists remain unable to report from Gaza, our correspondents Jason Burke, in Jerusalem, and Malek A Tantesh, who is based in Gaza, have written a powerful report on life in Gaza City for this week’s cover story. Even as attacks continue, more and more civilians move into the city, pushed out from northern Gaza as Israel’s new offensive intensifies. Life has been reduced to the very basics with, as the head of the Gaza NGOs Network, Amjad Shawa, put it, people “living in rubbish dumps, cesspits. There are flies, mosquitoes. We have no water to deliver, no food, no tents or blankets or tarpaulins, nothing. People are very, very hungry but there is nothing to give them.”
And Lorenzo Tondo, in collaboration with Tantesh, described one very individual story, recording how nine of the 10 children of a paediatrician at the Nasser hospital were killed by an Israeli airstrike.
In another difficult week for the world, do take a moment to decompress with Poems to remember, my choice is highlighted below.
Get the Guardian Weekly delivered to your home address
***
Five essential reads in this week’s edition
Spotlight |‘I knew I would die in jail’
Daniel Boffey reports on how the right-hand man of Georgia’s de facto ruler ended up on the run and what effect that had on the country’s relationships with Russia and the west
Science | Weight-loss drugs have additional gains
The benefits of Ozempic and similar medications go beyond treating obesity, as science correspondents Hannah Devlin and Nicola Davis discover from talking to researchers
Feature | A deadly Amazon quest
An extract from the book Dom Phillips was working on when he and the Brazilian Indigenous expert Bruno Pereira were killed
Opinion | Why Trump’s jaw-jaw isn’t working
Because, argues Simon Tisdall, both Vladimir Putin and Benjamin Netanyahu have calculated that a forever war is better for them personally than the reckoning peace would bring
Culture | The soul queen of New Orleans
At 84, Irma Thomas has a new album and a new generation of fans, but as she tells Garth Cartwright, her musical journey has not been easy
***
What else we’ve been reading
Archie Bland’s piece about the day his seven-week-old son stopped breathing, and the life he has lived in the two years since, stopped me in my tracks. A beautifully expressed reflection on parenting, disability and existence. Graham Snowdon, editor
From a shark sketched by a skater on a frozen lake in Finland, to a father and daughter who cycled a 2,162km heart in France, to a runner whose epic route made him briefly, ahem, a member of the record-holders’ club, Chris Broughton spoke to athletes who use GPS to create digital art, as well as fundraising, highlighting good causes and putting fun into their workouts. Clare Horton, assistant editor
***
Other highlights from the Guardian website
• Audio | Your microbiome questions answered: part one
• Video | Toby Jones performs Portrait of a Romantic by ASJ Tessimond
• Gallery | Sichuan snacks and a Napa harvest: World Food Photography awards
• Interactive | What would Russia’s peace deal demands really mean for Ukraine? – visualised
***
Get in touch
We’d love to hear your thoughts on the magazine: for submissions to our letters page, please email weekly.letters@theguardian.com. For anything else, it’s editorial.feedback@theguardian.com
***
Follow us
Get the Guardian Weekly magazine delivered to your home address
