'No life here' Fears grow in Gaza of an Israeli endgame

As an aid blockade continues and humanitarian zones disappear, the talk is of a 'second Nakba' being realised

- Bethan McKernan and Malak A

Like many others in Gaza, Khalil al-Hakimi felt a weight lift from his shoulders for the first time in over a year when Israel and Hamas agreed a long-delayed ceasefire in January. He cried and hugged his five children. “I slept deeply, free from the sound of bombing, destruction and death,” he said.

The 44-year-old engineer was out on Gaza City’s dark streets looking for food when he was shot by a sniper last December. Three months later, he had his right leg amputated, and made it back home to Jabaliya on crutches.

In the rubble, the family began to think about how to rebuild their lives, but the relief was short-lived. Israel unilaterally pulled out of the agreement two months later, imposing a total blockade on the Palestinian territory in early March, and resuming full-scale bombing two weeks after that.

No food or medical supplies have entered Gaza for nine weeks, and Israeli forces have seized about 70% of the territory as military buffer or civilian no-go zones, pushing 2.3 million people and aid operations into ever-smaller areas - which are no longer designated as “humanitarian zones”.

Rafah, on the Egyptian border, was Gaza’s lifeline to the outside world, but is now under Israeli control, turning the strip into an enclave enveloped by Israeli territory. And on the international stage, Donald Trump has broken a decades-old taboo by suggesting Palestinians should leave.

Over 18 months of war, Israel has pointedly not released many concrete details about its plans for Gaza’s future. But the ferocious new military campaign, the unprecedented blockade, the seizure of Rafah and Israel’s announcement that it plans to “conquer” the territory and establish a “sustained presence” there - all instigated since Trump’s return to the White House - point to one endgame.