Always good to hear from Gideon Levy...

In an interview with the Italian newspaper @repubblica, Gideon Levy argues that Israel has gained little strategically while suffering profound moral and political damage, and warns that the country is moving even further away from peace. "I expected the Israeli government to use Hamas's crimes on October 7 as a pretext to unleash a devastating assault on Gaza. But I never imagined the response would become so cruel and barbaric. I also believed that, sooner or later, the United States would step in and stop it. That never happened." "Israel has achieved nothing. Hamas is still alive and well. Militarily it has been weakened, but it can recover quickly, and politically it may even be stronger than before. More importantly, the world now sees Israel differently, including the United States and Jewish communities abroad.

This is a turning point... there is a growing feeling that Israel may never recover its international standing. The crimes committed in Gaza provide powerful fuel for antisemites around the world... "Israel has changed dramatically. Not primarily because of the war in Gaza, but because of October 7, which destroyed the last remnants of the peace camp. The Israeli left is finished. No major opposition force opposed the war..." "The media bear enormous responsibility. They have helped brainwash the public and contributed to the emergence of a new Israel... An average citizen in [Italy] has probably seen more images from Gaza than the average Israeli...

"[T]he more we talk about October 7, the less we talk about Israel's crimes in Gaza... if we look at it from Hamas's political perspective, the attack halted Saudi recognition of Israel, and the Palestinian question returned to the center of global attention. People are discussing it all over the world... those were the political consequences. Hamas did not lose politically." "Whoever succeeds Netanyahu... will support the same core policies: the occupation, the war in Gaza, and apartheid. None of the current candidates offers hope for a fundamental change. Civil society, meanwhile, effectively died after October 7. It mobilized for the hostages and against Netanyahu, but not against the war in Gaza."

Update on the genocide & one thing you can do

More than...
 
Since the October 2023 start of Israel’s genocide in Gaza—
 
Israel has killed more than 75,000 people, including more than 21,289 children 
 
Israel has murdered roughly 3.4% of Gaza’s pre-October 2023 population of 2.2 million people
 
Israel’s assaults severely injured more than 173,000 people, including more than 44,500 children 
 
More than 10,000 people are unaccounted for, presumed dead under rubble
 
Israel has entirely annihilated more than 2700 families 
 
And more than 6000 additional families have only one surviving member
 
Israel has orphaned more than 17,000 children (killing both parents)
 
And Israel has killed one parent of more than 59,000 children 
 
Israel has caused more than 6000 people to become amputees, 1/4 of them children 
 
Gaza has the highest number of child amputees per capita anywhere in modern history
 
 
STOP ARMING ISRAEL 
 
Since October 2023, the federal U.S. government sent Israel more than $30 billion in military funding to mass murder the Palestinian people
 
Massachusetts taxpayers alone pay more than $612,252,129 to fund Israel’s genocide
 
Take Action—Tell Congress to Support the Block the Bombs Act 
 
 

Humanitarian Situation Report | 3 July 2026

Highlights

  • In just two weeks, over 9,000 cases of chickenpox were reported across 130 health facilities in Gaza, half of them in Khan Younis.

  • Although only 85 per cent of the solid waste generated in Gaza is collected, combined with pest control, the overall health and environmental risks from unmanaged waste and pest infestation have not increased.

  • A shortage of sodium bicarbonate, due to chronic underfunding, at the Al Shifa Hospital is said to be severely affecting haemodialysis services, reducing treatment capacity for about 240 patients with end-stage kidney disease.

  • A new humanitarian assessment in two Palestinian communities in the West Bank found that the establishment of nearby settlement outposts has been accompanied by repeated settler attacks, mounting insecurity and deteriorating access to essential services.

  • More than 2,300 Palestinians have been displaced across the West Bank in 2026 due to settler attacks and related access restrictions.

  • Demolitions in East Jerusalem neighbourhoods on the ‘West Bank’ side of the Barrier now account for 37 per cent of all lack-of-permit demolitions in East Jerusalem, nearly double the average recorded over the previous six years.

Overview

Across the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT), Palestinians are being confined to ever-smaller spaces where they can live, move, access essential services, and sustain their livelihoods. In the Gaza Strip, new displacement is being driven by the expansion of military-imposed access-restricted areas – occasionally marked by yellow cement blocks – or by airstrikes or shelling that, over the past week alone, ignited fires that consumed hundreds of tents. In the West Bank, displacement is increasingly linked to recurrent Israeli settler attacks and the establishment of new settlement outposts, alongside home demolitions, which undermine access to land, livelihoods, and basic services. Across both contexts, repeated displacement is eroding household resilience, deepening humanitarian needs, and increasing dependence on humanitarian assistance.

Read the full report online

Recent publications

The temporary restoration of wastewater infrastructure serving Gaza city through support by UNICEF and the ICRC. Photo by UNICEF