Can a humanitarian crisis in Gaza be averted? | Inside Story

Analysis: This panel investigates the convergence of the World Food Programme's $450 million funding shortfall—which is severing food assistance for 500,000 Palestinians—with Israel's ongoing military occupation of 70% of the Gaza Strip one year after the October 2025 ceasefire. The underlying message from policy experts at the Doha Institute and Chatham House is that Gaza's collapse is a deliberate, man-made siege compounded by US and European donor retrenchment and Strait of Hormuz closures that have strained Gulf financiers and pushed Gaza engine oil prices past $1,300 per liter. This matters strategically because the weaponization of aid and commercial blockades is systematically rendering Gaza unlivable to force demographic displacement while international legal mechanisms remain paralyzed.