Good morning. Israel is defying pressure from the West to allow urgent humanitarian aid into Gaza – more on that below, along with the potential Canada Post strike and the new book on Joe Biden’s cognitive decline. But first:
Today’s headlines
- Trump says Canada is keen to join his proposed ‘Golden Dome’ missile defence system
- Champagne vows to keep backing Ukraine as G7 finance ministers meet
- Pageantry, spectacle and hockey will mark King Charles’s visit to Ottawa next week
Palestinians at a community kitchen in Jabalia, northern Gaza, this week.Jehad Alshrafi/The Associated Press
Israel-Hamas war
The cutoff point
First came the rare international reprimand: On Monday, Canada, Britain and France demanded that Israel stop its renewed military offensive in Gaza and lift its months-long blockade of humanitarian aid. Then came the threats to free trade: Yesterday, Britain suspended its trade talks with Israel, while the EU said it would review its own agreement with the country over the “catastrophic situation in Gaza.” Israel was unmoved. A spokesperson said that “external pressure will not divert Israel from its path in defending its existence and security.” Its air strikes killed dozens of Palestinians yesterday.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu agreed this week to let basic aid into Gaza – but only a “minimal” amount, he said, and only because scenes of hunger posed a threat to U.S. support “from a practical and diplomatic standpoint.” The UN’s humanitarian chief, Tom Fletcher, called the five initial trucks of aid Netanyahu authorized “a drop in the ocean of what is urgently needed.” It seems even that drop has been held up. A UN spokesperson said yesterday that aid workers had not yet received Israeli permission to distribute the token shipment of aid in Gaza. Roughly 100 more trucks were stalled at the border. The UN has long stated that Gaza requires at least 500 trucks of aid each day.
Israel imposed a complete ban on imports into Gaza on March 2, in what officials said was a bid to force Hamas to surrender and release the last hostages it had abducted in the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks that ignited the war. Over the past 11 weeks, Palestinians have suffered from an acute shortage of essentials, including food, water, medicine and fuel. The UN’s World Food Programme shuttered all 25 of its bakeries in Gaza at the end of March after running out of cooking fuel and flour; by late April, it had exhausted its last food stocks to support hot-meal kitchens for families. Gaza’s entire population of more than two million is now at risk of famine, the UN found last week. Water availability has plummeted to three to five litres per person per day, well below the 15 litres that the World Health Organization says people need to survive.
“People are collapsing from hunger and exhaustion in the streets,” writes Hasan Jaber, a journalist based in Gaza’s Bureij refugee camp, who has worked with Globe and Mail correspondents for more than two decades. In the nearly empty markets, even the cheapest items have increased fivefold in price – $15 now for a kilogram of onions and $13 for a kilogram of potatoes, the same amount as the average daily wage. Jaber and his family share canned beans for breakfast; with no gas or fuel, people resort to burning plastic just to cook. His three sons have lost weight: “Fatigue is clearly visible on their faces,” Jaber writes. “They suffer from constant dizziness.”
An Israeli soldier closes the fence at the border with Gaza yesterday.Amir Cohen/Reuters
Meanwhile, the World Food Programme said that more than 116,000 metric tonnes of food – enough to feed one million people for up to four months – were ready to be brought in as soon as Israel eased its blockade. Louise Wateridge of the UN Palestinian refugee agency UNRWA spoke with Reuters from a warehouse in Jordan yesterday. She said the distribution centre had food for 200,000 people, which could be driven to Gaza in just a few hours.
It’s unlikely these organizations will have that chance for much longer. Israel has said that by the end of the month, UN and other veteran aid networks in Gaza will be replaced by a Swiss-registered startup called the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, which will manage four or five distribution compounds. The sites, all located in Gaza’s south, would be operated by private U.S. security contractors and overseen by the Israeli military. Plans for how exactly distribution will work remain vague, but according to The Guardian, heads of households would be expected to collect boxes that contain several days’ worth of food and hygiene items and that weigh as much as 20 kilograms. There is no accommodation for people too injured by the war or too weakened by famine to walk to the compounds and carry those kinds of loads.
Canada and 22 other countries issued a joint statement this week warning of the risks of Israel’s new distribution model: It “cannot deliver aid effectively, at the speed and scale required” and “links humanitarian aid to political and military objectives.” But the White House has already backed the plan – and that’s good enough for Netanyahu. The only outside criticism that really matters to him is from the U.S., Thomas Juneau, a professor at the University of Ottawa’s Graduate School of Public and International Affairs, told The Globe. “We’ve seen clearly since Oct. 7 that pressure from Europeans, Canada, anybody else in the region, barely registers in Israel.”
The Shot
‘I’m already a big thrifter, so this kind of stuff is my favourite thing.’
Lukas Leach, 13, gets a bit of tie help from volunteer Theresa Dillon at the Fashion Forward event in Milton, Ont.Laura Proctor/The Globe and Mail
As living costs rise around the country, programs such as Gowns for Grads in Winnipeg are providing free prom outfits to help students celebrate in style. Read more here about the organizations getting teens suited and booted this year.
The Wrap
What else we’re following
At home: Another Canada Post strike is getting closer as weekend work remains a major sticking point.
Abroad: Syria’s country’s driest winter in nearly seven decades triggers a severe water crisis in Damascus.
The book: Original Sin, the new and much-discussed portrait of Joe Biden’s declining health, still leaves a lot unsaid, The Globe’s Adrian Morrow writes.
The bank: Yesterday’s hotter-than-expected inflation report left economists scaling back their bets that the Bank of Canada will deliver a rate cut next month.
The bandwagon: Are you all of a sudden rooting for Edmonton to bring the Stanley Cup home to Canada? Tell us about your Oilers turn.