For the past week, an international outcry has been building, particularly in Europe, over Israel’s plans to escalate its military campaign in Gaza and over its two-month-long blockade, which has put Gaza’s population on the brink of starvation.On Wednesday in Washington D.C., two Israeli Embassy staffers were shot and killed by a man who chanted “Free Palestine” afterward.Aaron Boxerman, who covers Israel and Gaza for The Times, explains the desperate situation in Gaza … and Israel’s fears that the world has become an increasingly dangerous place for its people.Guest: Aaron Boxerman, a reporter for The New York Times covering Israel and Gaza.Background reading: Britain, France and Canada have condemned Israel’s expansion into Gaza.Israel said it eased its blockade, but Gazans are still waiting for food.Here’s what we know about the deadly shooting outside the Jewish Museum in D.C.For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. Unlock full access to New York Times podcasts and explore everything from politics to pop culture. Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.
Chapter 1: What recent events escalated tensions in Washington D.C.?
From The New York Times, I'm Rachel Abrams, and this is The Daily. For the past few weeks, international outcry has been building over Israel's plans to escalate its military campaign in Gaza and over its two-month-long blockade of the region, which has put Gaza's population on the brink of starvation.
And then, on Wednesday, a man chanting free Palestine gunned down two employees of Israel's embassy in Washington, D.C., Today, Aaron Boxerman, a Times correspondent in Jerusalem, on the desperate situation in Gaza and Israel's fears that the world has become an increasingly dangerous place for its people. It's Friday, May 23rd. Aaron, we're talking to you. I'm in New York. You're in Jerusalem.
What time is it over there?
It's about 9.40 in the evening.
Well, thank you so much for making the time so late at night to talk to us about this.
Thanks for having me.
We want to start this conversation with what happened here in the United States on Wednesday night in D.C. So can you tell us a little bit about the events of the last 24 hours?
So at around 9 p.m. on Wednesday night, there was a shooting in Washington, D.C., It was right outside the Capitol Jewish Museum where a major American Jewish organization, the American Jewish Committee, was having an event for young diplomats where they were focused on discussing aid to Gaza and the Middle East.
Now, according to the police, a shooter approached a number of people who had left the event. He pulled out a handgun and he opened fire, killing two of them. Both of them were employees of the Israeli embassy in Washington. One of them was named Yaron Lushinsky. He was 30 years old. And the other was Sarah Milgram, 26. The two of them were dating.
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Chapter 2: How is the situation in Gaza affecting its residents?
And all of this, of course, becomes much worse. Can you just talk a little bit about the changes you've seen?
So Gazans who we speak to have talked about street markets that have relatively little food to offer and whatever they do have is at unattainable prices. people scrounging whatever they can from canned food or surviving from basically communal soup kitchens. But even those have also increasingly struggled to keep up their operations as the stockpiles of food in Gaza have dwindled.
So a lot of people have lost a lot of weight. Doctors in the enclave say that it's starting to affect people's health. And my colleague, Erica Solomon, actually spoke to Dr. Ahmed El-Farra, a pediatrician in Gaza.
There's been many times since this war began where we've been hearing about concerns about malnourishment and famine. Is there anything different about this time for you?
Who told her that,
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Chapter 3: What was the international reaction to the blockade in Gaza?
Chapter 4: What are the implications of Israel's military strategy?
A lot of people are starving. There's a lot of bad things going on.
Pro-Palestinian critics have argued that the shift has been mostly rhetorical. But Britain on Tuesday actually did announce that it was suspending further negotiations on expanding its free trade agreement with Israel. And this was very clearly a protest against Israeli policies.
Given the global condemnation of this blockade, Israel must have known that it would be controversial, right, even among its allies. So I want to understand, why did they put this blockade in place to begin with? Like, what was the aim?
Back in January, Israel and Hamas agreed on a ceasefire. The goal of the ceasefire was ultimately to reach an end to the war and free the remaining Israeli and foreign hostages who were still held by Hamas in the Gaza Strip. The first part of the ceasefire is slated to last six weeks. which took Israel and Hamas all the way up to early March.
At that point, both sides were deadlocked over the next steps in the truce. And this is when Israel applies that blockade on Gaza, on all humanitarian aid entering the Gaza Strip, in what Israeli officials called an attempt to pressure Hamas. Basically, their argument was negotiations over freeing the remaining hostages that Hamas is still holding in Gaza have reached a dead end.
and we're going to use every tool at our disposal to pressure hamas to come to the table israel also argues that a lot of the humanitarian aid that goes into gaza is exploited by hamas that hamas either diverts it or takes control of it stores it for its own purposes or makes money off of it so from israel's perspective
This was a key sort of pressure point where they could make their opponents feel the pain. And then two weeks after that blockade begins, Israel resumes attacking Hamas in Gaza, ending the ceasefire.
And all of this, of course, becomes much worse. Can you just talk a little bit about the changes you've seen?
So Gazans who we speak to have talked about street markets that have relatively little food to offer and whatever they do have is at unattainable prices. people scrounging whatever they can from canned food or surviving from basically communal soup kitchens. But even those have also increasingly struggled to keep up their operations as the stockpiles of food in Gaza have dwindled.
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Chapter 5: How are diplomatic relations changing due to the conflict?
That is to say, is Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu actually going to follow through on the massive military operation in Gaza that Israeli leaders have been threatening for weeks?
We'll be right back.
Chapter 6: What are the humanitarian concerns in Gaza?
Aaron, this massive military operation that Netanyahu has basically been threatening, this takeover of Gaza, what would that actually look like?
Well, it's not 100% clear, but what we know is that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other leaders in his government have been threatening a massive military offensive against Hamas in Gaza for weeks now.
When Netanyahu gets up and describes his plans for Gaza to the Israeli public, he talks about full security control of the Gaza Strip after a massive ground maneuver of Israeli forces throughout the enclave. Netanyahu has said that this would be a decisive blow to Hamas and that this could finally end
more than a year and a half in which Hamas has really fought a dogged war of attrition in the face of a devastating Israeli military campaign. This time, Netanyahu says, the Israeli military would seize control of large chunks of the Gaza Strip. They would basically capture them and stay there instead of going in and withdrawing as they often did during the war.
As part of this offensive, at least according to the declared plan, many Palestinian civilians would be displaced to southern Gaza. And at the end of the operation, Netanyahu has promised the public, Israel would effectively have complete security control of the Gaza Strip.
That seems to be, that last thing you said seems to be the key difference here, the complete control, as opposed to the heavy bombardment, the fighting, etc.,
Exactly. But even though the Israeli military has already formally announced the start of the operation, you know, Israeli forces on the ground have not actually moved that much farther. We haven't seen them sweep through major Palestinian cities like Khan Yunis and Gaza City the way that they did during the first year of the war.
I mean, that's kind of my question, why they haven't already swept in. Because if that is what their stated goal is, it doesn't really seem like there's much stopping them, right?
If Israel really wants to do this, and let's assume for a moment that this is what they want to do, despite the potential cost for Israelis and Palestinians alike, there are still a number of factors that I think are giving them pause. One of them is definitely the hostages. So around 20 of the hostages in Gaza are still believed to be alive.
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