The Israel-Iran war becomes a smokescreen for the massacres in Gaza.

BarcelonaIsrael's attack on Iran The ongoing conflict that began on Friday has created a thick smokescreen over the catastrophic situation in Gaza after nearly 20 months of indiscriminate bombing and strict restrictions on the entry of food, medicine, and fuel since March 2. Israeli attacks on the Strip have not stopped for a moment since Tel Aviv launched its war against Tehran on Friday. Up to 300 Palestinians are reported to be in the food distribution points set up in cooperation with the United States. killed when they went to collect desperate food to feed their families since the system was put into operation, of which 23 have been in a single incident this Friday at the Netzarim point in central Gaza. In addition, the bombings continue and on Thursday alone claimed the lives of more than 50 Palestinians. But now all international attention is focused on the crisis with Iran and the lukewarm criticism expressed against the offensive in Gaza by the European Union has died down, once again invoking Israel's right to defend itself against the alleged Iranian nuclear threat. Europe and the United States are once again closing ranks behind Israel and ignoring the Palestinians while they wipe them off the map.

From Gaza City, Dr. Ayed Yaghi describes the situation in a WhatsApp message on the ARA: "Gaza is in a critical humanitarian catastrophe due to the continued attacks against Palestinian civilians, especially those who go to collect food at the military points of the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF)", he says, referring to the new distribution mechanism implemented by Trump and Netanyahu with mercenary companies. "Hunger threatens the lives of 70,000 children, who suffer from severe malnutrition, and with 80% of the Strip under evacuation orders from the Israeli army, hunger, as Israel prevents the entry of fuel, water desalination plants and pumps to extract water from the ground barely function, and hospitals will soon be unable to operate their generators," he points out. manufactured." "While the world is focused on Iran, Israel is taking advantage of this to intensify its attacks and the humanitarian disaster in Gaza," the doctor concludes.

In one of these displaced persons camps in Deir al-Balah, in central Gaza, Nuza Awad explains that she no longer knows how to comfort the Palestinian consolations of October 7. "At their age they should weigh eight kilos and they don't even weigh three. They practically don't move." Malnutrition is advancing at record speed and it's preying on the weakest: the youngest, the elderly, and pregnant women. We're forced to do everything we can to keep our children alive while we wait for all this to be over, notes Abu Salim, a Gazan journalist. "They've turned us into beggars: we only get one meal a day, and it's usually a piece of bread, and that's quite a lot." 700. And now the needs of the population are infinitely greater. In the north of the Strip, where the bombing and the restriction of aid have been most intense, things are even more difficult.

Mohammed El Mougher, head of civil protection for the southern Gaza region, warns ARA that "now that the media attention has shifted to Iran, the catastrophe is even worse." He confirms that most of the patients they have treated in the last week have been killed or injured at food distribution points. "People go to places they know are death traps, even areas with Israeli soldiers," he says. "We can't reach the areas where the wounded are because the soldiers don't let ambulances through, and when we arrive, they also shoot at us."

119 emergency team members have been killed since October 7: "Right now, we are searching for a firefighter who went missing in the Zikim area." The state of the roads, the destruction of entire neighborhoods, and the lack of fuel also complicate their work.

The media silence has also worsened with the internet outages caused by the Israeli bombardment of communications infrastructure, which left Gaza without any connection to the outside world last week. Only a few e-SIM cards worked, which not only left Gaza even more isolated from the world and more silent, but also complicated the coordination of the medical and emergency system.

West Bank, closed

Things have also become more complicated for Palestinians in the West Bank. When the attack on Iran began, the Israeli army closed all roads connecting cities and towns. People are still unable to move today, and there have been new military incursions in Hebron, Bethlehem, Nablus, and Ramallah, where 35 Palestinians, including four minors, have been arrested, according to the Palestinian news agency Wafa. Violence by settlers has also intensified, with settlers threatening to hit anyone who celebrates the Iranian attacks.

But none of that was on the table when French President Emmanuel Macron and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman decided last Friday to cancel the Palestinian statehood summit scheduled for the UN. Nor was it on the table at the weekend's G-7 meeting, which expressed support for the Israeli attack on Tehran.. The EU has gone from saying it will review the preferential relationship agreement with Israel to affirming, along with the United Kingdom, France, and Germany, that Israel's attack on Iran is a good idea. As Ksenia Svetlova, a researcher at Chatham House, says, "The war in Iran has overshadowed the war in Gaza, and this is a diplomatic victory for Israel, because separating the Iranian nuclear issue from what Israel is doing in Palestine is a further step toward legitimizing the Netanyahu government in Europe."