Some things seem so obvious that it’s bewildering when they don’t just happen — and getting enough food and medicine into Gaza to keep children alive is one of them.
Conditions for civilians in this tiny stretch of overpopulated desert have become desperate, not just according to Hamas or UNRWA, the U.N.’s controversial agency for Palestinians, but according to the World Food Program and other international aid organizations that have long war-zone experience and less of an axe to grind. Supplies and the vehicles to move them are ready. Yet in many cases, they’re stuck waiting just a mile or two from where they’re needed. This can’t be allowed to continue.
Together with the cease-fire-for-hostage-release talks, which are still limping toward Monday’s Ramadan deadline, getting more aid into Gaza is the most important question of the moment. It’s more pressing than any immediate progress the Israel Defense Forces can make in their effort to eliminate Hamas, the terrorist organization that began this war with its savage attack on Israeli civilians and soldiers on Oct. 7.