A turn that transforms hunger and despair into the stage for open military confrontation.
Gaza, August 2025
Gaza City has been officially declared a “dangerous combat zone” as Israel launches the military offensive it had announced for months. The decision ends the tactical pauses that allowed minimal humanitarian deliveries and marks the beginning of a new phase in the conflict, with grave humanitarian consequences.
The offensive began in a desolate landscape. Empty streets, columns of smoke rising after explosions, and sirens echoing across neighborhoods formed the backdrop of an operation that threatens to extinguish what little hope remained for a population already exhausted by food shortages and collapsing services. The Israeli military justified the move as a necessary step to neutralize hostile groups and restore order. Yet humanitarian organizations warn that civilians are caught in a situation of extreme hunger, forced displacement, and near total destruction of infrastructure.
The International Committee of the Red Cross stated that evacuating hundreds of thousands of people from Gaza City to the south is not feasible under current conditions. Reception centers and hospitals are already overwhelmed, and providing shelter, clean water, and medical care is impossible amid ongoing combat and logistical collapse. The suspension of aid routes, according to the organization, exposes civilians to levels of risk that international law does not allow to be ignored.
The timing of the offensive is telling. Gaza is in the midst of a confirmed famine, with reports of deaths from malnutrition in recent weeks. More than 63,000 civilians have been killed since the start of the conflict. Now, the end of humanitarian pauses and the onset of a military assault make survival a matter of hours rather than days. Community kitchens are shut down, hospitals run out of fuel and supplies, and families remain trapped in damaged buildings. Daily life has been replaced by the urgency of trying to endure another night.
The Israeli government also announced the recovery of remains of hostages and explained that ending daytime truces was part of a dual strategy: advancing militarily while producing tangible results tied to victims. For Gaza’s residents, however, this means the final thread of humanitarian respite has been severed.
The logic behind the operation reflects a strategy of attrition in one of the most densely populated and devastated areas on the planet. With aid corridors closed, social structures fracture further. Each neighborhood becomes an isolated island, and every attempt by civilians to move becomes a gamble with survival. Families must choose between staying in neighborhoods now designated military targets or embarking on uncertain journeys south, where infrastructure has already collapsed and aid is sporadic at best.
International reactions were swift and alarmed. The United Nations and several European capitals warned of the risk of an unprecedented humanitarian catastrophe. Governments called for international mechanisms to protect civilians, though lack of consensus at the Security Council has hindered any immediate response. Meanwhile, tensions in Yemen and southern Lebanon underscore the wider regional instability that makes effective diplomatic intervention even more difficult.
On the ground, the scenes are harrowing. Families walk south with a few belongings, while others remain hidden in improvised shelters without electricity or ventilation. Hospitals operate on generators that last only a few hours a day. Exhausted medical staff treat the wounded with minimal supplies. Outbreaks of respiratory and gastrointestinal diseases are increasing due to the lack of clean water and medicines. In peripheral neighborhoods, aid arriving through informal channels is insufficient and often distributed under tense conditions that spark conflict among civilians.
Local human rights groups argue that declaring Gaza City a combat zone cannot serve as justification to abandon the obligation to protect civilians. They insist that international humanitarian law requires safe and predictable access to basic services, even during armed conflict. They denounce that cutting off aid completely turns hunger into a weapon of war.
The offensive not only reshapes the military map but also alters the political narrative of the region. Gaza has become a symbol of the fragility of international protection mechanisms, raising questions about the ability of global institutions to respond to mass humanitarian emergencies. The war, once framed around front lines, has also become a battle over everyday survival, where life is measured in access to water, bread, and electricity.
For the residents of the city, the designation of Gaza as a combat zone means the end of any remaining hope of normality. Destroyed houses now serve as makeshift kitchens, hospital corridors are lined with stretchers lacking supplies, and empty streets are punctuated by explosions that dictate the rhythm of the day. War has turned every corner into a frontier of resistance, where the only certainty is that tomorrow depends on surviving the night.
Against propaganda, memory.