We are Israeli historians teaching in Jerusalem who have been writing publicly about the war since early 2024. The processes that Jonathan Whittall describes, the result of a siege and an unprecedented assault on international humanitarian organisations, have been known to anyone willing to listen, in Israel and in the west, for a very long time (I saw many atrocities as a senior aid official in Gaza. Now Israeli authorities are trying to silence us, 3 August).
Israel’s siege, which has fluctuated in its totality since 7 October, limited the amounts of food, medication and essential supplies allowed into the Gaza Strip, culminating in a complete siege from March to May 2025. Israel’s assault on international organisations started with a campaign against Unrwa, the UN agency dedicated to the care for Palestinian refugees, and developed into a set of regulations aimed at intimidating international non-governmental organisations (INGOs) and obstructing their ability to work in the occupied Palestinian territories.
