"Israel has a free hand": in Gaza, the uncertain consequences of the war in Iran and the Middle East

The Gaza Strip is cut off from the world. For ten days, since the start of the American-Israeli operation against Tehran, attention has been focused on Iran, Lebanon, and Israel, as well as the Gulf states, where war is raging.

Attention has automatically shifted away from the Palestinian enclave, raising fears for Gazans that the international community will "ease the pressure exerted" on Israel to allow, among other things, the entry of humanitarian aid.

An alert issued by Adnan Abou Hasna of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) to AFP. Despite the October 2025 ceasefire between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas – an ally of Iran – the humanitarian situation remains extremely tense in Gaza, ravaged by two years of war. "The start of the Israeli-American offensive in Iran has only worsened the situation," lamented the UN in a statement published on March 6. Barely a month after their partial opening and after months of blockade, the border crossings into the Palestinian enclave were once again closed by Israel on the day it launched Operation "Roaring Lion." February 28. Including the Rafah crossing, the only access point for Gazans to the outside world that doesn't pass through Israel. The Israeli government explained this new closure as a security imperative. Humanitarian aid trucks, on which Gaza depends for almost all of its medicine and basic necessities, were blocked. "The border crossings were closed due to the loss of security; there was a certain amount of chaos here," explains Hamed Sbeata, a Gazan journalist. "People bought a lot of food to stockpile, because they feared that famine would return." After the border crossings were closed, "basic necessities, such as food and soap, saw their prices increase by 200 or 300 percent," UNICEF Palestine spokesman Jonathan Crickx told AFP. The price of fuel, needed to power generators in hospitals, has also risen. Four days after the start of the US-Israeli operation on Tuesday, March 3, the Kerem Shalom crossing, located between Israel and the Gaza Strip, was reopened, allowing a "limited entry of humanitarian aid trucks," according to the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFCR). Less than 500,000 liters of fuel have been able to pass through, according to the head of UN humanitarian operations (OCHA), Tom Fletcher. This is "well below" the more than two million liters considered "the bare minimum to keep hospital services running." Journalist Hamed Sbeata, contacted by BFM on Monday, March 9, noted that "calm has returned in the last two days" and that "prices have returned to normal." "But the situation remains tense," he asserts. With storage capacity in Gaza being limited, any disruption in the supply of goods quickly leads to shortages. This exacerbates a health system that is still "extremely fragile," as described on Friday, March 6, by the World Health Organization (WHO) Regional Director, Hanan Balkhy, during a press conference in Geneva. Half of the hospitals in the Palestinian enclave, hit by airstrikes, are no longer operational. Furthermore, the delivery of care is hampered by the threat of suspension hanging over 37 humanitarian aid organizations, such as Doctors Without Borders, whose accreditation has not been renewed. "Stocks of essential medicines, trauma equipment, and surgical supplies are now at critical levels, while fuel shortages continue to hamper hospital operations," the UN warns. This only exacerbates the suffering of Gazans, who are already enduring mass displacement in an apocalyptic landscape and food shortages.The renewed closure of the Rafah crossing has also dashed the hopes of critically ill patients to leave the enclave for treatment. At the beginning of February, this crossing, occupied by the IDF since May 2024, had not been reopened for the delivery of humanitarian aid, but only for medical evacuations and people returning to Gaza, under draconian conditions. "It is now closed for these activities as well," the IFCR stated. "Only rotations of international staff have been authorized, with a limited number of employees (50), and these will apparently continue on a weekly basis," they told us. "I was living in anguish, waiting for Rafah to open so I could go to Egypt for treatment," Mohammed Chamiya, a 33-year-old Palestinian who says he suffers from kidney disease requiring dialysis, told AFP. “Each passing day takes a little more of my life away, and my illness worsens, especially since the medical services available for dialysis patients here in Gaza are limited,” he added. “Opening the crossing has become a matter of life or death for us.” Ali Al-Chanti, a 40-year-old man displaced with his family near Khan Younis, shares a sense of collective exhaustion. "We thought things might gradually improve. But then the war with Iran broke out and destroyed everything, bringing the situation back to square one," he lamented. The war with Iran allows Israel to "more easily crush the Palestinian issue." Since the war against Iran, and the return of intense conflict with Hezbollah in Lebanon, Israel has reduced its strikes on Gaza, as reported by several Gazans. “I think the situation will stabilize here in Gaza because they are preoccupied with the war in Iran. I truly hope that the calm will last here and that the change we have been waiting for for so long will finally happen,” says Palestinian journalist Hamed Sbeata, who in mid-February was still reporting “the sounds of explosions every day” despite the ceasefire in effect since October 10. Since this truce, the massive bombardments that claimed dozens of victims a day have subsided, but airstrikes and sporadic shelling continue. Military operations are ongoing. The Gaza Ministry of Health has recorded 630 additional deaths, including 202 children and 89 women, between this agreement and the end of February 2026. This toll “is in addition to the more than 72,000 people killed since October 7, 2023,” and the more than 172,000 wounded. Figures deemed reliable by the UN.

According to a statement published Monday, March 9, by the Gaza Ministry of Health, relayed by the Turkish news agency Anadolu, three Palestinian bodies and four wounded had been transported to hospitals in the enclave during the last 24 hours, in the midst of the war between Israel and Iran. According to civil defense, a woman was also killed on Wednesday, March 4, near Rafah, and several Palestinians were wounded by Israeli fire in the center of the enclave. While "airstrikes have become less frequent," "warplanes and reconnaissance aircraft are still in the sky," observes Abu Mohsen, a 33-year-old Palestinian, who still reports daily explosions in Gaza, "often due to the destruction of houses or artillery bombardments." The Israeli army claimed on X this Tuesday, March 10, "the elimination of three terrorists holed up in underground infrastructure east of Rafah." For Jean-Paul Chagnollaud, honorary president According to the Institute for Research and Studies on the Mediterranean and the Middle East (iReMMO), the war with Iran allows Israel "to more easily crush the Palestinian question, both because it is discussed less and because they have a free hand in every respect today."

“Strikes at any moment, controlling the flow of humanitarian aid, and killing people who approach the yellow line (after the ceasefire, Israeli troops withdrew to an area delimited by a yellow line, which they continue to expand and which now covers nearly 60% of the enclave, editor's note) is a way for Israel to systematically destabilize Gazan society,” notes the specialist, who specifies that Hamas, “significantly weakened,” “is no longer a major issue.”

“Israel, which never wanted the second phase of the peace plan, is ensuring that the situation in place since last October continues,” he believes. "The war against Iran makes his task easier."