Geopolitical Tensions in the Middle East

The Gaza genocide has now surpassed its 600th day. Israel is violently corralling Palestinians like cattle into an ever-shrinking stretch of the Gaza Strip against its Western coast. It has now been three full months of Israel’s blockade of Gaza—no significant quantities of medicine, fuel or food have entered Gaza. And as the starvation spreads and thousands of children face acute malnutrition, the privatized “aid distribution” implemented by the U.S. and Israel is proving to be exactly what critics warned: a death trap that exploits the hunger and desperation spreading throughout Gaza.

Over the past 8 days, according to local health authorities, more than 100 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli occupation forces as they traveled to locations in southern Gaza where a U.S. mercenary company is overseeing the distribution of paltry boxes of basic food items. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has made clear that the aim of this scheme is not to actually address the humanitarian crisis Israel’s war of annihilation has imposed, but rather a tool to further Israel’s stated aim to “conquer” Gaza and remove all Palestinians.

The fate of a potential Gaza ceasefire is uncertain. On May 25, Hamas announced that it had accepted a proposal drafted in coordination with Donald Trump’s envoys aimed at securing a deal to end the genocide, release all Israeli captives and hand over administration of the Gaza Strip to an independent technocratic committee of Palestinians. Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff then denounced that deal—one in which Hamas said he was directly involved—and colluded with Israel to try to force Hamas to accept a draft written entirely with Israel’s genocidal aims at the center.

Drop Site journalists Jeremy Scahill and Ryan Grim are joined by Dr. Sami Al-Arian, a prominent Palestinian activist and academic. He is currently the Director of the Center for Islam and Global Affairs (CIGA) at Istanbul Zaim University. They also speak to Eyad Amawi, a coordinator with the Gaza Relief Committee, which coordinates NGOs operating in the Strip for an update on the ground reality in Gaza. Amawi recently published an op-ed in the Guardian titled, “I’ve seen the reality of the new Israel-backed ‘aid’ for Gaza. It’s nothing more than a deadly PR stunt.” Eyad joins us from Deir al-Balah, Gaza, Palestine.