.
Clouds of parachutes ease the descent of boxes of food toward a landscape of shattered houses in Gaza, watched by Palestinians facing famine. In Tel Aviv, Israeli protesters stand against a police water cannon as they urge the government to make a deal for the release of hostages held by Hamas.
In Gaza, Israel’s siege, bombardment and offensive have created what U.N. and aid officials call a man-made crisis of near-starvation. Several hundred thousand Palestinians in northern Gaza face imminent famine, with little aid able to reach them, the U.N. says.
In Gaza’s southernmost city, a crowd of children and men thrust their pots and bowls out for meals being distributed by an aid group. An impromptu tent city has blanketed the edges of Rafah, filled with hundreds of thousands of Palestinians who fled Israel’s offensive in other parts of Gaza. The influx has swelled Rafah to some 1.4 million people, some five times the normal population.
