{"id":3802,"date":"2026-03-08T19:09:12","date_gmt":"2026-03-08T19:09:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/iranians.global\/news\/?p=3802"},"modified":"2026-03-08T19:37:11","modified_gmt":"2026-03-08T19:37:11","slug":"gaza-and-ukraine-are-both-waiting-for-action","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/iranians.global\/news\/gaza-and-ukraine-are-both-waiting-for-action\/","title":{"rendered":"Gaza and Ukraine are both waiting for action"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Jonathan Este, Senior International Affairs Editor, Associate Editor<\/strong><\/a> <\/p>\n

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For the past few weeks the headlines about Gaza have focused on the hundreds of people who have been killed while queueing for food. The aid distribution system put in place in May, backed by the US and Israel and run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, has proved to be chaotic and allegedly resulted in violence, with both Israel Defense Forces personnel and armed Palestinian gangs blamed for killing about 1,000 people in the two months the new system has been operating.<\/p>\n

Now the headlines are focusing on the growing number of people dying of starvation. <\/p>\n

Harrowing reports from the Gaza Strip report almost daily on the children dying of malnutrition in hospitals and clinics that simply don\u2019t have the food to keep them alive. Writing in the Guardian this week, a British volunteer surgeon working in one of Gaza\u2019s hospitals, Nick Maynard, described patients<\/a> who \u201cdeteriorate and die, not from their injuries, but because they are too malnourished to survive surgery\u201d.<\/p>\n

The UK and 27 other countries this week has condemned the \u201cdrip feeding of aid and the inhumane killing of civilians\u201d who are trying to get food and water. And yet, writes Simon Mabon, still the world\u2019s leaders look on: \u201cMost are apparently content to condemn \u2013 but little action has been taken.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mabon, a professor of international relations at Lancaster University, quotes the latest report from the IPC, which monitors food security in conflict situations. It estimates that 500,000 people in Gaza are considered to be facing \u201ccatastrophe\u201d, while a further 1.1 million fall into the \u201cemergency\u201d risk category. Both categories anticipate a steadily rising death rate among civilians in Gaza.<\/p>\n

So how can Israel\u2019s allies apply pressure on Benjamin Netanyahu\u2019s government to bring an end to the violence and allow Palestinian civilians access to the food, water and medical supplies they so desperately need?<\/p>\n

Mabon canvasses a range of options<\/a>. First of all, countries that have yet to recognise the state of Palestine can do so. It\u2019s nonsense, Madon believes, to talk of a two-state solution \u2013 as the UK government does \u2013 when you haven\u2019t actually recognised the second state in the equation. <\/p>\n

Then they could stop selling arms to Israel. Many countries already have. But the US still issues export licenses for some weapons that are sold to Israel. <\/p>\n

There are a plethora of other things world leaders could do to pressure Israel. Mabon recommends having a look at what the world did to isolate South Africa during the apartheid years, measures which eventually helped bring about meaningful change there.<\/p>\n\n

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\n Read more:
\n Gaza is starving \u2013 how Israel’s allies can go beyond words and take meaningful action<\/a>
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As for Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister is reported to be considering an early election. In previous months this looked like a move freighted with jeopardy. An election loss brought on by a disenchanted electorate, heartbroken at the hostage situation and exhausted by the conflict, would probably mean having to face the charges of corruption which have hung over him for more than five years.<\/p>\n

But recent polls have suggested a bump in popularity following his 12-day campaign against Iran. Netanyahu is nothing if not a clever political manipulator. But Brian Brivati, a professor of contemporary history and human rights at Kingston University, believes that to have a chance of winning, the prime minister will need to fight a campaign on three narratives of his government\u2019s success<\/a>: securing the release of the hostages, defeating Hamas and delivering regional security. \u201cIt is a tall order,\u201d Brivati concludes.<\/p>\n\n

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\n Israel: Netanyahu considering early election but can he convince people he\u2019s winning the war?<\/a>
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Anyone following the situation in Gaza over the past 18 months will have encountered Francesca Albanese, the UN\u2019s special rapporteur for Palestine\u2019s occupied territories. For three years she has monitored the human rights situation in Gaza and the West Bank, delivering trenchant criticism of Israel\u2019s conduct and those who, by their inaction \u2013 and sometimes contrivance \u2013 have enabled it.<\/p>\n

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\n Outspoken in defence of human rights: UN special rapporteur, Francesca Albanese.<\/span>
\n EPA\/Ida Marie Odgaard<\/span><\/span>
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Earlier this months, the US government imposed sanctions on Albanese, because \u2013 as US secretary of state Marco Rubio insisted \u2013 she has engaged with the International Criminal Court (also subject to US sanctions) \u201cin efforts to investigate, arrest, detain, or prosecute nationals of the United States or Israel\u201d. Also she has written \u201cthreatening letters to dozens of entities worldwide, including major American companies\u201d.<\/p>\n

Alvina Hoffman, an expert in diplomatic affairs and human rights at SOAS, University of London, explains what a special rapporteur does<\/a> and why their work is so valuable in the defence of human rights.<\/p>\n\n

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\n Read more:
\n The US has sanctioned UN special rapporteur Francesca Albanese \u2013 here’s why she’s the wrong target<\/a>
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Dispatches from Ukraine<\/h2>\n

To Istanbul, where delegations from Russia and Ukraine met yesterday for their third round of face-to-face talks. All 40 minutes of them. There was another agreement of prisoner swaps and the two sides decided to set up some working groups to look into various political, military and humanitarian issues \u2013 but online rather in person.<\/p>\n

The brevity of the talks came as no surprise to Stefan Wolff<\/a>. Wolff, an expert in international security at the University of Birmingham who has provided commentary for The Conversation throughout the conflict in Ukraine, points out that both sides remain wedded to their maximalist war aims. For Russia, this is for Ukraine to accept Russia\u2019s annexation of Crimea and four provinces of eastern Ukraine, a ban on Ukraine\u2019s membership of Nato and a much reduced military capacity. For Ukraine, it is getting their territory back and Russian acceptance of their national sovereignty, meaning it gets to determine for itself what alliances it seeks.<\/p>\n

Donald Trump has told Vladimir Putin that, if there\u2019s no ceasefire in 50 days, he\u2019ll apply harsh secondary sanctions on the countries buying Russian oil and that he plans to supply Ukraine with American weapons (via Nato\u2019s European member states, that is). Wolff believes both sides will now play the waiting game. They will calculate their next move after September 2, when the 50 days run out, and when they know more about what the US president plans to do.<\/p>\n\n

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\n Read more:
\n Russia-Ukraine talks: both sides play for time and wait for Donald Trump’s 50 days to run out<\/a>
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Volodymyr Zelensky, meanwhile, faces pressure from his own people. There have been days of protest at his decision to bring two formerly independent anti-corruption organisations under the direct control of the government. He argues that this was necessary to prevent Russian infiltration, while critics are saying that the Ukrainian president has launched a power grab designed to prevent independent investigation of alleged corruption against people close to him.<\/p>\n

Jenny Mathers<\/a> says these protests, which involve people from all political shades, including people who have fought in the defence of Ukraine since 2022, some with visible injuries, represents a fracture of the \u201cinformal agreement between the government and society to show a united front to the world while the war continues\u201d.<\/p>\n

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