UN Security Council to Discuss Israel-Gaza War and Hostages

The United Nations Security Council was set to meet on Tuesday to discuss the war in Gaza and the hostages held by Hamas as the humanitarian crisis in the territory shows little sign of abating and cease-fire talks have stalled.

Gideon Saar, the Israeli foreign minister, told reporters on Monday that Israel had called for a meeting focused on the hostages after Hamas released videos over the weekend showing two emaciated Israeli captives. Israel says it believes that there are still about 20 living hostages in Gaza, as well as the bodies of 30 others.

The Security Council will convene as the widespread humanitarian crisis in Gaza continues after nearly two years of war between Israel and Hamas. Scores of Palestinians have died from malnutrition-related causes, according to the Gaza ministry of health. Nearly 40 percent of the population are not eating for multiple consecutive days, according to the U.N. World Food Program.

More than 60,000 people in Gaza have been killed in the war, including thousands of children, according to Gaza health officials, who do not distinguish between civilians and combatants. Most of the enclave’s two million people have been displaced, often forced to crowd into swelling tent camps amid the rubble.

Israel has vowed to destroy Hamas, which led attacks on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, and killed about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, with 250 others taken hostage to Gaza. Despite some optimism that the two sides were moving closer toward a truce last month, Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, has been loath to compromise on that goal, and the indirect negotiations, conducted via Arab and U.S. mediators, remain deadlocked.

U.S. and Israeli officials are now floating the idea of an “all or nothing” deal to free the remaining hostages. But that would only work if Israel or Hamas compromised on their red lines, which neither has yet shown any interest in doing.

Widespread starvation has now gripped the Gaza Strip, which the United Nations says is on the brink of famine. Civil order has almost totally collapsed, leading to assaults on aid convoys as crowds of desperate Palestinians attempt to obtain food.

“I’ve worked in some of the harshest places you can imagine,” Antoine Renard, local director for the World Food Program, said in an interview. “I have never, ever seen this in my whole career.”

The Israeli blockade of Gaza this year — preventing practically all supplies of food, fuel and medicine from entering — lasted roughly 80 days. Israel eased the restrictions in May, but the amount of aid passing Israeli-controlled crossings into Gaza has remained far lower than at most other points during the war, according to Israeli military data.

Israeli officials say that they are working on increasing the amount of humanitarian supplies entering, and they have blamed the United Nations for failing to adequately distribute food already inside Gaza. U.N. officials say that Israel frequently delays or denies its requests to move convoys, and they also cite the challenge of operating in a lawless war zone.

On Tuesday morning, COGAT, the Israeli military agency that regulates the flow of aid, said that it would begin allowing some commercial goods into the Gaza Strip. Aid experts have said that humanitarian relief is a palliative, not a solution, and emphasized the need to kick-start the Gazan private sector.

In Israel, public attention is largely focused on the condition of the hostages still held by Hamas and by its allies in Gaza. Over the weekend, Hamas published videos showing Evyatar David, one of the Israeli captives, skeletally thin and weak.

“They are on the absolute brink of death. In their current, unimaginable condition, they may have only days left to live,” Ilay David, Mr. David’s brother, said at a rally in Tel Aviv on Saturday night.