Hunger strikes: Agony in Gaza as Israel blocks aid

The Economist. Hello and welcome to The Intelligence from The Economist. I'm Jason Palmer.

And I'm Rosie Bloor. Every weekday, we provide a fresh perspective on the events shaping your world.

Saudi Arabia's crown prince is determined to transform his country. A lot of change has already happened, but a nasty reputation persists, with reason. And for all the positive social changes, the economic ones are happening a lot more slowly.

And I'm sure you remember the brilliance of the first season of Boss Class, our series on management that's useful and hilarious in equal measure. Good news for you, Boss Class 2 is out now. To listen, subscribe to Economist Podcast Plus. But first, cries of joy as Idan Alexander, an Israeli-American hostage held in Gaza for 19 months, was reunited with his family. Many see his release yesterday as a signal that Hamas wants to talk. The people of Gaza desperately need peace. This woman says that everyone, young and old, eat only once a day—one piece of bread divided among them. Israel has blocked food and medicine from entering Gaza since a ceasefire broke down two months ago. Last week, the charity World Central Kitchen said it had run out of supplies. Yet Israel is expanding its military operations. Today, Donald Trump begins a 4-day visit to the Gulf. Discussions about a ceasefire are central to his trip, but a new agreement seems a long way off.

Beyond the fact that this young man is finally back home after 19 months in captivity, there are a lot of questions that still need to be answered.

Anshul Pfeffer is The Economist's Israel correspondent.

Is this the last effort that Donald Trump and his administration have made in this? Now that they've released the only remaining dual citizen, Israeli-American, among the hostages, will they continue to push for a ceasefire and for the release of the remaining hostages? Does this mean that Israel will still launch its planned offensive in Gaza, an expanded campaign and a very controversial aid distribution program? Is there a chance then that in the next few days, this urgent round of talks which are to be held from today in Doha, in Qatar, finally have a chance of succeeding.

There's a lot to unpack there, Anshul.

But you talk about urgent talks. This is because the situation on the ground in Gaza is so dire, right?

What's going on there? In Gaza, we have conflicting accounts, but there is certainly major food shortages and widespread hunger from everything we're hearing, both from local residents and from the aid organizations, the food in their warehouses, of the food that has enabled communal kitchens and bakeries to continue to operate, has all but run out. The fact is, 2.5 months now, supplies have not been going into Gaza, and it's unclear when they'll be renewed. Israel says enough food went in in the 2 months of the ceasefire in January and February, and that should be sufficient still for a while. Aid organizations and accounts on the ground say otherwise. And also behind the scenes, Israeli officials are admitting that if the food hasn't run out in Gaza, it may be a matter of days. But that's not the only reason for the urgency. There is also a diplomatic reason. That is, Donald Trump is in the region. He wants to see movement on this. He wants to see lots of achievements from his perspective. And Liberating one hostage was a win for him. He was very excited about it. We saw numerous statements and tweets coming from him, but we think that he wants more. He wants to be able to announce a ceasefire, a lasting ceasefire during his visit this week to the region.

Before we get to Trump's role, you say that supplies haven't been going into Gaza, and that's because Israel has been blocking humanitarian aid. What would it take for Israel to let aid in?

Well, Israel's condition now is that when aid goes in, it will not be distributed or not commandeered by Hamas. Israel claims that Hamas has control of a lot of the supplies in Gaza. That gives Hamas leverage over the population. It gives them a degree of control. It also gives them, because they can manipulate the prices in Gaza's markets, it gives them a major source of income. Israel insists that from now on, when supplies go in, they will not be controlled by Hamas. But that also means that the areas where the supplies can be distributed and the manner of that distribution is severely limited because Hamas still controls a lot of the areas of Gaza.

But, Anshel, the UN has accused Israel of weaponizing aid, which it does sound like that's what it's doing here.

Well, it certainly is using supplies as leverage. And basically what Israel is accusing Hamas of, of using food and humanitarian supplies for controlling the Strip. Israel is now trying to do the same thing. What we're seeing here is another type of war. It's a conflict over who gets to, uh, feed Gaza. And the UN have been working in Gaza for many years. They have their structure. Israel accuses the UN and the other aid organizations basically of working alongside Hamas, or if not officially cooperating with them, then turning a blind eye. And there is really no way to settle those claims. The fact is that the food is urgently needed in Gaza.

And at the same time, as you say, Israel's expanding its military operations in Gaza. What can we expect from that?

Well, the plans, at least the way they've been presented, are pretty bleak. What we've been hearing, especially from some of the Israeli ministers in the cabinet, is that they want to send the army in to occupy as much as three-quarters of the territory, perhaps even more, in Gaza and displace the population, move them towards those new distribution hubs that Israel's planning. In the meantime, fight and destroy what's left of the Hamas units and fighters there on the ground. Israel's been there on the ground now for a year and a half, and they haven't achieved that final vanquishing of Hamas. It's hard to see how they do it yet again, but that's what they're saying.

And as you said at the top, Trump is visiting the Gulf this week. He's keen to announce a ceasefire. What kind of discussions would that take?

Well, the main sticking point in the indirect negotiations between Israel and Hamas is the question of a formal end to the war. Hamas demand that for any further release of Israeli hostages besides that Israeli-American hostage, Idan Alexander, who was released yesterday, the 20-odd who still remain, they will not be released until Israel accepts a formal end to the war. While Netanyahu said, we are prepared for another short-term ceasefire for at least some of the hostages, we're not prepared to accept an end to war while Hamas is still in control, still has arms in Gaza. And that is still an impasse. It's hard to see how that's solved unless one of the sides capitulates. We're hearing from people in the Trump administration that they think that Israel should accept an end to the war at this point, and that the pressure on Hamas to disarm and to no longer be the government of Gaza, that pressure point should move until after the ceasefire. And the leverage there should be the money, the massive funds that still need to come into Gaza for rebuilding, the devastated strip. Israel's not prepared— or put this way, the Netanyahu government is not prepared to wait that long, even though we're seeing now in almost every poll in Israel that over 60% of Israelis think that the war should be ended now.

And, Anshel, Trump still seems to think that he can succeed where Biden failed. Do you think he's right about that?

Well, he certainly has more power than Biden, even though they're both in the same office as the President of the United States, because Biden— Netanyahu could stand up to in a way he can't stand up to Trump. Biden, even though he is a Zionist and supporter of Israel, and he said so many times, Netanyahu could still portray him as being more hostile in a way because he's a Democrat, because he's a left-winger and so on. Whereas Trump has always been presented as Israel's best friend ever. Netanyahu has made so much out of how close he is to Trump. Now we're seeing now that Netanyahu and Trump are no longer coordinated and that Trump is much more interested in doing business in the Gulf now as we see in this visit that he's coming to the region and he's not landing in Israel. And therefore, for Netanyahu, any open rift with Trump, I think, would be very, very damaging on the domestic political front. If Trump decides that this is something he really wants to achieve this week, a ceasefire in Gaza, this is the week, this is the place, this is the moment where he can achieve it.

And so thank you. I'm sure we'll be talking again soon.

Thanks for having me, Rosie.

That visit by Mr. Trump to the Gulf states begins today in Saudi Arabia, a country he went to as president at the beginning of his first term. But 8 years later, he'll find it's a very different country.

Saudi Arabia is pulling off an astonishing transformation.

Rachna Shanbog is our business affairs editor.

The Saudi Arabia you used to know doesn't exist anymore. In the region, it's a more constructive player. At home, it's pulling off a social revolution. It's trying to transform the economy away from being a petrostate to a modern 21st century globalized economy. That change is slow, but it's beginning.

Martin, before we even talk about the positive direction that Saudi Arabia might be going in, got to point out it does not have a good starting reputation to work with.

Yes, you're right, Jason. When you think of Saudi Arabia, you might think of a place that subjugates women, a place that used to finance terrorism, sponsor it around the world. And it's very important to be clear up front, Saudi Arabia is still an autocracy. Its crown prince and de facto ruler, Mohammed bin Salman, often called MBS, doesn't tolerate dissent. Nonetheless, the kingdom has changed in some quite surprising ways. In its region, it's now more of a constructive and a stabilizing force. It seeks peace. At home, society has been transformed. Things have liberalized and opened up to a surprising degree.

It is sort of a surprising take, the how well things are going. Let's pick it apart. Start with the geopolitics and stabilizing force itself, a sort of surprising turn of phrase for it. What do you mean by that?

Saudi Arabia is one of the richest countries in the Gulf. It's the most populous, and it used to use that clout to be a menace in the region. Soon after MBS's father, King Salman, ascended the throne, Saudi Arabia began a really disastrous war in Yemen. Then in 2018 came the really shocking murder of Jamal Khashoggi, a Saudi journalist and dissident, in Istanbul at the orders of the Saudi regime. And that murder still is a stain on Saudi Arabia's reputation. But you also have to look at the recent actions of the kingdom. And here it's really striking how it's now seeking stability in its neighborhood. So on the Houthis, for example, the kingdom is now counseling de-escalation. It's been playing a very helpful role in Syria. It's engaged with the new government. It's promised to invest if America's sanctions are lifted, and it's paid off Syria's debts to the World Bank. And when Donald Trump is in Riyadh, it seems likely that MBS is going to be counseling still more dealmaking and peacemaking with Iran, an end to the war in Gaza.

On the question of that visit with Mr. Trump, why does MBS have his ear, do you think?

It's really striking, Jason. You might remember that in Donald Trump's first term as well, he chose Saudi Arabia as the place for his first state visit. I get the sense that he admires their oil wealth. They probably bond over their fondness for flashy and zany real estate projects. And it's striking as well that the kingdom has been home to America's talks with the Ukrainians and Russians on peace Ukraine.

What about the reasons sort of behind this more generally? Why the foreign policy rethink? Why become a force for stability?

I think it connects with what MBS is trying to do at home. He's trying to pull off this bold social and economic transformation. Saudi Arabia has got lots of young people, about two-thirds of the local population are under the age of 35, and the oil money will not last forever, and MBS knows this. If there's instability and war in the Middle East, that runs the risk of inflaming local Saudis. It means fewer customers for products that MBS hopes that Saudi Arabia is one day going to produce. It means fewer tourists to the flashy hotels that are being built in Saudi Arabia now. So for all of these reasons, the desire to make change at home has led to a desire for stability abroad.

So about the changes at home, the social and economic transformation you mentioned, let's talk about that. Socially, what's going on? There have been some headline things. Women can now drive. You can go see Hollywood movies. But broadly, what's going on?

It's really extraordinary, actually, Jason. 20 years ago, women were largely shut out of the labor market. They couldn't travel freely without a male guardian. They couldn't drive. Cinemas and concerts were banned. Religious police roamed the streets. Any fun that was being had was being had either at home or abroad. And now, when you go to the kingdom, women can travel freely, they can work where they like, they can live where they like. The vice squad are nowhere to be seen. They're disbanded. And unfortunately, even Saudi Arabia now is not free of Marvel superhero films being screened. I was looking at the listings in Riyadh, and it seems like Guns N' Roses are going to play there in the next few days. So in a sense, now, if you're a young person or a woman living in Saudi Arabia, you can enjoy some of the freedoms that the rest of the world does. And when you go there, sort of, it's quite striking, the crowds of people milling around having a good time.

But I sense some reservations on your part about the economic transformation. What's the holdup?

So the really striking thing about the social change was how quickly it happened and how there wasn't really any backlash, even though that was sort of feared. Now, the economy has been much slower to change. Since 2016, the government has spent hundreds of billions of dollars trying to diversify the economy away from oil, and it's done two types of things. So The first is that the sovereign wealth fund has backed more than 100 companies in a range of sectors. It's trying to bring up these new industries. So for example, it's backed an electric vehicle maker, it's backed a semiconductor company. That's one aspect of the economic change. And another involves splurging on these so-called giga projects. And that, for example, includes NEOM, which is a big futuristic city settlement that at the moment is basically a building site, but was meant to involve this very long, thin building that stretched across 170 kilometers. Metres. The budget for these things is huge, so it was expected to be around $900 billion, which, just to give you some context, Saudi Arabia's annual GDP at the moment is just over $900 billion. So it's a really large amount of money. The problem is that more than a decade into this economic change, the economy is still quite stubbornly oily. And part of the problem is that so much money is being spent that it's kind of causing overheating in the economy. It's driving up costs. It may be discouraging the private sector from stepping in. It seems that foreign Investors aren't much impressed by this new agenda. And to complicate everything else, the oil price is now falling as well. So the fiscal strain of this program is really starting to mount up.

So clearly MBS, Saudi Arabia in a more general sense, really invested, as it were, in all of this transformation. What do you reckon is at stake if it doesn't actually come off?

I think the stakes for the country itself and MBS are really high. The social change has won MBS a lot of goodwill. People are really enjoying their newfound freedoms. If the economy doesn't follow and if people's livelihoods start to suffer or they don't enjoy prosperity, then I think that goodwill could very quickly dissipate. And the question then is, this is perhaps a lot far down the line, but if you see unrest, could that lead the government to crack down? And so the kingdom's come a really long way. That economic change really needs to continue.

Rachna, thanks very much for your time. Thanks, Jason. I am joined in the studio by Andrew Palmer, no relation, who has some big news for us.

Andrew, go on. We are related. No, the news, Jason, is that the second season of BossClass is now out. It's our second go-round at a podcast which tells you how to be a great manager.

And for those unlucky souls who did not avail themselves of season 1, let's wind back.

What is Boss Class about? Boss Class is aimed at people who aspire to manage or who want to do a better job at managing people now. So it is practical and hopefully entertaining as a guide to how to be a better boss. So in the first season, which is available for free now, we looked at things like how to run a meeting, how to hire, how to run a team effectively. And in the new season, we look at things like how to how to negotiate, and how to present. So we're really trying to help people navigate the workplace in a better way.

It doesn't sound like it's advice only for managers. Underlings such as myself could probably learn something from all this. Anyone can learn from the series.

And what we found in the first season was that people were often also sending little hints and tips to their own bosses. So even if you're not managing people yourself, even if the topic is not completely in your area, it probably can benefit people above you in the chain and help them behave a little better.

Favorite moments or ideas or people or interviews or mishaps during this series?

[Speaker:GUY_SPIER] Probably the episode which will resonate most with people is the one we did on presenting. So, the data varies, but it's about 75% of people don't like public speaking, and it's a big part of office life. I'm in that group. So, part of the journey on that episode was a kind of mortifying, but still quite useful day at RADA Business, which is the executive training arm of RADA, the drama school, where I was I was forced, compelled to go through some training, which I think was useful. I mean, a lot of it has stuck with me, as you can tell. I mean, my oratorical ability is just through the roof now. We're going to give the hip a quick rotate.

Can hold a lot of tension in the lower back. All right. You want to see if you can do a figure of 8, can you?

I'm in a nondescript training room in central London. I'm not wearing any shoes. 3 of my colleagues from The Economist are in here too, —each of them silently operating a different piece of recording equipment.

They've all been allowed to keep their shoes on.

I'm being encouraged to imagine that there's a brush coming out of my tailbone and that it's my job to clean a large imaginary wok with it. Come on, give it a go.

Alright, fine, I'll clean the wok. Alright. Okay, lovely.

This involves gyrating my hips. Hips, gyrating. And 'my' are not words that belong in the same sentence. No.

So you're bringing one hip forward and back, one hip forward and back.

I once went salsa dancing and it was the worst experience of my life.

My friend—

Second worst. Andrew! Sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry, no, worst.

My colleague Liz—

My comfort zone is somewhere on the other side of the planet. But luckily, I have a coach who's seen it all before.

My name is Kate Walker-Myles. I'm a director at an organisation called RADA Business. And we are performance and leadership specialists.

Walker Miles trained at RADA, one of the world's most famous acting schools, alma mater of people like Anthony Hopkins, Alan Rickman, and Phoebe Waller-Bridge. We're in Bloomsbury, a few blocks from the school, at its sister organization, RADA Business. Its aim is to take some of the RADA acting magic how to reach and move an audience and turn it into skills that can be taught to business people.

So what I'm going to ask you to really do now is to do what we ask our first years at RADA to do, which is to dare to fail. You've heard that before. We ask them to dare to fail gloriously because we're actors. I won't ask you to dare to fail gloriously. Thank you. But I'm going to ask you to come into this with an acceptance that there are some habits we want to flush out that are undermining you at the moment, potentially, and that's a good thing. And that you're going to try on different habits that are going to feel alien, and that's exactly where we should be. And so there's no judgment of that. This is a rehearsal room now because you're now in a RADA building, in a RADA room, and in RADA rooms we try things on, and that's the joy of being an actor.

Joy is pushing it. I'm in the three-quarters of people who don't like public speaking. I have just had to clean the wok. In front of my smirking colleagues. And I know what's coming next. Before we met, Walker Miles asked me to prepare a very short presentation to give at the start of our session, so she can see what she's up against. Just in case two cameras and a microphone are not enough, she whips out her phone to film me on that too.

And then when you're ready. Okay. I'm Andrew Palmer. I'm the host of a podcast from The Economist called Boss Class.

If you've ever been managed, if you aspire to manage, if you manage people now, then this is the podcast for you.

If you have a pulse and a job, in other words, this is the podcast for you. And I wanted to just give you a little—

When we watch it back, I see that I'm doing Angela Merkel hands, standing bolt upright, gabbling as I try and remember what I wanted to say. Above all, I see someone whose goal is to get through it.

Right, Andrew, it remains only for us to do the thing that the marketing folk want us to do, which is to please remind me, where can I hear the new series?

You can listen to it in The Economist app or on any of the major streaming platforms. The first 2 episodes are in front of the paywall. You have to be a subscriber to listen to the rest of it. And you can go to something, something, something. I don't know. Where do they go? Can you remind me, William? And if you want to sign up for that, then you should search for Economist Podcasts Plus.

I have that one bookmarked. Andrew, thank you very much for your time.

Thank you, Jason. Listening to this podcast as much as we enjoy making it, but we're always looking for ways to improve. And to do that, we need you, our listeners. Please help by filling out a short survey at www.economist.com/tisurvey, or follow the link to it in the notes for this episode. Thank you. And that's all for this episode of The Intelligence. We'll see you back here tomorrow.