Gaza, Srebrenica: Two Genocides Years Apart

CrossFireArabia
July 7, 2026

Israel Turns Gaza Into a Death ‘Srebrenica’ Camp

Israel is legitimising and enforcing a systematic pattern of geographic siege on Gaza, extending beyond a comprehensive blockade to include forcible internal confinement. This traps Palestinians within a small, devastated area under conditions more severe and crowded than those in the Srebrenica enclave before its fall in 1995, when genocide occurred according to the Euromedmonitor.

The Srebrenica genocide serves as a clear historical warning about the deadly impact of besieging civilians and depriving them of protection and essentials for life, particularly when these actions are part of systematic behaviour that is a core component of ongoing genocide, as seen in Gaza the Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor added.

On the eve of Srebrenica’s fall in 1995, nearly 40,000 people were besieged within a roughly 150 km². Meanwhile, for most of Gaza’s approximately 2.1 million residents, the remaining habitable area has shrunk to just about 128 km².

Geographically and demographically, Gaza is now limited to an area about 15 per cent smaller than Srebrenica, but with a population over 50 times larger and a density roughly 60 times higher, all amidst rubble, waste, and a severe lack of basic living conditions.

Changing Gaza’s Landscape

Israel is changing the demographic and military landscape of the Gaza Strip by increasing its de facto control and imposing severe restrictions on roughly 65 per cent of the enclave. This action deprives over two million residents of essential resources, prevents their return to their lands and homes, and makes large parts of Gaza prohibited zones under Israeli military control. These measures effectively amount to an unlawful annexation and seizure of land the Geneva-based organization.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s announcement to expand military control over 70 percent of Gaza highlights an aim to further settler colonialism and expel the area’s native Palestinians, as this plan would leave only about 109 km² for residents. If this occurs, the per capita share of the remaining space would decrease to approximately 52 m², and the population density would increase to about 19,300 people per km², which is roughly 72 times higher than the density in Srebrenica in 1995.

Although the numerical figures on population density are alarming, they do not fully reflect the harsh reality of the suffocating overcrowding residents face in the Gaza Strip. Much of the remaining land has been intentionally rendered uninhabitable through systematic destruction. This area is overwhelmed with large amounts of rubble from homes and civilian objects. It is filled with destroyed infrastructure and blocked roads, hindering movement, access, and humanitarian efforts. Additionally, waste, war remnants, water source contamination, sewage network collapses, and exposed land devoid of shelter or safe displacement sites further worsen the situation.

In addition to severe overcrowding, most residents live in either worn-out tents, which offer no shelter from summer heat, winter cold, or rain, or in heavily damaged houses that could collapse at any moment. These structures are at risk due to ongoing Israeli bombardments or natural elements like wind and rain the human rights organization goes on to say.

This situation poses numerous risks to hundreds of thousands of families, such as buildings collapsing on residents, fires erupting in overcrowded tent camps, and the spread of diseases due to poor sanitation, ventilation, and lack of clean water. It also deprives them of privacy and safety, particularly affecting women, children, and the elderly, as there are no safe housing options that could help residents escape this extreme overcrowding.

The residents of the Gaza Strip face a reality that deliberately subjects them to conditions intended to undermine the Palestinian population, either partially or entirely. This includes measures such as deportation or forced transfer, with efforts to legitimise and promote this displacement internationally under misleading terms like “freedom of movement” or “voluntary emigration.”

The ongoing killings, military operations, siege, and denial of sufficient food exemplify systematic actions that undermine civilian life. These include widespread destruction of civilian infrastructure, effective denial of return, military seizure of large land areas, restrictions on access to medical, health, and educational services, obstruction of reconstruction, and forcing residents into areas lacking basic survival needs. Collectively, these practices convert any choice into a consequence of physical and psychological coercion by Israeli authorities. Any departure of residents from the Gaza Strip under these conditions therefore cannot be regarded as voluntary but falls under forced displacement, which is prohibited under international law.

The attempts to forcibly transfer the population are a direct continuation of Israel’s settler-colonial approach, which has persisted for decades and is based on policies aimed at erasing Palestinian history, space, and demographics, along with the systematic seizure of land. This phase is characterised by its rapid pace and broad scope, aiming to reach over two million people suffering from ongoing genocide. These individuals have been deprived of legal protection and basic survival means for nearly three years.

These systematic coercive measures, along with the dehumanisation they entail, are deliberately designed to force residents into a stark choice: either face physical extermination or be forced out of their homeland. This is not a voluntary decision, but a compulsory condition for survival, highlighting the Gaza Strip situation as a well-documented example of mass deportation and forcible transfer in modern legal history.

Fourth Geneva Convention

The international community and all states must unequivocally oppose any plans to depopulate Gaza or force residents to leave using misleading terms like “voluntary emigration” or “freedom of movement.” Such population movements, without safe options and under ongoing physical and psychological pressure, are not genuinely voluntary but are crimes of forced displacement. These are prohibited by the Fourth Geneva Convention and the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court. When this act occurs during an ongoing genocide, it triggers all states’ responsibilities to prevent and stop the crime, avoid recognising any illegal situation resulting from it, abstain from helping or supporting its continuation, and work together to end it and ensure those responsible are held accountable.

All states must implement prompt and effective punitive actions against Israel instead of merely issuing condemnation statements or broad calls. This includes applying diplomatic, economic, and military sanctions; suspending any agreements, privileges, or cooperation that enable ongoing crimes or provide political cover; enforcing a comprehensive embargo on the supply, transfer, purchase, or import of weapons, munitions, equipment, and military and security technology; freezing the assets of involved Israeli officials; and imposing travel bans on them. Maintaining normal relations with a state that commits genocide and forced displacement, or providing it with weapons, political, and economic support, can be seen as contributing to the ongoing unlawful situation. This may also violate states’ obligations to prevent and stop the crime and to avoid aiding or assisting in its commission.

The international community must act swiftly and decisively to dismantle Israel’s illegal system of control, detention, and apartheid over Palestinians, including those in the Gaza Strip. This involves forcing an immediate end to its military presence; removing barriers, buffer zones, and restricted areas that reduce the Strip’s land area and hinder residents’ access; and ensuring the prompt, unconditional return of displaced individuals to their original homes. These steps are essential to prevent de facto annexation, settler colonialism, and the forced displacement of Palestinians.

Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor urges immediate international action to lift the unlawful blockade on Gaza and establish safe, sustainable humanitarian access. This includes opening UN-supervised humanitarian corridors to allow the free flow of food, medicine, fuel, medical supplies, and shelter materials without arbitrary restrictions. The deployment of independent international monitors is crucial to verify compliance and ensure that aid and essential services are not used as tools of genocide.

Additionally, donors, states, and international organisations should move beyond merely managing the disaster through temporary relief. They need to act immediately to offer safe, dignified shelter solutions for residents, including permitting shelter materials and essential supplies to enter without restrictions, and urgently repairing health facilities, water and sewage networks, and critical infrastructure. A genuine path toward reconstruction cannot exist without lifting the blockade, ending Israeli restrictions on materials and equipment entry, ensuring residents can return to their areas, and stopping the ongoing destruction of civilian structures.

Reconstruction efforts should not replace accountability or serve to normalise the consequences of the Israeli crimes. Instead, it must compel Israel to take legal responsibility for the extensive destruction and ensure victims’ rights to reparation, compensation, and the restoration of safe living conditions on their land.

States with universal jurisdiction courts must issue arrest warrants for Israeli political and military leaders involved in the ongoing genocide and initiate legal proceedings to fulfil their international legal obligation to prosecute serious crimes and combat impunity. They must also hold accountable their citizens found to have committed violations against Palestinians, in line with their national and international legal obligations and within their territorial or personal jurisdiction.

Relevant UN agencies should urgently conduct an independent assessment of the Gaza Strip to identify the areas that are truly safe for habitation and human use. This will reveal the Israeli misrepresentation that considers nominal geographic zones as habitable. Euro-Med Monitor emphasises the importance of legally and practically distinguishing between the theoretical geographic regions still available to residents and the zones genuinely suitable for living or for safe displacement centres, which must be free of rubble, environmental and health risks, unexploded ordnance, and war remnants, EuroMed concluded.

Features

Women From The Past: Sulafa Hassan Taher Hijjawi

CrossFireArabia
July 5, 2026

Creative Palestinian Women

Poet and Researcher Sulafa Hassan Taher Hijjawi was a formidable Palestinian woman born in Nablus in 1934. She received her secondary education at Al-Aishiya School, then traveled with her family to Iraq, where she earned a bachelor’s degree in English Literature from the University of Baghdad in 1956.

However, she made a complete turnaround in 1987 and received a MA degree in Political Science.

She taught Political Science at the University of Baghdad for several years before resigning to join the Palestinian National Leadership institutions in Tunisia, where she became a political advisor to President Yasser Arafat.

After graduating, she married the Iraqi writer and poet Kadhim Jawad and became involved in Iraqi cultural life during the 1960s, working in research and translation.

She began her literary career early, publishing her poems in the Lebanese magazine “Al-Adab” (Literature).

Her activities include:

Editor of the Journal of the Center for Palestinian Studies, published by the College of Political Science at the University of Baghdad.
Joining the ranks of the Palestinian National Liberation Movement (Fatah) in 1968.
She co-founded the Palestinian Writers Union with the writer Jabra Ibrahim Jabra.
She established a branch of the General Union of Palestinian Women in Baghdad.
She represented the General Union of Writers and Journalists at the General Union of Journalists.
She was a member of the General Secretariat of the General Union of Palestinian Writers and Journalists.
She has been the Director of the Palestinian Planning Center since its establishment in 1991.

Her works include:

Palestinian Songs – a collection of poems.
Ships of Departure – a collection of poems.
A Dream, Poetry for Children – a collection of poems.
Soviet Jews – a study of social reality.
On the Political History of Palestine – Palestine the Place.

Her translations include:

Poetry of Resistance in Occupied Palestine
Lorca: The Lyre of Granada
The Creative Experience – a study in modern literature.
Edgar Alan Poe – His Life and Works
What is Criticism? – a collection of philosophical essays.
Zionist Conceptions of Return
Friends – a Japanese novel for young adults.

Features News

So History Doesn’t Forget: Israel Killed 21,500 Children in its War on Gaza

CrossFireArabia
July 4, 2026

After 1000 days of the Israeli offensive on the Gaza Strip, children face death, injury, hunger, orphanhood, and displacement, amidst a decline in protection, healthcare, and education services.

On June 19, 2026, UNICEF stated that the ceasefire declared in October 2025 had become, for the children of Gaza, a “cruel and deadly illusion,” given the continued killing and injuries, and the restrictions on medical and food supplies.

According to statistics from the Government Media Office in Gaza, Israel has killed 21,500 children since October 8, 2023, up to July of this year.

Among the dead are more than 520 infants born during the Israeli offensive who were killed in it, according to the same source.

Additionally, 1,022 children under the age of one have been killed.

A Generation’s Toll

A report by the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics showed that children constituted approximately 30 percent of those killed and 26 percent of those injured up to the end of 2025.

Additionally, 10,500 children suffered life-altering injuries, and more than 1,000 children underwent amputations.

Nearly 4,000 children face the risk of death unless they receive urgent medical evacuation for treatment outside the Gaza Strip, given the shortage of medicines and medical supplies.

Truce Without Protection

The killing of children did not stop with the implementation of the ceasefire agreement on October 10, 2025.

UNICEF stated that on June 19, 265 Palestinian children were killed in the Gaza Strip since the ceasefire was declared, an average of almost one child per day for more than eight months.

The UN organization added that more than 400 children were injured during the same period, many with life-altering injuries, noting that some were killed inside their homes, tents, schools, and/or while playing.

UNICEF warned against normalizing the levels of child killings and injuries during the ceasefire.

Memory of the Bombing

Among the stories of Gaza’s children:

– Premature Infants: On November 10, 2023, the Israeli army stormed Al-Nasr Children’s Hospital in western Gaza City, forcing medical staff to leave under fire and refusing to evacuate premature babies. This resulted in the deaths of five infants, according to the Gaza Ministry of Health.

After the Israeli army withdrew from the Al-Nasr neighborhood, the bodies of the five infants were found decomposing inside incubators and on hospital beds, having been denied treatment.

– Youssef… “His hair was curly and fair”: On October 21, 2023, Youssef’s mother, whose son was 7 years old, searched for him among the wounded in a Gaza hospital, saying: “His hair was curly and fair, and he was sweet.”

Hours later, she found him dead inside a morgue refrigerator after an Israeli bombing.

– Reem… “The Soul of My Soul”: In November 2023, an Israeli airstrike killed three-year-old Reem and her brother, Tariq. Her grandfather, Khaled Nabhan, famously said, “The soul of my soul,” as he bid her farewell.

– “Is this a dream or reality?”: In December 2023, a child pulled from the rubble asked her doctor, weeping, “Is what’s happening a dream or reality?”

– Hind Rajab… “Please come and get me”: In January 2024, six-year-old Hind Rajab pleaded with the Palestinian Red Crescent to rescue her from a car surrounded by Israeli tanks after her relatives were killed. Twelve days later, her body and the bodies of the two paramedics who went to rescue her were found.

Sidra… A Torn Body Hanging from the Wall: In February 2024, Sidra Hassouna, 7, was killed along with her twin sister, her parents, and several relatives in an Israeli airstrike in Rafah. Her torn body was found hanging from the wall of her home.

Hunger Kills Children

Since the start of the conflict, 157 children have died from hunger and malnutrition, and another 25 have died from the cold and frost inside displacement camps.

The Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS) cited a report by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), issued on March 18, stating that more than 3,700 children aged between 6 and 59 months were admitted to malnutrition treatment programs during February 2026.

Among them, more than 600 children suffered from severe acute malnutrition, a condition requiring urgent medical and nutritional treatment.

Although the figures were lower than in January, when the number of children admitted for treatment exceeded 4,600, including 890 severe cases, the numbers still indicate the continuation of the food crisis, according to the PCBS.

The data shows that 64 percent of children consume only two or fewer food groups daily, while more than 90 percent do not receive the minimum required dietary diversity.

More than 60 percent of children suffer from acute food insecurity, which threatens their physical and mental development.

Among the children who died due to malnutrition and lack of treatment:

2024:

– February: Two infants died from dehydration and malnutrition; their names were not released.

– March: Yazan al-Kafarna, 10 years old, died.

– May: Fayez Abu Aita, 7 months old, died at Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in the central Gaza Strip.

– July: Hikmat Raad Badir, 6 years old, died at Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital, and Ali Anas al-Tatar, 6 years old, died at the Baptist Hospital in Gaza City.

2025:

– May: Jinan al-Sakafi, 4 months old, died at al-Rantisi Hospital, and Muhammad Mustafa Yassin, 4 years old, died.

August: Infant Rania Ghabban died at Al-Rantisi Hospital in Gaza City, along with infants Rasel Abu Masoud (2 months old), Ghadeer Breika (5 months old), Mohammed Zakaria Asfour (1 year and 4 months old), and Roua Mashi (2 years old) at Nasser Hospital in the southern Gaza Strip.

58,000 children lost their parents

The Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS) quoted UNICEF as saying that more than 58,000 children in the Gaza Strip lost one or both parents as a result of the war.

These children face… A thousand days after the Israeli offensive on the Gaza Strip, children face death, injury, hunger, orphanhood, and displacement, amidst a decline in protection, healthcare, and education services. Anadolu

Features News

Israel Chips at The Arab Face of Jerusalem

CrossFireArabia
July 3, 2026

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM – At daybreak on March 25, 2026, the “Eyes” mural overlooking the narrow streets of Batn al-Hawa in Silwan neighborhood, occupied Jerusalem, silently witnessed another chapter in Jerusalem’s long struggle over land and identity.

Just 300 meters from Al-Aqsa Mosque, Israeli forces sealed off the neighborhood, preventing journalists and residents from entering. Within hours, municipal workers emptied Palestinian homes of furniture and personal belongings, leaving possessions scattered across the streets as families watched their lives dismantled.

For the families forced from their homes that morning, the evictions were not simply the outcome of an isolated property dispute. They marked the culmination of years of legal battles in Israeli courts—ending with the loss of homes where generations had lived.

The scene in Batn al-Hawa has become one of the clearest illustrations of a broader transformation unfolding across occupied East Jerusalem. Evictions, home demolitions, restrictive planning policies, land registration procedures, settlement expansion, and mounting economic pressures are increasingly intersecting to reshape the city’s demographic landscape.

According to researchers and rights organizations, these policies collectively narrow the space available for Palestinians while expanding Israeli settlement presence, producing what many describe as a gradual process of demographic re-engineering.

Between January and the end of April 2026, Israeli authorities evicted 15 Palestinian families from Batn al-Hawa after Israel’s Supreme Court rejected appeals filed by 20 families, including the Rajabi and Basbous families.

Final eviction orders now cover 22 housing units, while another 33 homes remain entangled in legal proceedings that could lead to similar outcomes. Altogether, 55 housing units in the neighborhood face the threat of eviction.

The pressures extend well beyond Batn al-Hawa. In Silwan alone, approximately 2,200 Palestinians are considered at risk of displacement—around 1,500 in Al-Bustan neighborhood and another 700 in Batn al-Hawa.

For residents, the legal battles have lasted years.

Yaqub Rajabi, a member of the Batn al-Hawa Defense Committee and one of the homeowners facing eviction, says families exhausted every legal avenue, presenting ownership documents and evidence before Israeli courts.

“What is happening cannot be understood as an ordinary property dispute,” he says. “It is part of a policy aimed at emptying the neighborhood of its Palestinian residents and replacing them with settlers through historical claims dating back more than 150 years.”

Rajabi says many families only gradually realized the complexity of the legal cases after settler organizations began relying on Ottoman-era property records to reopen ownership claims that had long appeared settled.

“The pace of court rulings has accelerated significantly,” he adds. “Cases that once took years are now being decided much more quickly.”

Another homeowner, Nidal Rajabi, argues that legal ownership has become secondary.

“We have official documents proving our rights,” he says. “But the balance inside the courts clearly favors settler organizations.”

He recalls that Israeli forces entered the family’s home before they had sufficient time to remove their belongings. Furniture was transported away, some of it damaged, and the family later had to pay additional fees to recover what remained from municipal storage facilities.

For Zuhair Rajabi, another displaced resident, the process amounts to “theft under legal cover.”

He says courts increasingly dismissed Palestinian ownership documents while accepting historical claims advanced by settler organizations, particularly after 2023, when eviction decisions appeared to accelerate dramatically.

Raed Basbous sees painful historical echoes. His family was displaced from West Jerusalem during the 1948 Nakba before purchasing land in Silwan under Jordanian administration. Today, they face displacement once again.

“Our family includes children and university students,” he says. “After the eviction, we were forced to split up among relatives because no realistic housing alternative exists.”

He says the consequences extend far beyond losing a house, leaving deep psychological and social scars that may last for years.

Jerusalem affairs researcher Fakhri Abu Diab says Batn al-Hawa cannot be separated from wider settlement plans across Silwan.

The neighborhood forms part of what Israeli planning documents often refer to as the “Holy Basin” surrounding Jerusalem’s Old City, where settlement projects seek to establish territorial continuity around the historic center.

According to Abu Diab, direct evictions represent only one component of a broader strategy that also includes home demolitions, restrictive building permits, financial penalties, economic pressures, and rising property prices that make remaining in Jerusalem increasingly difficult for Palestinian residents.

Neighboring Al-Bustan also faces plans that could displace hundreds of families while converting large sections of the area into projects serving Israeli settlers.

The European Union has repeatedly expressed opposition to Israeli settlement policies in occupied East Jerusalem, stating that forced evictions, demolitions, and property seizures violate international law while worsening humanitarian conditions and increasing tensions.

While evictions remove residents, demolitions alter the city’s physical landscape.

Data collected over recent years point to Silwan as one of the hardest-hit areas in East Jerusalem.

In 2024, Israeli occupation authorities demolished 68 structures there, including 50 residential homes. In 2025, another 66 buildings were demolished, among them 56 homes—the highest annual figure recorded in the neighborhood.

Al-Bustan alone witnessed the demolition of 46 structures between 2023 and 2025, including 37 residential buildings.

Elsewhere, Jabal al-Mukabber has become known for the growing phenomenon of self-demolition, where homeowners are compelled to destroy their own houses to avoid heavy municipal fines.

Residents demolished 54 structures themselves in 2020—the highest annual figure recorded in any Jerusalem neighborhood—followed by 29 self-demolitions in 2023, 25 in 2024, and 18 in 2025.

In Beit Hanina, 31 structures were demolished in 2023, 38 in 2024, and 15 in 2025. Particularly notable was the demolition of dozens of buildings still under construction, suggesting a focus on preventing future Palestinian urban expansion.

Issawiya and Shu’fat have experienced similar patterns, while recent years have seen demolitions expand into neighborhoods previously considered less exposed, including Bir Ayoub, Wadi al-Rababa, Karm al-Sheikh, and Batn al-Hawa itself.

If evictions target residents and demolitions target homes, land registration raises a broader question: Who will own Jerusalem in the future?

Large portions of East Jerusalem remained outside Israel’s final land registration system for decades due to historical complexities dating back to Ottoman and Jordanian rule before Israel occupied the eastern part of the city in 1967.

Recent efforts to accelerate land registration have become highly controversial among Palestinian legal experts.

Academic researcher Khaled Odetallah argues that the renewed registration process is closely tied to broader efforts to reshape the city.

Although presented by Israeli authorities as an administrative measure, he says the process reopens ownership questions concerning lands where Palestinian families have lived for generations.

“The issue is not registration itself,” he explains. “The problem lies in the legal environment surrounding it.”

Many Jerusalem families rely on old deeds, inheritance records, and historical sales contracts that may not satisfy modern registration requirements, leaving thousands of dunums potentially vulnerable to legal challenges.

Officials from the Jerusalem Governorate say developments during the first half of 2026 reflect an unprecedented escalation.

According to the governorate’s adviser, Marouf Al-Rifai, Israeli authorities carried out 288 demolition and land-leveling operations during the first six months of the year, including 198 direct demolitions and 66 forced self-demolitions.

The governorate also documented 762 expulsion orders, 31 house-arrest orders, 10 travel bans, and 89 settlement plans involving thousands of new settlement units.

Al-Rifai argues these measures should not be viewed separately.

“Demolitions coincide with settlement expansion,” he says. “Restrictions on residency and construction operate alongside economic pressures such as municipal taxes, fines, and licensing policies, while legal disputes over property often become mechanisms facilitating eviction.”

The governorate also recorded the confiscation of more than 1,398 dunams of land between early 2025 and mid-2026, alongside the approval of seven new settlement plans.

Among the largest is the E1 settlement project, which Palestinian officials say threatens approximately 7,000 Palestinians in 22 Bedouin communities east of Jerusalem with displacement.

Additional plans inside the Old City’s Bab al-Silsila area target approximately 50 residential and commercial buildings.

According to Al-Rifai, these developments indicate that Israeli authorities are increasingly combining legal, administrative, planning, economic, and security measures simultaneously, producing new realities on the ground that directly affect Jerusalem’s demographic balance.

From the emptied homes of Batn al-Hawa to the crowded apartment blocks of Kafr Aqab, where many displaced Jerusalemites have relocated beyond the separation barrier while retaining their Jerusalem residency, the city’s geography is being reshaped neighborhood by neighborhood.

For many Palestinian families, the struggle is no longer only about protecting individual homes, but about preserving their place in Jerusalem itself.

This article was written by Bilal Ghaith Kiswani for the Palestinian news agency, WAFA and is reprinted in Crossfirearabia.com

Features News

Hormuz Strait in The Checkered Ceasefire

CrossFireArabia
July 2, 2026

Re-opening the Strait of Hormuz would bring vital relief for many economies, but developing countries will continue to grapple with increased food and fuel costs, according to a new UN report released on Tuesday.

Following the shaky ceasefire in the US and Israeli war with Iran, commercial shipping through the strait quickly began to rebound in mid-June, but has slowed in recent days as Washington and Tehran have exchanged strikes in the region.

Iran has reportedly rejected an effort by France and Oman to remove mines from the strait and safeguard international trade as well as a suggestion by the UN’s International Maritime Organization (IMO) to open a new shipping lane off the coast of Oman.

While the report from the UN Trade and Development agency (UNCTAD) expects oil shipments to recover, it warns that freight contracts, supply chains and food systems would take longer to adjust and that high food costs could contribute to acute malnutrition in developing countries.

Vulnerable economies bear the brunt

Higher energy prices fuel higher transport costs, agricultural costs and inflation, which increases food prices long after the initial shock, UNCTAD noted.

Small island countries like Cabo Verde and Micronesia depend heavily on food and oil imports, which creates a “dual exposure” to shocks, making them especially vulnerable to price increases, UNCTAD said.

The agency estimated that 61 vulnerable economies are exposed to both oil and cereal import shocks.

Developing countries and small island States also tend to have tighter public finances and therefore less ability to absorb shocks, according to UNCTAD.

If these countries face difficulties mobilising resources, a heavy debt servicing burden, a drop in remittances or a decline in international aid, trade shocks could affect small nations even more.

Impact on food security

Beyond economic impacts, UNCTAD warned that although it is necessary to fully re-open the strait, food production risks remain.

Even short periods of unaffordable food in import-dependent countries can have lasting consequences for child wasting, meaning that a child has a low weight-for-height.

As real food prices increase by five per cent, the risk of child wasting increases by 15 per cent for poor children and 26 per cent for children of rural, landless poor households.

The report called for greater international support to help countries manage higher import costs, cushion food and fuel price shocks and strengthen their ability to cope with future trade disruptions.

“These shocks will be felt for many months, with developing countries bearing the heaviest impacts. I call on all parties to honour the ceasefire and redouble efforts,” UN Secretary-General António Guterres said. UN News