Piers Hadil El-Shalchi
speaker
85 appearances
9 recordings
1 series
first heard Dec 2024
last heard Jun 2025
Piers Hadil El-Shalchi’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
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But this morning he did tell reporters that he has concepts for Gaza, that he'd be happy to let the U.S. get involved and he'd make Gaza, quote, a freedom zone.
You're welcome.
Good morning, Scott.
Right. So the UN's World Food Program announced yesterday that it has run out of food stocks that it supplies to charity kitchens that make meals for Palestinians. You know, about half of Gaza's population depends on it. Israel says it's blocked the aid because it wants Hamas to hand over more hostages and it accuses Hamas of stealing the aid.
But the UN says that very little is actually diverted and humanitarian groups are calling the blockade a starvation tactic and potentially a war crime.
Yeah. So NPR's producer in Gaza, Enes Baba, went to one of these charity kitchens in central Gaza and spoke to Nader Qatun. He was in line to get that one plate of rice to feed his family of seven. He says the situation is catastrophic. There's no food, clean water, and life is just impossible. You know, Enes himself has also told us he's been struggling to find food and the cash to buy it.
Because, you know, some other aid groups still have food stocks, and there is still some food in the markets, but they're all quickly diminishing because no new goods are coming into Gaza. And the UN says the price of food in those markets has soared by as much as 1,400%.
I mean, short answer is not really. What we do know is that this week Israel said the head of Mossad met with Qatari officials in Doha. And Hamas said it sent a delegation to Cairo and some talks with Egyptian mediators started today with them. But this is basically where we've been at for the past couple of months.
You know, Hamas is still insisting on a full end to the war before releasing any more hostages. And Israel says it wants a short term ceasefire that would see some more of the hostages released. And they said that they just won't stop until Hamas is completely defeated. And we know that the Trump administration has made it very clear that it backs Israel.
That's right. So, ultra-nationalist security minister Itamar Ben-Gavir was in the U.S. this week. You know, during the Biden administration, ultra-nationalist politicians like Ben-Gavir were persona non gratis for things like their extremist, racist views on Arabs. But while Ben-Gavir didn't meet with President Trump this week, he did attend an event at Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort.
He said he met with senior Republican officials there. He didn't name them, though. And after the meeting, he said he has support for his position on Gaza, which includes bombing food aid depots there as a means to pressure Hamas to return the hostages. But it wasn't all warm. Anti-Gaza war protesters threw bottles at him, and apparently they didn't miss.
when he was leaving an event hosted by a Jewish group at Yale University.
Well, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been threatening this whole time to go back to war if Hamas did not release more hostages. This time, Israel says it is targeting Hamas militant commanders, wants to degrade Hamas's ability to rearm. That's according to an Israeli official who wasn't authorized to speak publicly.
Just a reminder, the first phase of the ceasefire ended on March 1st. Over six weeks, Hamas released 33 hostages. Israel freed almost 2,000 Palestinian prisoners from Israeli jails. The second phase was supposed to see a total withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza and a permanent end to the war.
But instead of starting those second phase talks, Israel came back and said it wanted an extension of the first phase, where Hamas would return half the living hostages still held in Gaza. So what did Hamas say? Well, Hamas said that it had held up its end of the first phase of the deal and wanted to start second phase deal talks, refused the extension, which has led to these attacks.
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said that, quote, the gates of hell will open in Gaza if all the hostages are not returned. And then we also know that the White House spokesperson, Caroline Leavitt, confirmed that Israel consulted the Trump administration before the strikes. And what are we hearing from inside Gaza? Well, I mean, explosions could be heard across the Strip.
The Gaza Health Ministry says hundreds of Palestinians have been killed, including children. NPR's Gaza producer Enes Baba was at Al-Ahli Hospital this morning.
Also, an Israeli military spokesman warned residents in several Gaza neighborhoods to start evacuating immediately.
So it might be a little too early to tell if the war is fully back on or what these strikes mean exactly for the ceasefire. You know, in recent weeks, Israel has been steadily increasing strikes in Gaza. Hamas hasn't yet responded with its own strikes. But today's assault is, of course, a pressure tactic by Israel to get Hamas to accept that extension. And they're a huge step back.
Israel has blocked all aid, including food and medical supplies, three weeks ago. So aid groups are rationing quickly dwindling supplies. And of course, you know, what does this mean for the fate of the hostages still inside Gaza? Israel says 59 remain held by Hamas, 24 of whom are still believed to be alive. NPR's Hadil El-Shalchi in Tel Aviv.
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