Palestinians in Gaza Fear More Suffering as Israel Election Nears

As Israel prepares for its upcoming election, Palestinians in Gaza are fearing what the result could mean for their future. They know that decisions made by Israeli leaders could shape their lives, even as Israel’s military campaign has reduced large parts of the territory to rubble and killed nearly 75,000 people.

Gaza, where nearly one million displaced Palestinians are living amid severe sanitation problems, water shortages and the constant threat of Israeli attacks, has received little attention during the election campaign.

Both Benjamin Netanyahu’s far-right coalition and Gadi Eisenkot’s opposition Yashar party have focused on defeating Hamas following the 7 October attacks and addressing the trauma experienced by Israeli society. Meanwhile, the humanitarian disaster unfolding just across the border has received little, if any, attention from the main political parties.

“We hope a new government will come to power that is less willing to kill, displace and destroy us,” said Sami Abu Rumi, 47, originally from Rafah, who is now displaced in al-Mawasi, Khan Younis. “However, we ultimately believe that the thinking of Israeli governments is largely the same.”

Neither Netanyahu nor Eisenkot has presented a clear plan for Gaza’s future. Both have promised to bring Hamas’s rule to an end and have expressed support for Donald Trump’s controversial peace plan.

Eisenkot, a former military chief whose party is ahead of Netanyahu’s Likud in the polls, has promised to rebuild Israel’s international standing after three years of war. However, his military background and past positions indicate that he does not support a softer approach to security.

Eisenkot was a senior commander during Israel’s 2006 war against Hezbollah. His son and two nephews were later killed while fighting in Gaza. He also supported the so-called “Dahiya doctrine”, a military strategy that advocates the use of overwhelming force against civilian areas where armed groups operate. Critics argue that this approach has since been used in Gaza, resulting in widespread destruction that they say may amount to war crimes.

“Eisenkot talks about defeating Hamas, while Netanyahu boasts about military operations and the killing of Palestinians,” Abu Rumi said. “The suffering of Gaza has become material for election campaigns. At the same time, families here are struggling to feed their children, keep them in school and obtain medical treatment. With homes and essential infrastructure destroyed, simply staying alive has become a daily battle.”

Earlier this week, Israel’s Arab-led Joint List party released a 48-second election video featuring drone footage of Gaza’s destroyed neighbourhoods. The video criticised the way the destruction has been treated as normal.

“[We] behave as if everything that has happened here is completely normal,” the voiceover states. “As if tens of thousands of people were not killed here, as if entire cities had not been destroyed and reduced to wastelands.”

The party pledged that it “will not be silent”, adding that while other parties want further destruction, its own position is to offer life and a different future.

The possibility of Arab parties joining an Eisenkot-led coalition remains extremely limited, although they could potentially support a government from outside the coalition. However, pessimism among Palestinians in Gaza remains widespread, with many believing that the election result will bring little improvement to their circumstances.

“I do not believe anyone genuinely cares about Gaza or has the interests of its people at heart,” said Haneen Hamdouna, 45, from Beit Lahia, who has also been displaced to al-Mawasi. “Whether it is Netanyahu, Eisenkot or somebody else, attacking Gaza appears to have become part of Israel’s election campaigning.”

“For years, we have hoped that the next government might be better than the previous one, only to discover that the situation becomes even worse. Perhaps 200 trucks would be allowed to enter Gaza instead of 100, but that would not bring any meaningful change to our daily lives.”

In Gaza, most residents are too busy trying to find food and drinking water to follow developments in Israel’s election campaign. Concerns about another wave of hunger are growing as markets run short of fresh vegetables and other essential goods.

Residents say commercial deliveries have been halted for approximately a week, pushing prices higher. The cost of flour has risen to more than three times its previous level, while the declining availability of humanitarian assistance has left families increasingly exposed to the risk of another severe food crisis.

Despite these immediate hardships, some Palestinians in Gaza are closely following the Israeli election. Their interest is driven less by the expectation of positive change than by fears about what the outcome could mean for their safety and future.

Many fear that Palestinian suffering has become a recurring feature of Israeli election campaigns, with political candidates competing to demonstrate who can adopt the toughest position on Gaza rather than presenting proposals that could improve the lives of its people.

“A friend was supposed to hold his son’s wedding in the coming days,” said Karim Mareesh, 43. “However, he decided to postpone the ceremony until after the Israeli election. He was worried that the far-right government might win another term, leading to a resumption of the war and forcing him to flee once again. He could lose his tent and the wedding supplies he had worked so hard to save for.”

Hope remains difficult to find in Gaza, where three years of war have transformed entire neighbourhoods into wastelands filled with broken concrete, destroyed buildings and bomb craters. Imagining a better future has become even more difficult as Israeli restrictions on food and humanitarian assistance have contributed to conditions in which, according to Amnesty International, starvation is being used as a weapon of war. The scale of the devastation is also reflected in reports that more than 20,000 Palestinian children have been killed since 7 October 2023.

“I feel that everything said about addressing our suffering is nothing more than an attempt to comfort us, or simply words and promises that we no longer believe,” said Noor AlMoghanni, 20, from Gaza City.

“Whether Netanyahu wins or loses, the reality here will remain unchanged. From my perspective, their goal is to destroy Gaza and the foundations that make life possible here.”