It is the first time such a catastrophe has been officially declared in West Asia and confirms that the Palestinian people of Gaza have reached a new level of suffering, with the IPC reporting that more than half a million people face “catastrophic” conditions characterised by “starvation, destitution and death”.

This is the inevitable consequence, arguably even the end goal, of Israel’s decision early in its war to pursue the Dahiya doctrine of undermining the insurgency by punishing civilians, including by starvation.

The IDF turned to the doctrine after it quickly became clear that the government’s initial stated aim after Hamas’s October 2023 attack – destroying all the group’s paramilitaries, or “human animals” – was well-nigh impossible, despite the enormous difference in military power. The IDF has an array of weaponry as big as any state on earth, while Hamas has little more than light arms and some rockets.

Israel has long since gone far beyond the Dahiya doctrine and is now intent on clearing all inhabitants from Gaza City and the communities around it, with the districts that resist likely to be flattened. Many thousands of Palestinians have already tried to flee, but that has its own dangers as IDF airstrikes and artillery and tank barrages continue.

In recent days, Israel has again escalated its war efforts. Whatever the IDF may say, its attack on Nasser Hospital on Monday looks uncomfortably like “double-tap” targeting, in which two attacks follow in quick succession, with the second aiming to kill the medics, journalists and others who respond to the first.

The Nasser strike, which reportedly killed 20 people, five of whom were journalists, is particularly remarkable because the hospital is in the area of southern Gaza where Israel is forcing at least a million people to move, and it was expected to be available to them.

Meanwhile, there are indications that the war is becoming yet more difficult for Israel. The IDF may have the massive advantage in weapons and munitions, but its forces are not fundamentally equipped and trained for the large-scale counterinsurgency operations that it is determined to carry out in Gaza.

The IDF’s casualties are tiny compared with those of the Palestinian civilians, but it has seen close to 1,000 troops killed, at least 18,500 wounded or with PTSD, and 50 reported to have committed suicide. It reportedly currently lists 14,600 Israelis as deserters or draft dodgers.

As one analyst put it, “Israel’s military is structured to fight conventional armies in short wars, mobilising from reserves. Growing numbers of reservists are now refusing to report for duty, and the military is considering an appeal to the diaspora”.

Hamas, meanwhile, is said to have gained up to 15,000 troops between October 2023 and the beginning of this year, according to two US congressional sources who spoke to Reuters. And a classified Israeli military intelligence database put the group’s losses at less than 9,000, according to a new investigation by The Guardian and +972 magazine – far less than was previously indicated by Israeli sources.

Even so, the IDF’s actions in recent days suggest the war will continue for some time.

Israel may be increasingly seen as a rogue state internationally but that matters little to Binyamin Netanyahu, particularly since his essential ally, Donald Trump, shows little sign of withdrawing his support.

As long as that remains the case, it would take a cluster of other Western states to all break off diplomatic relations, ban arms sales to the IDF and impose wide-ranging sanctions on Israel to force any change in the Israeli government’s position. For now, that is scarcely likely, so much will depend on domestic opposition.

For now, Jewish public opinion within Israel still substantially supports the IDF and the removal of all Palestinians from Gaza by whatever means necessary. But this may at last be starting to change, as we are seeing growing public opposition to the war itself, with thousands reportedly protesting in Tel Aviv this weekend.

There are also indications that senior IDF officers increasingly see the war as unwinnable. A combination of internal opposition and increased pressure from abroad might just make for the beginnings of a breakthrough – particularly if states such as France, Germany and the UK were to intervene. But in the UK at least, the Labour government’s current approach suggests that may be little more than clutching at straws.