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The moment the first US-Israeli strikes hit Iran on February 28, people in Gaza understood what it meant for them. Not relief, not distraction — dread. A population already ground down by more than two years of war watched the world's attention pivot away, and with it, whatever thin thread of international pressure had been keeping their situation visible.

That fear has since proven well-founded.

As a sweeping regional conflict reshapes priorities in capitals from Washington to Tehran, Gaza has not stood still. Israel has moved swiftly to exploit the vacuum of global focus, tightening its control over the territory's crossings, further strangling the flow of humanitarian aid, and pressing ahead with military operations that continue to kill civilians — all while the ceasefire it nominally agreed to in October remains a document honored more in name than in practice.

Crossings Closed, Aid Choked Off

On the first day of the war with Iran, Israel shut Gaza's crossings entirely. Trucks carrying food, medicine, and essential supplies were stopped. Patients who had been waiting to travel abroad for medical treatment — in many cases life-saving treatment, in a territory whose healthcare system Israel's war had already reduced to rubble — found themselves stranded.

After several days of complete closure, Israel partially reopened the Kerem Abu Salem crossing, allowing a limited number of trucks to resume entry. The gesture has done little to address the scale of the crisis. Aid organizations say Gaza requires at least 600 trucks per day to meet the basic needs of its more than two million residents. Current volumes fall far short of that threshold.

Fuel and heavy machinery — essential for clearing the vast quantities of rubble left by nearly two and a half years of bombardment and for restoring even the most basic infrastructure — remain under severe restriction. Recovery, already an almost impossibly daunting task, has slowed further still.

"The war with Iran has given Israel broader space to intensify its crimes in Gaza, while the humanitarian situation has deteriorated rapidly due to severe restrictions on the crossings," said Ramy Abdu, head of the Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor.

The economic consequences have been immediate and severe. Mohammad Abu Jiyab, an economic affairs specialist, said the regional war has had a direct and measurable impact on conditions inside the territory. The reduction in crossing operations and the sharp drop in imports of both aid and commercial goods have sent prices soaring and emptied market shelves. A spokesperson for UNICEF confirmed that some basic commodities — food and cleaning products among them — have risen in price by as much as 200 to 300 percent.

"This has led to a sharp rise in prices and shortages of goods in the markets, along with a decline in the ability of international organisations to distribute humanitarian aid adequately to the population," Abu Jiyab said, warning that prolonged disruption would push Gaza's living and economic crises to a breaking point, leaving residents unable to meet even their most basic daily needs.