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LAST UPDATE | 21 May
IN THE 19 months since Israel launched war on Gaza in response to the 7 October attacks, it seemed as though Israel was able to act with a good deal of impunity from western states.
However, there has been a marked change in relations towards Israel this week following a stark warning about the aid blockade on Gaza and a new operation to “destroy” and “conquest” Gaza.
Here’s a timeline of the recent actions which have resulted in western governments exerting more pressure on Israel.
Israel stopped all deliveries of humanitarian aid and commercial supplies to Gaza on 2 March.
This prompted President Michael D Higgins to warn that “we are now also seeing starvation being used as an instrument of war”.
Israel then resumed its military offensive two weeks later, ending a two-month ceasefire with Hamas.
Since Israel resumed its strikes on Gaza on 18 March, an estimated 3,340 people have been killed in Gaza, as the death toll in the region has surpassed 53,000.
Last Saturday, 17 May, Israel then launched Operation Gideon’s Chariot, which reportedly includes a plan to seize full control of Gaza and relocate its entire population to a small southern enclave.
The plan was approved on 5 May and with its approval came increasingly violent rhetoric from Israeli government figures towards Gaza.
Israeli finance minister Bezalel Smotrich remarked that Operation Gideon’s Chariot would involve the “conquest of the Gaza Strip”.
“Gaza will be entirely destroyed,” he added.
This operation came less than a week after Hamas released Israeli-American soldier Edan Alexander who had been held hostage for more than 19 months in the Gaza Strip.
It was viewed as a goodwill gesture by Hamas towards the Trump administration and one that the group hoped could lay the groundwork for a new ceasefire with Israel.
“When Edan Alexander was released, we thought that moment would open a door to end this tragedy,” Qatar’s prime minister said yesterday.
“But the response was a more violent wave of strikes,” said Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al-Thani.
Indeed, this wave of strikes is reported to have resulted in US vice president JD Vance skipping a trip to Israel on his way home from the papal inauguration of Pope Leo XIV.
While the White House officially said “logistical constraints” resulted in the visit being shelved, it is reported that the actual reason is that the Trump administration did not want to be seen as endorsing the Israeli decision to launch a massive operation in Gaza.
Under pressure from the Trump administration and EU allies, Israel decided on Sunday to allow some aid into Gaza.
But Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu suggested that he was only allowing aid in because “images of mass starvation” could undermine Israel’s war effort.
He also said on Monday that Israel would “take control of all the territory” of the Gaza Strip.
Only five aid trucks entered Gaza the following day, 19 May, which was described by the EU as a “drop in the ocean”.
In a rare joint statement on Monday, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, French President Emmanuel Macron and Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said they “strongly oppose the expansion of Israel’s military operations in Gaza”.
The joint statement described the suffering in Gaza as “intolerable” and called on the “Israeli Government to stop its military operations in Gaza and immediately allow humanitarian aid to enter Gaza”.
The statement added: “We have always supported Israel’s right to defend Israelis against terrorism. But this escalation is wholly disproportionate.”
It also expressed opposition to “any attempt to expand settlements in the West Bank” and threatened “targeted sanctions”.
The UK yesterday issued sanctions on individuals and illegal settler outposts and organisations “supporting violence against Palestinian communities in the West Bank”.
Sometimes referred to as the “godmother of the settler movement”, she featured in a recent BBC documentary by journalist Louis Theroux which explored the actions of Jewish settlers in the West Bank, also known as the Occupied Palestinian Territories.
Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu labelled the joint statement by the UK, France and Canada a “huge prize” for Hamas.
Netanyahu also said that “Israel accepts President Trump’s vision and urges all European leaders to do the same”.
By asking Israel to end a defensive war for our survival before Hamas terrorists on our border are destroyed and by demanding a Palestinian state, the leaders in London, Ottowa and Paris are offering a huge prize for the genocidal attack on Israel on October 7 while inviting more…
— Benjamin Netanyahu - בנימין נתניהו (@netanyahu) May 19, 2025
This was an apparent reference to Trump’s proposal in February to “take over” the Gaza Strip and permanently resettle its Palestinian residents.
The plan was swiftly rejected and denounced and Trump later walked back the remarks.
Meanwhile, it was warned yesterday by the UN that up to 14,000 babies are at risk of imminent death due to a lack of aid.
While Israel said 93 trucks had entered Gaza yesterday, the UN said the aid had been held up.
It was also announced yesterday that the EU would review its political and economic agreement with Israel over the “catastrophic” situation in Gaza.
“The aid that Israel has allowed in is of course welcomed, but it’s a drop in the ocean,” said Kaja Kallas, the EU’s High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy.
She added that “aid must flow immediately without obstruction and at scale because this is what is needed”.
The EU-Israel Association Agreement came into force in 2000 and aims to facilitate political dialogue and economic cooperation between the EU and Israel.
The EU is Israel’s biggest trading partner, accounting for 32% of Israel’s total trade in goods last year.
Some 34.2% of Israel’s imports came from the EU while, and 28.8% of the country’s exports went to the EU.
Kallas said the EU was acting after “a strong majority” of its 27 member states backed the move in a bid to pressure Israel.
Junior minister at the Department of Foreign Affairs Neale Richmond told The Journal that the review is very welcome.
“We’re a bit relieved that a strong majority of member states are finally coming round to what has been the established Irish position for over a year,” said Richmond.
“That’s not something that would have happened before, so there has been a shift in EU opinion with member states.”
He said that the EU diplomatic corps will now carry out a review to see if there have been human rights breaches by Israel in Gaza or the West Bank.
“I’d be shocked if they could find otherwise,” said Richmond.
“Once the review makes its finding, which I expect to say that there are violations, then it’s up to the Commission to decide what are we going to do about this.”
He said that while that review is ongoing, the agreement should be suspended but he also acknowledged that “there would be great difficulty in getting EU consensus on that”.
“I am very well aware that for a lot of people this is not enough and is very soft compared what they want to see happen,” said Richmond.
“We’ll do the review but what we really want to see is some genuine build up of pressure on the Israeli government to do a number of things immediately.
“To let real humanitarian aid into Gaza, a de-escalation of violence, and we want to see the Israelis back at the table for peace talks, that’s what we want to happen now.
“But we have to use every tool within the EU to push to exert that pressure.”
Speaking to Channel 4 News last night, Richmond declined to name countries which voted against the review, but did list “Hungary, Czechia, Germany, Slovakia and Austria” as member states that have “consistently” supported Israel during the war.
While there is the possibility of the agreement being suspended following a review, it’s unlikely there would be enough support for such a move.
Richmond also called on other EU member states to “move swiftly” to formally recognise the State of Palestine.
Elsewhere, the UK also decided to halt trade talks with Israel yesterday, in addition to sanctioning those involved in supporting violence against Palestinian communities in the West Bank.
The UK’s Foreign Secretary David Lammy condemned the aid blockade in Gaza and told the House of Commons that “we cannot stand by in the face of this new deterioration”.
“Therefore today, I am announcing that we have suspended negotiations with this Israeli government on a new free trade agreement,” said Lammy.
The UK had begun began negotiations to upgrade its existing free-trade agreement with Israel in 2022.
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