Unrest in peace: misery in Gaza

Nearly a year after Donald Trump announced the Board of Peace — a private club of world leaders, membership $1 billion, dedicated to peacebuilding — Gaza is more degraded and more hopeless than before. The Board's chairman is Trump himself. The executive board he appointed to oversee Gaza negotiations consists mostly of people better at scouting for business than ending humanitarian crises. It includes not a single Palestinian. At the UN General Assembly last month, Jared Kushner unveiled a $2.5 billion recovery plan with a slide deck promising "a connected, prosperous Gaza delivering security, dignity, and opportunity." On the ground, there is nothing to show for it.

What life is actually like

Nicholas Pelham, The Economist's Middle East correspondent, used to enter Gaza regularly through automatic metal doors and a chicken-wire alleyway, each time surprised by what he found. Now he has been barred for three years. He relies on UN agencies, friends, and voice notes from acquaintances. One of them, Ishan Mathar, describes waking two hours before sunrise to queue for bread — one loaf per person. He lost his house two weeks before the ceasefire. His wife, two daughters, and four sons live in a small urban area with no privacy.