How a visit to Egypt 60 years ago exerted a formative influence on David Hockney’s artistic career

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David Hockney walks past a photographic copy of his 2007 painting ‘Bigger Trees Near Water’ at the Tate gallery in London in 2009. (AFP)
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Updated 13 May 2023
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How a visit to Egypt 60 years ago exerted a formative influence on David Hockney’s artistic career

  • Hockney spent most of October 1963 in Egypt on commission for The Sunday Times, visiting Cairo, Alexandria and Luxor
  • The British artist’s contact with one of the world’s major civilizations left a permanent mark on his subsequent work

LONDON: In October 1963, a young British artist, fresh out of London’s Royal College of Art but already making a name for himself as a groundbreaking painter, traveled to Egypt, fulfilling an ambition to visit a country that had long fascinated him.

David Hockney’s odyssey to the land of the pharaohs 60 years ago would prove to be a turning point in the nascent career of an artist on the cusp of achieving global fame.




Cover of the catalogue for the “Egyptian Journeys” exhibition, featuring a comprehensive selection of the drawings Hockney made in 1963 and on a subsequent return trip to Egypt in 1978. (Supplied)

As Marco Livingstone, an art historian and author of numerous books about Hockney, would later write, Hockney “responded to his first experience of the country and its monuments with some of the liveliest and most inventive drawings he had yet made directly from life.”

Furthermore, “his contact with one of the world’s major civilizations left a permanent mark on his subsequent work, encouraging him towards a greater naturalism through direct observation.”

The 40 or more drawings Hockney produced on that journey “remain among his masterpieces.”

But as fascinating as fans of the artist might find the details of Hockney’s long-forgotten expedition to Egypt, even more intriguing is the story of what became of those 40 drawings, a tale in which politics and the machinations of the art world played out against a background of not one but two of the most momentous events the modern world has known.

In February 1962, The Sunday Times had become the first British newspaper to publish a color supplement, and the following year its editor, Mark Boxer, hit on the idea of commissioning Hockney, then an up-and-coming young artist, to produce some art for the magazine.

It was, as Livingstone would later write, “a great opportunity and an honor for an artist then aged only 26.”




David Hockney in 2016. (AFP file photo)

Hockney rejected Boxer’s first suggestion, that he travel north to make some drawings in his hometown of Bradford, but when the newspaper offered to bankroll a journey to Egypt, he leaped at the chance.

The commission chimed with an interest Hockney had already developed in ancient Egyptian art, which had influenced paintings he had produced while still a student.

These included “A Grand Procession of Dignitaries in the Semi-Egyptian Style,” “Egyptian Head Disappearing into the Clouds,” and “The First Marriage,” all painted between 1961 and 1962 and inspired by studies he had made of Egyptian art in Western museums.

Hockney spent most of October 1963 in Egypt, visiting Cairo, Alexandria and Luxor. It was, as he later recalled, “a marvelous three weeks … a great adventure.”




A view of the Cairo roundabout in the 1960s when David Hockney first visited Egypt, where he was inspired to draw ‘everywhere and everything.’ (Getty Images/AFP)

He took no camera, only drawing paper, and “I drew everywhere and everything — the pyramids, modern Egypt. It was terrific. I carried all my drawings everywhere and a lot of equipment, and I would get up very early in the morning.”

Hockney “loved the cafe life” of Cairo. He found Egyptians to be “very easy-going people, very humorous and pleasant. I liked them very much.”

But not one of the drawings he produced under the Egyptian sun would ever be printed in The Sunday Times.

On Nov. 22, 1963, a month after Hockney’s return to England with his portfolio of work, President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas. In the wave of global coverage that followed, the planned Hockney issue of the magazine was swept aside, never to be revisited.

Exactly two weeks after Kennedy’s killing, however, many of the drawings went on public display as part of Hockney’s first solo exhibition, “Pictures with People in,” held at the London gallery of his dealer, John Kasmin.

FASTFACTS

David Hockney’s first trip to Egypt was commissioned by art critic David Sylvester and journalist Mark Boxer at the Sunday Times.

“View from Nile Hilton” sold for $426,666 at Christie’s London on Feb. 8, 2001.

“Portrait of an Artist (Pool with Two Figures)” stands as the most expensive painting by a living artist ever sold, for $90 million, in 2018.

The show was a great success, and many of the drawings were snapped up for what, as would soon become apparent, were bargain prices.

At the show’s end, Hockney left for America, setting up a studio in Los Angeles, where he embarked on the trio of iconic paintings of swimming pools for which he is best known.

In February 2020, one of them, “The Splash,” painted in 1966, sold at a Sotheby’s auction in London for $30 million. Another, “A Bigger Splash,” painted the following year, hangs in Tate Britain.

Meanwhile, Hockney’s Egyptian drawings had found their way into various private collections around the world. Here they would remain, discreetly changing hands occasionally and accruing value and mystique. None has ever been purchased by a public gallery.

Hockney made only one painting after his return from Egypt. “Great Pyramid at Giza with Broken Head from Thebes” was painted in 1963, very shortly after his trip. It went into private hands but 50 years later came up for sale at Christie’s in London, where it sold in February 2013 for £3.5 million.




A view of the Sphinx and the Giza Pyramids in Cairo, which inspired David Hockney to draw the “Great Pyramid at Giza with Broken Head from Thebes” after his return from Egypt in the 1960s. (Shutterstock image)

On Feb. 8, 2001, however, one of the drawings Hockney had made in Egypt surfaced in spectacular fashion in an earlier Christie’s auction in London. “View from Nile Hilton,” made in colored wax crayons and pencil on paper, measuring 31 cm by 25.4 cm and signed and dated by the artist, went under the hammer with an estimated price of between £8,000 ($10,000) and £12,000.

That, as Livingstone told Arab News, was already considerably more than the £50 or so that the drawing would have fetched back in 1963.

But then something extraordinary happened. After a bidding war between two anonymous bidders, the drawing went for £234,750.

At the time, the identities of both bidders remained unknown.

But, as Livingstone revealed to Arab News, the victorious collector was Sheikh Saud bin Mohammed bin Ali Al-Thani, Qatar’s then minister of art, culture and heritage, who at the time was creating collections for his country’s planned museums and was one of the most prolific art buyers in the world.




David Hockney working in a studio, around 1967. (Getty Images/AFP)

The reason the price of the Hockney went through the ceiling at the auction, said Livingstone, was because the sheikh “was in battle for it with David Thomson, who was the son of Roy Thomson, who was the owner of the Sunday Times in 1963.

“In 1963, they could have bought the drawing for next to nothing. Thomson wanted to have a memento of the Egypt trip, but he was outbid by Sheikh Saud, who I think was determined that every one of the drawings that was available would go to him.”

Because Sheikh Saud had a plan.

“Kasmin, Hockney’s dealer from 1962 until 1992, was contacted by Sheikh Saud about finding other drawings because Sheikh Saud wanted to do an exhibition of them in Cairo at the Palace of Arts,” said Livingstone.




Marco Livingstone. (Supplied)

Livingstone, an authority on Hockney who over the years has worked closely with the artist on many book and exhibition projects, was in turn contacted by Kasmin, and between them “we brought together everything we could find that people were willing to lend, and by then Sheikh Saud had bought some of the best drawings.”

Rounding up the body of work was not an easy task.

“I knew where a few things were and so did Kasmin, who would have sold some of them, but this was nearly 40 years later. By then he had sold his archive to the Getty, so he didn’t necessarily have that information to hand, and so we relied on his memory about whom he might have sold them to, but some of those pictures would have changed hands in the meantime,” Livingstone said.

Eventually, under the exhibition title “Egyptian Journeys,” they pulled together “a comprehensive selection” of drawings Hockney had made in 1963 and on a subsequent return trip to the country in 1978.




David Hockney walks past a photographic copy of his 2007 painting ‘Bigger Trees Near Water’ at the Tate gallery in London in 2009. (AFP)

Once again, however, a major geopolitical event would intervene.

Four months before the Hockney exhibition was due to open in Cairo, the 9/11 attacks on America threw the region into turmoil.

In the event, the show did go ahead, running at Cairo’s Palace of Arts from Jan. 16 to Feb.16, 2002, but it was touch and go, as Livingstone’s preface to the catalogue, printed in Italy ahead of the show, made clear.

Although planning for the exhibition had begun in the summer of 2001, “the catalogue goes to press at a time of great uncertainty on the world stage,” he wrote.

This might, he added, “seem on the surface like a small show,” but “we are making a very important statement with this exhibition about the mutual respect between our cultures, and the degree of friendship and understanding that can be achieved through the healing power of art.”




Visitors attend the 'David Hockney: Bigger & Closer (not smaller & further away)’ immersive exhibition at the Lightroom gallery in London on February 22, 2023. (AFP)

In a foreword to the catalogue, Farouk Hosni, who at the time was Egypt’s minister of culture, wrote that “art has never been seen as such a vital and powerful tool of cross-cultural communication and dialogue in the world as it is today, especially in light of the critical recent events that have shaken the world.”

He added: “In these days of dispute, anxiety and confusion, the exhibition is an invitation for all artists and creative people of the world to communicate, and paves the way for a more tolerant, harmonious and human world.”

But thanks to the fallout from the 9/11 attacks and US President George W. Bush’s subsequent “war on terror,” the show ultimately failed to make the big splash that had been hoped for.




A view of the Nile in Cairo in the 1960s, which inspired David Hockney's "Nile Hilton" painting. (Getty Images/AFP)

“Hockney was meant to go to the opening of the show in Cairo,” Livingstone revealed to Arab News.

“Sheikh Saud wanted it to be a surprise for him. When he got off the plane, he was going to be taken to the Palace of Arts and shown this exhibition, then Sheikh Saud was going to take him on a two-week tour around the Egyptian archaeological sites that are not available to the normal tourist.

“But at the last minute, a day or two beforehand, David decided he didn’t feel safe traveling to the Middle East when there was the possibility of another Gulf war.”

It was an opportunity lost forever.

Although unaware of the secret exhibition that had been created, Hockney had been planning to revisit Egypt again anyway in 2001, after an absence of 22 years, and the catalogue’s poignant conclusion hinted at the possibilities.

“The huge discoveries that he has made in his work during the interim period will undoubtedly affect the kinds of drawings that he will make when he finally arrives there again,” it read.

“Now older and wiser than when he first saw Egypt as a young man, he remains as open as ever to new influences.

“It seems more than likely, therefore, that he will again emerge transformed from the experience, thrilled by the contact with this great and ancient civilisation, spellbound by its magical atmosphere to rise to the challenge of producing more great art.”

Sadly, however, both for art and for Egypt, it was not to be.

 


‘We must help them’: Morocco students get peers back in school

Updated 28 June 2025
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‘We must help them’: Morocco students get peers back in school

  • “We must help them come back,” said Rifai, who goes to middle school in Tiflet
  • Moroccan authorities offer dropouts a chance back in with support from fellow students

TIFLET, Morocco: Moroccan student Said Rifai, 15, is on a mission to help his peers pursue education in a country where an estimated 270,000 children drop out of school each year.

“We must help them come back,” said Rifai, who goes to middle school in Tiflet, a town east of the capital Rabat, and has already helped several of his friends back to school as part of a national youth-led effort.

To tackle the problem, which educators and officials warn exacerbates social inequalities and drives poverty, Moroccan authorities offer dropouts a chance back in with support from fellow students.

One of Rifai’s classmates, Doha El Ghazouli, who is also 15, said that together they had helped several friends return to school “before they abandoned their future.”

Huda Enebcha, 16, told AFP how she and her friend Ghazouli managed to convince a neighbor to resume her studies.

“We helped her review the most difficult subjects, and we showed her videos of some school activities,” said Enebcha.

“She finally agreed after a lot of effort.”

To ease the transition back into the education system, the “second chance school” scheme offers some teenagers vocational training alongside remedial classes, with an emphasis on giving former dropouts agency and choice.

Hssain Oujour, who leads the national program, said 70 percent of the teenagers enrolled in it have taken up vocational training that could help them enter the labor force, with another 20 percent returning to the traditional school system.

Across Morocco, a country of 37 million people, classrooms are often overcrowded, and the public education system is generally viewed as inferior to private institutions, which charge fees that can be prohibitive for many families.

Around 250 million children worldwide lack basic literacy skills, and in Morocco, nearly one in four inhabitants — around nine million people — are illiterate, according to the UN children’s agency UNICEF.

Dropout rates tend to be higher in rural and impoverished areas, said Said Tamouh, the principal of the Jawhara School in Tiflet that the students interviewed by AFP attend.

An NGO-run “second chance school” nearby has some 110 students, who can sign up for art classes, hairdressing training or classical Arabic language courses.

Sanae Sami, 17, who took up a make-up class, said she was “truly” given another shot at pursuing education.

“When you leave school, there’s nothing for you,” she said.

“That’s why I decided to come back, especially thanks to the teachers at this center.”

Hafida El Fakir, who heads the Salam association which runs the school, said that “support and guidance” were key in helping students “succeed and go far.”

Amine Othmane, a student who had re-entered the system last year with encouragement from his friends, is now helping others.

To convince dropouts, he said, “they first have to regret leaving and want to return.”

Back in school, 18-year-old Aya Benzaki now hopes to achieve her dream of graduating with a diploma, and Jihane Errafii, 17, said she was grateful for the friends who had supported her journey.

“I just needed someone to lend me a hand.”


Israeli strike on south Lebanon kills one: ministry

Updated 28 June 2025
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Israeli strike on south Lebanon kills one: ministry

  • The health ministry said that an “Israeli enemy” drone strike on a car in Kunin, south Lebanon, killed one man in a preliminary toll
  • The attack comes a day after Israel killed a woman and wounded 25 other people

BEIRUT: An Israeli strike on southern Lebanon killed one person on Saturday, the Lebanese health ministry said, the latest attack despite a ceasefire between Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah.

In a statement, the health ministry said that an “Israeli enemy” drone strike on a car in Kunin, south Lebanon, killed one man in a preliminary toll.

The Israeli military did not immediately comment on the incident.

The attack comes a day after Israel killed a woman and wounded 25 other people in strikes across the country’s south.

Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency reported that the woman was killed in an Israeli drone strike on an apartment in the city of Nabatiyeh.

Israeli military spokesman Avichay Adraee said on social media that the army “did not target any civilian building.”

The Friday attacks included a “wave of successive heavy strikes” in the Nabatiyeh region which injured seven people, according to the NNA.

The Israeli military said it “identified rehabilitation attempts made by Hezbollah beforehand and struck terror infrastructure sites in the area.”

Adraee said the civilian building “was hit by a rocket that was inside the (fire and defense array) site and launched and exploded as a result of the strike.”

Israel has repeatedly bombed its northern neighbor despite the November ceasefire that aimed to end over a year of hostilities with Hezbollah.

Under the ceasefire deal, Hezbollah was to pull its fighters back north of the Litani river, some 30 kilometers (20 miles) from the Israeli border, leaving the Lebanese army and United Nations peacekeepers as the only armed parties in the region.

Israel was required to fully withdraw its troops from the country but has kept them in five locations in south Lebanon that it deems strategic.


Six Israelis detained for attacking soldiers in West Bank: military

Updated 28 June 2025
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Six Israelis detained for attacking soldiers in West Bank: military

JERUSALEM: Six Israelis were detained for assaulting soldiers near a town in the occupied West Bank where clashes with Palestinians erupted earlier this week, the military said on Saturday.
Soldiers went to disperse a gathering of Israelis near the central West Bank town of Kafr Malik overnight Friday to Saturday, the military said in a statement.
“Upon the arrival of the security forces, dozens of Israeli civilians hurled stones toward them and physically and verbally assaulted the soldiers, including the Battalion Commander,” it said.
“In addition, the civilians vandalized and damaged security forces’ vehicles, and attempted to ram the security forces,” it added.
“The security forces dispersed the gathering, and six Israeli civilians were apprehended and transferred to the Israel Police for further processing.”
Contacted by AFP, the Israeli military declined to say whether those arrested were residents of Israeli settlements in the territory, which has been occupied by Israel since 1967.
The military referred the query to the Israeli police, which was not available to comment.
In a separate incident on Wednesday, the Palestinian health ministry said three men died in Kafr Malik in an attack by settlers.
AFP journalists saw several hundred people gather for the three men’s funerals on Thursday.
The Palestinian foreign ministry alleged “official complicity” by Israel in Wednesday’s attack, in a message on X.
“Israeli occupation forces prevented ambulance crews from reaching the wounded and obstructed civil defense teams from entering the village for several hours, allowing fires ignited by the settlers to spread and destroy dozens of homes,” it said.
The Israeli military did not respond to a request by AFP to comment on those claims.
A military spokesman told AFP its forces intervened on Wednesday after “dozens of Israeli civilians set fire to property in Kafr Malik” and a “confrontation” involving “mutual rock-hurling” broke out between Israelis and Palestinians.
Referring to action by the Palestinians, the spokesman said: “Several terrorists fired from within Kafr Malik and hurled rocks at the forces, who opened fire toward the source of fire and the rock-hurlers.”
Five Israelis were arrested, the military added.


Driven to starvation, Sudanese people eat weeds and plants to survive as war rages

Updated 28 June 2025
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Driven to starvation, Sudanese people eat weeds and plants to survive as war rages

  • Sudan plunged into war in April 2023 when tensions between the Sudanese army and its rival paramilitary the RSF escalated to fighting and spread across the country, killing over 20,000 people and pushing many to the brink of famine

CAIRO: With Sudan in the grips of war and millions struggling to find enough to eat, many are turning to weeds and wild plants to quiet their pangs of hunger. They boil the plants in water with salt because, simply, there is nothing else.
Grateful for the lifeline it offered, a 60-year-old retired school teacher penned a love poem about a plant called Khadija Koro. It was “a balm for us that spread through the spaces of fear,” he wrote, and kept him and many others from starving.
A.H, who spoke on the condition his full name not be used, because he feared retribution from the warring parties for speaking to the press, is one of 24.6 million people in Sudan facing acute food insecurity — nearly half the population, according to the I ntegrated Food Security Phase Classification. Aid workers say the war spiked market prices, limited aid delivery, and shrunk agricultural lands in a country that was once a breadbasket of the world.
Sudan plunged into war in April 2023 when simmering tensions between the Sudanese army and its rival paramilitary the Rapid Support Forces escalated to fighting in the capital Khartoum and spread across the country, killing over 20,000 people, displacing nearly 13 million people, and pushing many to the brink of famine in what aid workers deemed the world’s largest hunger crisis.
Food insecurity is especially bad in areas in the Kordofan region, the Nuba Mountains, and Darfur, where El Fasher and Zamzam camp are inaccessible to the Norwegian Refugee Council, said Mathilde Vu, an aid worker with the group based in Port Sudan. Some people survive on just one meal a day, which is mainly millet porridge. In North Darfur, some people even sucked on coal to ease their hunger.
On Friday, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called the Sudanese military leader Gen. Abdel-Fattah Burhan and asked him for a week-long ceasefire in El Fasher to allow aid delivery. Burhan agreed to that request, according to an army statement, but it’s unknown whether the RSF would agree to that truce.
A.H. said aid distribution often provided slight relief. His wife in children live in Obeid and also struggle to secure enough food due to high prices in the market.
His poem continued: “You were a world that sends love into the barren time. You were a woman woven from threads of the sun. You were the sandalwood and the jasmine and a revelation of green, glowing and longing.”
Fighting restricted travel, worsening food insecurity
Sudanese agricultural minister Abu Bakr Al-Bashari told Al-Hadath news channel in April that there are no indicators of famine in the country, but there is shortage of food supplies in areas controlled by the paramilitary forces, known as RSF.
However, Leni Kinzli, World Food Programme Sudan spokesperson, said 17 areas in Gezeira, most of the Darfur region, and Khartoum, including Jebel Aulia are at risk of famine. Each month, over 4 million people receive assistance from the group, including 1.7 million in areas facing famine or at risk, Kinzli said.
The state is suffering from two conflicts: one between the Rapid Support Forces and the army, and another with the People’s Liberation Movement-North, who are fighting against the army and have ties with the RSF, making it nearly impossible to access food, clean water, or medicine.
He can’t travel to Obeid in North Kordofan to be with his family, as the Rapid Support Forces blocked roads. Violence and looting have made travel unsafe, forcing residents to stay in their neighborhoods, limiting their access to food, aid workers said.
A.H. is supposed to get a retirement pension from the government, but the process is slow, so he doesn’t have a steady income. He can only transfer around $35 weekly to his family out of temporary training jobs, which he says is not enough.
Hassan, another South Kordofan resident in Kadugli said that the state has turned into a “large prison for innocent citizens” due to the lack of food, water, shelter, income, and primary health services caused by the RSF siege.
International and grassroots organizations in the area where he lives were banned by the local government, according to Hassan, who asked to be identified only by his first name in fear of retribution for speaking publicly while being based in an area often engulfed with fighting.
So residents ate the plants out of desperation.
“You would groan to give life an antidote when darkness appeared to us through the window of fear.,” A.H. wrote in his poem. “You were the light, and when our tears filled up our in the eyes, you were the nectar.
Food affordability
Vu warned that food affordability is another ongoing challenge as prices rise in the markets. A physical cash shortage prompted the Norwegian Refugee Council to replace cash assistance with vouchers. Meanwhile, authorities monopolize some markets and essential foods such as corn, wheat flour, sugar and salt are only sold through security approvals, according to Hassan.
Meanwhile, in southwest Sudan, residents of Nyala, the capital of South Darfur, rely on growing crops, but agricultural lands are shrinking due to fighting and lack of farming resources.
Hawaa Hussein, a woman who has been displaced in El Serif camp since 2004, told the AP that they benefit from the rainy season but they’re lacking essential farming resources such as seeds and tractors to grow beans, peanuts, sesame, wheat, and weika — dried powdered okra.
Hussein, a grandmother living with eight family members, said her family receives a food parcel every two months, containing lentils, salt, oil, and biscuits. Sometimes she buys items from the market with the help of community leaders.
“There are many families in the camp, mine alone has five children, and so aid is not enough for everyone … you also can’t eat while your neighbor is hungry and in need,” she said.
El Serif camp is sheltering nearly 49,000 displaced people, the camp’s civic leader Abdalrahman Idris told the AP. Since the war began in 2023, the camp has taken in over 5,000 new arrivals, with a recent surge coming from the greater Khartoum region, which is the Sudanese military said it took full control of in May.
“The food that reaches the camp makes up only 5 percent of the total need. Some people need jobs and income. People now only eat two meals, and some people can’t feed their children,” he said.
In North Darfur, south of El Fasher, lies Zamzam camp, one of the worst areas struck by famine and recent escalating violence. An aid worker with the Emergency Response Rooms previously based in the camp who asked not to be identified in fear of retribution for speaking with the press, told the AP that the recent wave of violence killed some and left others homeless.
Barely anyone was able to afford food from the market as a pound of sugar costs 20,000 Sudanese pounds ($33) and a soap bar 10,000 Sudanese pounds ($17).
The recent attacks in Zamzam worsened the humanitarian situation and he had to flee to a safer area. Some elderly men, pregnant women, and children have died of starvation and the lack of medical treatment, according to an aid worker, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he’s fearful of retribution for speaking publicly while living in an area controlled by one of the warring parties. He didn’t provide the exact number of those deaths.
He said the situation in Zamzam camp is dire— “as if people were on death row.”
Yet A.H. finished his poem with hope:
“When people clashed and death filled the city squares” A.H. wrote “you, Koro, were a symbol of life and a title of loyalty.”


At least 60 people killed in Israeli strikes in Gaza as ceasefire prospects inch closer

Updated 28 June 2025
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At least 60 people killed in Israeli strikes in Gaza as ceasefire prospects inch closer

  • More than 20 bodies were taken to Nasser Hospital, according to health officials
  • A strike midday Saturday killed 11 people on a street in eastern Gaza City

DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip: At least 60 people were killed across Gaza by Israeli strikes, health workers said Saturday, as Palestinians face a growing humanitarian crisis in Gaza and ceasefire prospects inch closer.

The strikes began late Friday and continued into Saturday morning, among others killing 12 people near the Palestine Stadium in Gaza City, which was sheltering displaced people, and eight more living in apartments, according to staff at Shifa Hospital, where the bodies were brought.

More than 20 bodies were taken to Nasser Hospital, according to health officials. A strike midday Saturday killed 11 people on a street in eastern Gaza City, and their bodies were taken to Al-Ahli Hospital.

The strikes come as US President Donald Trump says there could be a ceasefire agreement within the next week. Taking questions from reporters in the Oval Office Friday, the president said, “we’re working on Gaza and trying to get it taken care of.”

An official with knowledge of the situation told The Associated Press that Israel’s Minister for Strategic Affairs Ron Dermer will arrive in Washington next week for talks on Gaza’s ceasefire, Iran and other subjects.

The official spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.

Talks have been on again off again since Israel broke the latest ceasefire in March, continuing its military campaign in Gaza and furthering the Strip’s dire humanitarian crisis. Some 50 hostages remain in Gaza, fewer than half of them believed to still be alive.

They were part of some 250 hostages taken when Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, sparking the 21-month-long war.

The war has killed over 56,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and combatants. It says more than half of the dead were women and children.

There is hope among hostage families that Trump’s involvement in securing the recent ceasefire between Israel and Iran might exert more pressure for a deal in Gaza.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is riding a wave of public support for the Iran war and its achievements, and he could feel he has more space to move toward ending the war in Gaza, something his far-right governing partners oppose.

Hamas has repeatedly said it is prepared to free all the hostages in exchange for an end to the war in Gaza. Netanyahu says he will only end the war once Hamas is disarmed and exiled, something the group has rejected.

Meanwhile hungry Palestinians are enduring a catastrophic situation in Gaza. After blocking all food for 2 1/2 months, Israel has allowed only a trickle of supplies into the territory since mid-May.

Efforts by the United Nations to distribute the food have been plagued by armed gangs looting trucks and by crowds of desperate people offloading supplies from convoys.

Palestinians have also been shot and wounded while on their way to get food at newly formed aid sites, run by the American and Israeli backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, according to Gaza’s health officials and witnesses.

Palestinian witnesses say Israeli troops have opened fire at crowds on the roads heading toward the sites. Israel’s military said it was investigating incidents in which civilians had been harmed while approaching the sites.