Speaking to Al Jazeera, Ori Goldberg, a Tel Aviv-based analyst, has said the starvation in Gaza has not yet caused major shifts in Israeli public opinion.

“The scenes are not generating more empathy towards the plight of the Palestinians, but they are generating some discomfort,” he said.

“It’s no longer possible to deny what’s happening in Gaza, and it requires more and more effort to claim, as Israel has for the past two years, that no deaths that take place in Gaza are Israel’s responsibility.”

Goldberg said a large portion of the Israeli public has “consciously detached itself from reality”.

“Israel sees itself as doing only what it has to, and therefore is completely exempt from any responsibility to anything that happens in Gaza,” he said.

“We don’t want to do it, you’ll hear from Israelis, but as long as we have to do it, we’re going to do it as powerfully as we can to send a lesson that will never be forgotten.”