2023-11-24 13:02:40
What does the humanitarian situation look like in the besieged Gaza Strip?
A four-day truce began between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip today (Friday), and relief agencies hope to exploit the cessation of fighting to intensify the delivery of aid to the besieged Strip, according to Archyde.com news agency.
Shortages of food, fuel, drinking water and medicine have worsened in the past few weeks, and UN agencies have warned of disease outbreaks, which might sharply increase the number of deaths.
No foreign aid has reached parts of the northern Gaza Strip for weeks, and a United Nations spokesman described the situation there as “hell on earth.”
Here is a breakdown of the humanitarian situation in the Strip:
Displaced Palestinians ride a donkey cart as they look forward to returning to their homes during a temporary truce between Hamas and Israel in Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip on November 24, 2023 (Archyde.com)
Exodus
There are regarding 1.7 million of the Gaza Strip’s 2.3 million residents who have fled their homes and been displaced within the Strip. The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs says that nearly a million of them are sheltering in buildings run by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), and the number of these shelters is at least 156.
The shelters are extremely crowded, more than four times their capacity, following tens of thousands of civilians fled to the south of the Gaza Strip to escape the brunt of the recent Israeli bombing, but the south was also subjected to fierce Israeli air strikes that killed and injured civilians.
Most of the displaced men, young men and boys sleep in the open near the outer walls of the shelters. The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said that some families had set up tents outside a shelter in Khan Yunis.
Hospitals
No hospital in the northern Gaza Strip is operating normally, due to the intensity of the bombing and the lack of fuel. The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs says that 8 out of 11 facilities in the south are still operating, and only one of them is available for performing complex surgeries, according to the World Health Organization.
The organization also said that it had requested assistance to evacuate 3 hospitals in the north, and that plans were underway in this regard.
The charity Oxfam says that the number of premature births has increased by regarding a third over the past month in the Strip, which is besieged by Israel, with pregnant women suffering from increased severe stress and psychological trauma.
Ambulances outside the Indonesian Hospital on the outskirts of the Jabalia refugee camp in the northern Gaza Strip following Israeli forces raided the medical facility, on November 24, 2023 (AFP)
Aid delivery
The Rafah crossing between the Gaza Strip and Egypt has been opened, allowing limited aid to enter since October 21, while the rest of the crossings with the Gaza Strip remain closed.
A total of 80 trucks loaded with humanitarian supplies entered from Egypt yesterday (Thursday).
Egypt said that 130,000 liters of fuel and four gas trucks will enter the Gaza Strip daily with the start of the truce, as well as 200 aid trucks.
Water
Fuel deliveries in the past few days have allowed some water wells and pumping stations in the southern Gaza Strip to restart. But the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs says there are severe fears of drought in the northern Gaza Strip, where neither the desalination plant nor the water line from Israel is operating.
He added that wastewater treatment plants are not operating at full capacity due to damage and fuel shortages, and wastewater has been spreading in the streets near Rafah since the past few days.
Patients evacuated from Al-Shifa Hospital arrive at the Gaza European Hospital in Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip, in this image from a video obtained on November 23, 2023 (Archyde.com)
Fuel
Israel allows limited daily quantities of fuel to enter the Gaza Strip from Egypt. 75 thousand liters were delivered yesterday, Thursday.
UNRWA distributes fuel to support food distribution and operate hospital generators, water and sanitation plants, shelters and other necessary services.
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