Gaza Faces Increasingly Dire Humanitarian Situation

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United Nations: The UN human rights officer noted that the scale of the destruction following Israeli airstrikes on the Jabalia refugee camp is unprecedented and we have serious concerns that these are disproportionate attacks that could amount to war crimes.

The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) stressed that as Israeli ground operations and bombardments in northern Gaza continued, “among the deadliest incidents” were heavy airstrikes hitting Jabalia Refugee Camp on Wednesday “for the second day in a row and within less than 24 hours”.

The strikes reportedly destroyed multiple residential buildings and killed “dozens”, OCHA reported.

Meanwhile, Palestinian Health Ministry informed on Thursday that nearly 9,061 Palestinians have been killed in the Israeli attacks, mostly women and minors, and over 32,000 people have been wounded.

The number of people killed in Gaza is nearing the 9,000 mark amid mounting concerns over the aftermath of Israeli airstrikes on a densely populated refugee camp near Gaza City, while a key hospital has stopped operations and UN humanitarian workers are unable to deliver aid to the north as the ground war intensifies.

UN Relief Chief Martin Griffiths, who just completed a visit to Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territory, said that “the trucks that have crossed into Gaza so far following painstaking negotiations offer some relief but are nowhere near enough”.

The entry of fuel essential for hospitals, ambulances, and water desalination plants remains banned by the Israeli authorities.

Moreover, in a blow to scores of chronically ill patients, Gaza’s main cancer treatment centre, the Turkish-Palestinian Friendship Hospital, ran out of fuel and was forced to stop most of its activities. The lives of some 70 patients are in danger, OCHA wrote on social platform X on Thursday.

Currently, 14 out of 35 hospitals across Gaza are not functioning, as pointed out.

World Health Organisation (WHO) Head Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said that at the very least, we need a humanitarian pause in the fighting and, ideally, an end to the conflict. We need unfettered access and safe passage agreed upon by both parties to ensure the security of access routes.

Gaza City and northern Gaza have been “largely cut off” from the rest of the strip as a result of the Israeli ground operations and related clashes with Palestinian armed groups, OCHA said.

This means that the delivery of humanitarian aid from the south to some 300,000 internally displaced persons in the north has “come to a halt”.

OCHA reported that on Wednesday, ten trucks carrying water, food, and medicines entered Gaza through the Rafah crossing on the enclave’s southern border with Egypt, bringing the total number of aid trucks allowed in since October 21 to 227.

Speaking at the regular noon briefing in New York, UN Spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric said UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres welcomed the “continued movement of people and humanitarian assistance through the Rafah crossing.”

A regular and sustained flow of aid on a “scale needed to meet the mounting needs of the Palestinian population” is essential, he added.

The aid flow, together with the rotation of UN personnel via the crossing and movement of foreign nationals, “is an important step in the right direction, on which we need to build.”

“The UN remains committed to continuing our intensive work with all parties to alleviate the suffering of the most vulnerable people in Gaza”, he said.