Trucks with relief supplies continued to enter Gaza through the Rafah crossing from Egypt on Friday after the entry into force of a four-day pause in fighting, UN humanitarians said.
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Violent clashes between non-state armed groups and government forces have displaced more than 450,000 people in the last six weeks in Rutshuru and Masisi territories in North Kivu province.
People arriving in the town of Sake, located near the provincial capital Goma, spoke of having to make harrowing choices, with men risking death to feed starving children and women risking rape to collect firewood.
UNHCRsaid its monitoring in the region has showed over 3,000 reported human rights violations in October, nearly double the figure from the previous month.
“Rape and arbitrary killings feature prominently in these results, along with kidnappings, extortion, and the destruction of property, illustrating a deeply concerning pattern of abuse inflicted upon civilian populations,” the agency said.
The intensification of violence is also having a devastating impact on the lives of children, with protection partners reporting a sharp increase in the number of overall violations against them.
The UN agencies said the severity of the crisis is further exacerbated by the limited humanitarian access to those in dire need, mainly due to the obstruction of major routes, with some 200,000 displaced people cut off from aid.
The disruption also increases the vulnerability of displaced populations, leaving them without essential resources and protection.
Although UNHCR has built shelters in recent months for more than 40,000 people near Goma, and distributed more than 30,000 kits containing tarps, cooking pots, and blankets, the partners more action is needed to ensure that the nearly seven million people affected by conflict receive urgent help.
UN partners and humanitarian groups are urgently ramping up efforts to tackle urgent needs stemming from overcrowding and inadequate shelter in spontaneous sites, with limited access to food and clean water.
Since June 2023, UNICEF has reached nearly 700,000 people with lifesaving assistance, including clean water and sanitation, child protection, non-food items, health, nutrition and education.
Together with UNHCR, the agency urgently appealed for an end to the violence and underlined their commitment to alleviate the suffering of those affected by the crisis.
However, they stressed that the international community must act swiftly and generously, noting that a $2.3 billion humanitarian response plan for the DRC this year is only 37 per cent funded.
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Gaza has a population of over two million, with the UN agency that assists Palestine refugee, UNRWA, hosting more than a million displaced people in 156 of its installations across the enclave.
The UN humanitarian affairs office, OCHA, said on Friday that 200 trucks were dispatched from Nitzana, a town in Israel, to the Rafah crossing between Egypt and the Gaza Strip.
From there, 137 trucks of goods were offloaded by the UNRWA reception point in Gaza, making it the biggest humanitarian convoy received since the start of hostilities on 7 October.
Additionally, 129,000 litres of fuel and four trucks of gas also crossed into Gaza, and 21 critical patients were evacuated in a large-scale medical operation from the north of the enclave.
“Hundreds of thousands of people were assisted with food, water, medical supplies and other essential humanitarian items,” OCHA said.
The UN welcomed the release of 24 hostages held in Gaza since 7 October and renewed its call for the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages.
Humanitarian teams from the UN and partners will continue to ramp up humanitarian operations to meet the needs of people throughout Gaza in the coming days.
Separately, UN Middle East envoy Tor Wennesland issued a statement welcoming the start of the implementation of the agreement, while expressing hope for an extended humanitarian ceasefire.
He said the development saw the release of 13 Israeli hostages abducted by Hamas and others, 39 Palestinians from Israeli prisons, and several foreign workers held in Gaza.
Mr. Wennesland – officially the UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process – looked forward to additional releases that are expected over the coming days.
He noted that the humanitarian pause went into effect with relative calm, allowing truckloads of aid to enter Gaza.
“These developments are a significant humanitarian breakthrough that we need to build on. More assistance and supplies must enter the Strip safely and continuously to alleviate the immense suffering of civilians,” he said.
He again called for the release of all hostages, and commended the Governments of Qatar, Egypt, and the United States for their determined efforts to facilitate the agreement.
“I call on all concerned parties to uphold their commitments and refrain from provocations or any actions that could impact the full implementation of this agreement,” he said, while also urging the parties “to exhaust every effort to achieve an extended humanitarian ceasefire and pursue a more peaceful future.”
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According to media reports, ongoing negotiations over the Israel-Hamas agreement on a four-day humanitarian pause and the freeing of hostages held by the Palestinian armed group since its 7 October terror attacks indicated that the deal’s entry into force was believed to be unlikely before Friday.
Amid rising hunger, UN World Food Programme (WFP) chief Cindy McCain said that the agency was “rapidly mobilizing to scale up assistance inside Gaza” once safe access is granted. Her comments followed UN emergency relief chief Martin Griffiths’ statement on the Organisation’s readiness to increase the volume of aid brought into the enclave and distributed across the Strip.
Ms. McCain said that WFP trucks are “waiting at the Rafah crossing, loaded with food slated for families in shelters and homes across Gaza, and wheat flour for bakeries to resume operations”.
Latest UN humanitarian reports indicated that wheat flour is no longer available in markets in the north of Gaza and that no bakeries are functioning owing to a lack of fuel, water, flour and structural damage.
Since limited aid deliveries through the Rafah crossing with Egypt resumed on 21 October, just over 73 truckloads of WFP food aid have made it into Gaza, falling far short of needs.
Ms. McCain expressed hope that more fuel will be let into the enclave “so that our trucks can carry in much-needed supplies and that once again bread will be available as a lifeline to hundreds of thousands of people every day”.
Some 75,000 litres of fuel entered Gaza from Egypt on Wednesday following an Israeli decision last week to allow the “daily entry of small amounts of fuel for essential humanitarian operations”, according to UN humanitarian affairs coordination office OCHA.
The fuel is being distributed by the UN agency for Palestine refugees, UNRWA, to support food distribution and the operation of generators at hospitals, water and sanitation facilities, shelters, and other critical services in the south of the Strip, as access to the north has been cut off by Israeli military operations.
OCHA head and UN emergency relief chief Martin Griffiths said last week that some 200,000 litres of fuel per day were needed.
A new evacuation of 190 wounded and sick people, their companions and medical workers from Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City was completed on Wednesday.
The development was announced by UN health agency WHO as a joint effort between UN agencies and humanitarian partners led by the Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS).
The evacuees were transported in an ambulance convoy to the south.
OCHA quoted PRCS reports stating that the evacuation “lasted for almost 20 hours as the convoy was obstructed and subjected to inspection while passing through the checkpoint that separates northern and southern Gaza” and deploring the fact that the lives of patients had been endangered.
Evacuated dialysis patients were transferred to Abu Youssef An Najjar Hospital in Rafah, Gaza, while other patients were transported to the Strip’s European hospital in Khan Younis. An estimated 250 patients and staff are believed to be at Al-Shifa, which is no longer operational, OCHA said.
Meanwhile, Wednesday saw the lowest number yet of displaced people leaving northern Gaza to cross to the south using the “corridor” opened by the Israeli Defense Forces along the Strip’s main traffic artery, Salah Ad Deen Road.
According to OCHA monitoring only some 250 people moved south. The UN Office said that the decline is “largely attributed to the expectations generated by the humanitarian pause” which is yet to be implemented.
To date, over 1.7 million people in Gaza are internally displaced.
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“This is an important step in the right direction, but much more needs to be done,” Mr. Guterres said via a statement from his spokesperson Farhan Haq.
The top UN official leading efforts to secure a lasting peace in the Middle East, Tor Wennesland, echoed those comments and also welcomed the announced 96-hour “humanitarian pause” in war-shattered Gaza.
“This pause must be used to its fullest extent to facilitate the release of hostages and alleviate the dire needs of Palestinians in Gaza.”
The development comes as UN humanitarians reiterated that they remain ready to seize the opportunity to ramp up lifesaving aid to the enclave.
Following the four-day ceasefire announcement the UN World Health Organization (WHO) issued fresh calls for safe, unimpeded humanitarian access in the Strip.
“The fighting needs to stop so that we can quickly scale up our response,” said Dr. Ahmed Al-Mandhari, WHO Regional Director for the Eastern Mediterranean. “We cannot keep providing drops of aid in Gaza in an ocean of need.”
Meanwhile, WHO said that a new evacuation was under way at Gaza City’s embattled Al-Shifa hospital, with more to follow in northern Gaza.
According to media reports, the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas was due to begin within 24 hours of its announcement. In his statement, Mr. Wennesland welcomed the efforts of the Governments of Egypt, Qatar and the United States in “facilitating” the agreement.
WHO’s representative in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, Dr. Richard Peeperkorn, said that any news of a humanitarian pause and of a release of hostages was welcome, but that a true end to the fighting was needed.
At the same WHO press conference in Cairo, Dr. Al-Mandhari called for a “permanent ceasefire” and said that the parties to the conflict should “put the welfare and health of their people as their first priority”.
The UN health agency official also led a minute of silence to honour WHO staffer Dima Alhaj, killed in Gaza on Tuesday, along with many relatives. “As we grieve, we are reminded of the senseless nature of this conflict and of the fact that in Gaza today nowhere is safe for civilians, including our own UN colleagues,” he said.
Since the start of Israel’s retaliation of Hamas’ 7 October massacres which left 1,200 dead in southern Israel and some 240 hostages abducted, 108 UN staff members have been killed in the Strip.
Dr. Peeperkorn revealed on Wednesday that a mission was under way in close coordination with humanitarian partners the Palestinian Red Crescent and Médecins Sans Frontières, to evacuate patients and health workers remaining in Al-Shifa.
The mission follows the initial inter-agency evacuation of 31 premature babies on Sunday. Out of the 220 patients and 200 health workers still at the hospital, the priority evacuees would be 21 dialysis patients, 29 patients with spinal injuries and those in intensive care, Dr. Peeperkorn said.
He also informed that in the meantime, the UN health agency has received evacuation requests from three other hospitals in northern Gaza: Al-Ahli Arab Hospital, Al-Awda Hospital and the Indonesian Hospital, and planning was under way, with WHO and its partners sparing no efforts to “make sure this happens in the coming days”.
He explained that such evacuations are only undertaken upon request and as a last resort.
Dr. Al-Mandhari deplored the fact that even hospitals are not being protected from the “horrors” of the conflict in Gaza. WHO has documented 178 attacks on healthcare in the Strip since 7 October and out of the enclave’s 36 hospitals 28 are not functional anymore, his colleague Dr. Peeperkorn told journalists.
The eight remaining hospitals, all in the south, are “overwhelmed”, he said, and all efforts must be made to keep them functional and expand their bed capacity.
The enclave had some 3,500 hospital beds prior to the current escalation and that number is now down to less than 1,400.
WHO
People seek refuge in the Al-Quds hospital in Gaza. (file)
The perspective of a ceasefire has raised hopes for improved access to desperate Gazan civilians and an increase in the volume of relief items coming through.
According to UN humanitarian affairs coordination office OCHA, the aid trucks which have been entering Gaza since 21 October represent barely 14 per cent of the monthly volume of humanitarian and commercial transport reaching the enclave before the start of the current hostilities; this excludes fuel, which had been completely banned by the Israeli authorities until just a few days ago.
OCHA said that on Tuesday, 63,800 litres of fuel entered Gaza from Egypt, following an Israeli decision from 18 November to “allow the daily entry of small amounts of fuel for essential humanitarian operations”.
The incoming fuel is being distributed by the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, to support food distribution and the operation of generators at hospitals, water and sanitation facilities, shelters and other critical services.
News of the ceasefire agreement came amid fears of hunger spreading in the north, which has been sealed off from the south by Israeli military operations. Humanitarian agencies have been unable to deliver assistance there since 7 November. Due to the lack of cooking facilities and fuel, “people are resorting to consuming the few raw vegetables or unripe fruits that remain available to them”, OCHA said, while no bakeries are open.
OCHA also warned that livestock in the north “is facing starvation and the risk of death” due to the shortage of fodder and water, and crops are being “increasingly abandoned”.
The UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said 10 days ago that it considered the entire civilian population in Gaza to be food insecure.
The distress caused by constant bombing, displacement and massive overcrowding in the UNRWA shelters, in some of which 400 people have to share a toilet, has been taking a heavy psychological toll on Gazans. OCHA said that mental health care needs are “skyrocketing”, especially for the most vulnerable: children, persons with disabilities and those with pre-existing complex conditions.
“Only limited psychosocial support services and psychological first aid is being provided in some shelters across Gaza where protection actors are sheltering and have capacity to respond”, OCHA said. Many services have reportedly been destroyed and many staff are unable to work.
OCHA also highlighted an increase in the movement of unaccompanied children and separated families. The UN Office said that an interagency plan is being developed to respond to this situation, including the registration of cases.
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The warning comes as aid agencies scramble to respond to a fresh wave of displacement sparked by the humanitarian crisis unfolding in the Darfur region of Sudan, with reports of mass killings, rapes and widespread destruction.
The crisis is occurring amid the ongoing war between the Sudanese army and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) which erupted in April.
More than 2.3 million people in Chad, including 1.3 million children, were already going hungry due to climate impacts, rising food and fuel prices, declining agricultural production and intercommunal tensions.
The country is hosting more than a million refugees – among the largest and fastest-growing refugee populations in Africa.
“It is staggering but more Darfuris have fled to Chad in the last six months than in the preceding 20 years. We cannot let the world stand and allow our life-saving operations grind to a halt in Chad,” said Pierre Honnorat, WFP’s Country Director in Chad.
Mr. Honnorat appealed for greater support to help Sudanese refugees who “cross the border with nothing but harrowing tales of violence.”
“Cutting assistance paves the way for crises of nutrition, crises of instability, and crisis of displacement,” he warned.
WFP said it will be forced to suspend assistance to internally displaced people and refugees from Nigeria, Central African Republic and Cameroon starting in December.
The suspension will be extended in January to 1.4 million people across the country, including new arrivals from Sudan.
The UN agency is seeking $185 million to support its operations over the next six months.
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In reply to a question at a press conference dealing with the latest emissions report, Secretary-General António Guterres said that in all the reports issued during his tenure, on children in conflict, it was clear that the current war in Gaza has seen thousands of child deaths – compared with hundreds, in conflicts in Yemen and Syria.
Without entering into discussing the accuracy of the figures released by the health ministry in Gaza, which are regarded by UN agencies as reliable, he said that “what is clear is that we have had in a few weeks thousands of children killed.”
Latest reports from health authorities indicate that more than 13,000 civilians in total have died in the enclave since the 7 October terror attacks by Hamas, and subsequent Israeli offensive.
“This is what matters. We are witnessing a killing of civilians that is unparalleled and unprecedented in any conflict since I have been Secretary-General.”
Also addressing how the region can move forward once the fighting stops, the UN chief said that it was “important to be able to transform this tragedy into an opportunity.”
“For that to be possible, it is essential that after the war we move in a determined, irreversible way to a two-State solution“, he told correspondents.
“It means also that after the war – and this is my opinion – I believe it to be important after the war to have a strengthened Palestinian authority to assume responsibilities in Gaza.”
Meanwhile, in Gaza a tweet by the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNWRA on Monday, described the situation in shelters as “unliveable”. It said that Gazans had “no options”, echoing repeated warnings from UN humanitarians nowhere is safe for civilians in Gaza.
Since Hamas’s terror attacks on Israel on 7 October that claimed around 1,200 lives with nearly 240 hostages captured, hundreds of thousands of Gazans have fled south, following an evacuation directive from the Israeli military.
Satellite images of the exodus showed a mass of people moving across a landscape of shattered buildings, while photographs taken at ground level showed families carrying their belonging on foot and a woman dragging two babies in car seats behind her.
In an update on Sunday, Tom White, Director of UNRWA Affairs, told US network ABC that 13 UNRWA sites where people had been “sheltering under the UN flag” had been “directly hit” since 7 October, while “countless other shelters” had suffered “collateral damage” – many of them in the south of Gaza, where civilians had been told to flee.
Mr. White said that 73 people had been killed in UNRWA shelters to date, “a large proportion of them in the south”.
“The reality is the Gazans have got nowhere to go for safety and they are all exposed to the threat of fighting and particularly airstrikes,” the UNRWA official said.
According to the UN agency, more than 880,000 internally displaced have sought shelter in 154 UNRWA installations across all five of Gaza’s governorates. Out of Gaza’s 2.3 million people, 1.7 million are now displaced.
To date, 104 UNRWA staff have been killed along with at least 11,000 people in Gaza according to health authorities.
“Houses have been hit all across the Gaza Strip,” said UNWRA’s Mr. White, who said that people’s main concern was, “If they’re in the north or in the south, are they safe?”
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Top UN officials echoed that call to improve conditions for Gaza’s 2.3 million people, 1.7 million of which have been displaced since the 7 October Hamas attack in Israel resulted in the killing of 1,200 Israelis and capture of 240 hostages. Since then, more than 11,000 people have been killed in besieged Gaza.
“This war is having a staggering and unacceptable number of civilian casualties, including women and children, every day,” UN Secretary-General António Guterres said in a statement on Sunday. “This must stop. I reiterate my call for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire.”
Volker Türk, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), said in a statement on Sunday that: “The horrendous events of the past 48 hours in Gaza beggar belief.”
“The killing of so many people at schools turned shelters, hundreds fleeing for their lives from Al-Shifa Hospital amid continuing displacement of hundreds of thousands in southern Gaza are actions which fly in the face of the basic protections civilians must be afforded under international law,” Mr. Türk said, stressing that failing to adhere to these rules may constitute war crimes.
According to the UN agency for Palestine refugees (UNRWA), which issued its latest situation report on Sunday, nearly 884,000 internally displaced persons are sheltering in 154 UNRWA installations across all five governorates of the Gaza Strip.
“Just getting into one of the shelters makes you burst into tears,” an UNRWA employee said. “Children looking for food and water and standing in queues for over six hours just to get a piece of bread or a bottle of water. People are literally sleeping on streets here in Khan Younis as thousands keep escaping from the north.”
In less than 24 hours, two UNRWA schools sheltering displaced families were hit, causing “many deaths” and injuries, mostly of women and children, in addition to other deadly incidents across Gaza and the West Bank against the backdrop of soaring humanitarian needs, UNRWA said.
Mr. Türk said at least three other schools hosting displaced Palestinians have also been attacked.
“This must stop,” he said. “Humanity must come first. A ceasefire – on humanitarian and human rights grounds – is desperately needed. Now.”
Philippe Lazzarini, who heads UNRWA, said in a statement on Sunday that the attacks are “just cruel”.
“I watched with sheer horror reports from an attack on the Al-Fakhoura UNRWA school-turned-shelter in northern Gaza,” he said.
Classrooms sheltering displaced families were hit and at least 24 people were reported killed in the strike. Up to 7,000 people were in the school at the time, the UNRWA chief said. On Friday, following strikes on the UNRWA Al-Falah/Zeitoun school in Gaza City, ambulances could not reach the school, where 4,000 people were sheltering.
Since 7 October, at least 176 people sheltering in the agency’s schools were reported killed and 800 wounded during Israeli bombardments, Mr. Lazzarini said.
“The large number of UNRWA facilities hit and the number of civilians killed cannot just be ‘collateral damage’,” he said, adding that the UN agency routinely shares the buildings’ coordinates with parties to the conflict.
“This vicious war is reaching a point of no return when all rules are disrespected, in overt disregard for civilian lives,” he said, calling and appealing “once again for humanity to prevail and for a humanitarian ceasefire right now.”
WHO
Palestinian civil defence responders search the rubble of a building in the aftermath of an air strike in the Gaza Strip. (file)
Israeli military operations have been continuing inside and around Al-Shifa Hospital, with UN colleagues that visited the site on Saturday describing it as a “death zone”.
On Sunday, WHO and humanitarian partners helped to evacuate infants in critical condition.
Medical personnel, patients and civilians had fled the hospital over the weekend, ordered to do so by the Israeli military, UNRWA’s chief said, adding that hundreds were seen making their way south on foot, at great risk to their lives, health and safety.
WHO reported on Sunday that six Palestine Red Crescent ambulances transported the babies to Al-Helal Al-Emirati Maternity Hospital, where there are receiving urgent care.
“Further missions are being planned to urgently transport remaining patients and health staff out of Al-Shifa Hospital,” WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a social media post on Sunday.
WHO
A joint humanitarian team, led by WHO, accessed Al-Shifa Hospital in northern Gaza to assess the situation on the ground.
In the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis, the Israeli Defense Forces are dropping leaflets demanding residents go to unspecified “recognized shelters”, even as strikes take place across Gaza, according to OHCHR.
“Already displaced Palestinians, deprived by extreme restrictions on lifesaving assistance, are struggling to meet their basic needs, forced into ever-diminishing, overcrowded, unsanitary unsafe spaces,” Mr. Türk said.
“Irrespective of warnings, Israel is obliged to protect civilians wherever they are,” the UN human rights chief said. “The pain, dread and fear etched on the faces of children, women and men is too much to bear. How much more violence, bloodshed and misery will it take before people come to their senses? How many more civilians will be killed?”
© WFP/Ali Jadallah
UNRWA schools are sheltering more than 800,000 displaced people in Gaza during the Israel-Palestine crisis.
Meanwhile, needs are rising, UN agencies said.
The entry of fuel critical for the overall humanitarian operations across the enclave has been largely banned since 7 October when the war began. Limited fuel deliveries began on Wednesday, and UNRWA has been informed that, as of Saturday, 120,000 litres of fuel will be delivered every two days going forward.
UN agencies have said this is not enough for all humanitarian activities, and that at least 200,000 litres per day are required to, among other things, power generators to provide electricity to hospitals and to operate water facilities. Both services have been cut since the start of the conflict.
Fuel is also critical for telecommunications networks, UNRWA said, noting that Gaza’s fourth communications blackout on Friday meant the agency was unable to transport trucks of humanitarian assistance arriving via Egypt.
As of 10 November, over 11,078 people have been killed in the Gaza Strip since 7 October; two thirds of them are reportedly children and women, the UNRWA report said. Due to the collapse in the Gaza’s Ministry of Health services and communications in the north, casualty data has not been updated for the last five days.
Media reports indicate the number of Palestinian deaths is nearly 12,000.
Israel reported that around 1,200 Israelis and foreign nationals have been killed in Israel, the vast majority on 7 October, according to the UN humanitarian agency (OCHA).
On Saturday, one UNRWA colleague was killed in the northern area due to strikes. In total, 104 colleagues have been killed since the beginning of the war, the highest number of UN aid workers killed in a conflict in the Organization’s history, according to UN Palestine refugee agency.
Violent incidents, deaths and injuries struck several areas of the West Bank, including the Fara’a and Jenin refugee camps, according to UNRWA’s situation report.
OCHA reported that since 7 October, 198 Palestinians, including 52 children, have been killed by Israeli security forces and eight, including one child, by Israeli settlers.
In the Balata refugee camp in Nablus on Saturday, Israeli security forces launched an operation, entering with an armoured bulldozer and mobilizing a drone that fired missiles towards the Fatah office, killing five, injuring two others and damaging homes and shops, according to UNRWA.
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© IOM/Gema Cortés
Migrants come ashore from the Chucunaque River after crossing the Darién jungle.
A rising number of migrants are attempting the dangerous journey across the Darién jungle spanning the Colombia-Panama border. For Etzaida Rios, 35, the impact of providing hope and help runs deep.
She works as a Community Officer with the International Organization for Migration (IOM) in a temporary migrant reception centre in San Vicente, one of the first points of arrival for migrants, who are often exhausted, malnourished, dehydrated, or injured.
“People arrive with pressing needs and many questions,” she said, after attending to Zuleybis, who fractured her leg while crossing the Darién with her husband José and four children. The Venezuelan family received treatment at the centre before continuing their path north.
“The biggest challenge is witnessing suffering and hearing heartbreaking stories,” she said. “While we see terrible things on television or read about them, it is even harder and more frustrating to see it with your eyes as it unfolds before you.”
Read more about Ms. Rios’ story here.
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Fuel deliveries for aid operations in the enclave, home to 2.3 million Palestinians, have been largely prohibited since Hamas’ attack on Israel on 7 October left at least 1,200 dead and 240 taken hostage. This has severely hampered aid efforts and services to provide water and electricity, UN agencies said.
In northern Gaza, WHO led a mission to the besieged Al-Shifa Hospital, where thousands of civilians were seeking shelter alongside medical crews who were scrambling to tend to patients.
The mission was deconflicted with the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) to ensure safe passage along the agreed route, however, this was a “high-risk operation” in an active conflict zone, with heavy fighting ongoing in close proximity to the hospital, according to WHO.
“The team saw a hospital no longer able to function: no water, no food, no electricity, no fuel, medical supplies depleted,” WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a post on social media. “Given this deplorable situation and the condition of many patients, including babies, health workers requested support to evacuate patients who cannot receive lifesaving care there anymore.”
There are 25 health workers and 291 patients remaining in Al-Shifa, with several patient deaths having occurred over the previous two to three days due to the shutting down of medical services, the UN agency said. Patients include 32 babies in extremely critical condition, two people in intensive care without ventilation and 22 dialysis patients whose access to life-saving treatment has been severely compromised. The vast majority of patients are victims of war trauma, WHO said.
WHO and partners are swiftly developing plans for the immediate evacuation of the remaining patients, staff and their families. Over the next 24 to 72 hours, pending guarantees of safe passage by parties to the conflict, additional missions are being arranged to urgently transport patients to hospitals in southern Gaza, according to WHO.
“We continue to call for protection of health and of civilians,” the WHO chief said. “The current situation is unbearable and unjustifiable.”
Following weeks of delays, Israeli authorities just approved only half of the daily minimum fuel requirements for humanitarian operations in Gaza, Philippe Lazzarini, who heads the UN agency for Palestine refugees (UNRWA), said in a statement.
“Humanitarian organizations should not be forced to make tough decisions between competing lifesaving activities,” he said.
More than 11,000 Gazans have been killed and thousands others wounded since the conflict began, according to the latest situation report by the UN humanitarian agency (OCHA). The lack of fuel has led to communications shutdowns, shuttered water stations, hospital closures and reduced aid deliveries across Gaza.
The situation has worsened since Israel closed all borders for aid deliveries into Gaza on 7 October and, through a deal with Egypt, allowed limited shipments two weeks later through the Rafah crossing.
On Wednesday, Israel allowed about 23,000 litres, or half a tanker truck, of fuel to be delivered to UNRWA for humanitarian purposes.
Israel authorized 120,000 litres to be delivered on Saturday, which will only cover half of daily critical needs. UNRWA was informed that the same amount would be delivered every two days.
Current approved fuel deliveries into Gaza are not enough, UNRWA’s chief said.
© Bisan Ouda for UNFPA
Families shelter inside Al Shifa hospital. (file)
“This is far from enough to cover the needs for desalination plants, sewage pumps, hospitals, water pumps in shelters, aid trucks, ambulances, bakeries and communications networks to work without interruption,” Mr. Lazzarini said. “Fuel should not be restricted for these activities.”
Without the full amount of fuel, he said, people will have only two thirds of their daily needs of clean drinking water.
Without adequate fuel supplies, large parts of Gaza will continue to be flooded with sewage further increasing risks of diseases, and 70 per cent of solid waste will not be removed, posing “a major health hazard”, Mr. Lazzarini said.
OCHA reported that “with no fuel, public sewage pumping stations, 60 water wells in the south, a desalination plant in the middle area, the two main sewage pumps in the south, and the Rafah wastewater treatment plant have all ceased operations in the past few days.”
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), as of Friday, almost 75 per cent of the hospitals in Gaza – 25 out of 36 – were not functional due to lack of fuel, damage, attacks and insecurity. Eleven hospitals across the Strip are currently partially operational and admitting patients with extremely limited services.
Fuel shortages make it impossible to deliver lifesaving aid at a time when needs are soaring, UN agencies said.
© UNICEF/Eyad El Baba
An eight-year-old boy from Rafah City sits amid the rubble of his family’s destroyed home.
“We are forced to handle a reduced number of aid trucks crossing daily into Rafah,” he said. “The last few days have seen a drastic reduction in these services including water availability and sewage clearance with serious consequences on people in need.”
Calling for “adequate, regular, and unconditional delivery of fuel to maintain all our critical lifesaving activities in the Gaza Strip”, he said “humanitarian aid cannot be conditional and must not be used for political or military agendas and gains”.
On Saturday morning, media reports indicated fresh attacks on schools.
Adele Khodr, the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) regional director for the Middle East and North Africa, said in a social post that the scenes of carnage and death following attacks on Al-Fakhoura and Tal Al Zaatar schools in Gaza that killed many children and women are horrific and appalling.
“These horrible attacks should cease immediately,” she wrote. “Children, schools and shelters are not a target. Immediate ceasefire needed now!”
Echoing that call, Mr. Lazzarini reacted to reports of attacks on UNRWA schools that were sheltering thousands of displaced people.
“These attacks cannot become commonplace, they must stop,” he said in a social media post on X. “A humanitarian ceasefire cannot wait any longer.”
On Friday, the UN General Assembly held a meeting on the situation in Gaza, with many delegates and heads of UN agencies calling for a humanitarian ceasefire. Last week, the Security Council found unity after a month-long deadlock, calling for urgent, extended humanitarian pauses.
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