Humanitarian Access Snapshot - Gaza Strip | August 2024

HUMANITARIAN SITUATION: KEY FIGURES

Checkpoint Opening Times

Since 16 August 2024, Israeli forces have imposed increasingly unpredictable and restrictive time windows for humanitarian movements through the two checkpoints between the south and north of the Gaza strip. These are only announced in the morning when convoys are ready to depart, resulting in significant delays in movements and limiting the time that humanitarian teams have to complete their activities in Gaza city or northern Gaza. In addition to the limited operating hours, technical failures at the checkpoints have further delayed movements and compromise the safety of aid workers. For instance, on 24 August, a reportedly broken boom gate at the checkpoint caused one mission to be stuck for four hours. The delay in fixing the gate in a timely manner resulted in the failure to deliver 10,000 vaccines, 58 pallets of medicine, including cold chain items and life-saving medical supplies for pregnant women, as well as 24,000 litres of fuel. In response to concerns raised by humanitarian organizations, Israeli authorities indicated that the checkpoint would be open each day from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. However, access through the checkpoint still faces extensive delays with convoys often not allowed to approach the checkpoint until well past 10 a.m. On 28 August, a convoy delivering urgently needed fuel to hospitals was delayed for five hours before being allowed to cross the checkpoint to the north and faced an additional four hours delay on the return journey.

Violence affecting humanitarian movements, facilities and personnel

Conflict-induced criminality is not uncommon, posing a severe risk of theft of humanitarian assistance and violence towards humanitarian workers. Humanitarian convoys are frequently required by Israeli forces to wait at holding points before approaching checkpoints, often for hours, leaving them exposed in high-risk environments. On 5 August, a convoy of two trucks delivering essential commodities to the north was attacked by crowds just 15 minutes after arriving at the holding point, resulting in the loss of all the goods intended to support vulnerable people in the north. Similarly, the movement of humanitarian goods is restricted to only one route inside Gaza from Karem Shalom, making it an easy target for criminal elements. Hygiene items such as soap, diapers and food parcels were among the humanitarian supplies that were intercepted by criminal elements before they could reach the affected communities.

The violence faced by humanitarian workers at the checkpoints is deeply concerning. There have been multiple incidents of shots being fired towards, near, or around humanitarian convoys as they approach checkpoints, despite the vehicles being clearly marked and having received prior confirmation from the Israeli forces. The most severe incident occurred on 27 August, when a marked WFP convoy was fired at with live ammunition by Israeli forces, sustaining extensive damage from approximately ten rounds, despite the movement being fully coordinated in advance.

In August, there have been numerous instances of direct and indirect munitions impact on static sites, such as guesthouses and offices used by humanitarian workers. In Deir al Balah, the gate and wall of a guardroom sustained extensive damage due to military operations on 6 August. The guard, who was sheltering in place further inside the compound, remained unharmed. On 21 August, during an Israeli military operation in Khan Younis, the roof of an NGO compound was damaged, no staff were injured or killed. Others have not been as fortunate - a strike in Jabalya tragically claimed the lives of a local NGO staff member, his wife and their children on 28 August. He was running a food kitchen, providing support to families in northern Gaza that desperately need food assistance.

Lack of Safe Facilities and Locations

The successive evacuation orders in August resulted in the mass displacement of people. It also had a significant impact on the humanitarian response. Evacuation orders on 21 August 2024 for the Israeli-designated Block 130 heavily affected several UN and NGO guesthouses that are providing safe accommodation for humanitarian workers, many of whom are national staff who have already been displaced from their homes along with their families. The evacuation order of part of the Israeli-designated Block 128 on 25 August forced 275 humanitarian workers and their families out of these guesthouses; they had to seek refuge in other available options as an interim measure, including sleeping in warehouses or tents due to lack of space in other notified humanitarian locations. The dispersal of humanitarian workers and assets into interim arrangements has an impact on operations. Staff are exposed to risk during movement, as well as additional trauma as many have already been displaced, along with their families, multiple times since October 2023.

The impact of evacuation orders extends beyond the guesthouses of humanitarian organizations to include numerous warehouses and other essential humanitarian facilities. After the latest evacuation orders in August, only one logistics hub remained accessible to humanitarian organizations without requiring a coordinated movement process. This process is both extensive and frequently denied by the Israeli forces. Additionally, the Khan Younis Training Centre now struggles with just 8,000 square metres of space for storing assets and commodities for distribution, a significant reduction compared with the Rafah Logistics Base, which provides 20,000 square metres but is now inaccessible. Furthermore, the sole fuel station supporting the humanitarian response was situated near evacuated areas, increasing the risk of damage from shrapnel or crossfire affecting both staff and the facility.

Timely access to notified sites is increasingly critical as the operating environment shrinks. The average time required for Israeli authorities to acknowledge the notification of a humanitarian location has risen from two days in January to nine days in August. There is an urgent need for prompt acknowledgement of humanitarian locations and for predictable, sustained access to these locations.

Denial of Life Saving Assistance

Civilians in Gaza are bearing the brunt of military operations. During August, more than 88 per cent of the Gaza Strip remained affected by evacuation orders. Hundreds of thousands of displaced families continue to be forced to move into an area of about 47 square kilometres (approximately 13 per cent of Gaza’s total land area), which has become overcrowded and lacks essential infrastructure and services.

The Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) and other humanitarian actors attempted to undertake two critical life-saving missions in August to assist families with children trapped under the rubble. The first mission, in Hamad city, was impeded by Israeli forces for three consecutive days despite initial indications of survivors including children. The second mission, in Rafah, was similarly obstructed. In both instances, no survivors were found when rescue workers were finally allowed to reach the site. Furthermore, a subsequent coordinated movement in Rafah aimed at recovering the remains of 30 deceased people for dignified burial was denied access on two separate occasions.