Humanitarian Situation Update #179 | Gaza Strip

The Humanitarian Situation Update is issued by OCHA Occupied Palestinian Territory three times per week. The Gaza Strip is covered on Mondays and Fridays, and the West Bank is covered on Wednesdays. Due to the upcoming Eid al-Adha holiday, the next update covering both the West Bank and Gaza Strip will be issued on 19 June.

Key Highlights

• Only two stabilization centres for severely malnourished children remain functional across the Gaza Strip as catastrophic hunger grips a significant portion of Gaza’s population, warn UN agencies.  
• Displaced families face significant challenges in accessing basic services, with a critically low access to water, according to recent humanitarian assessments.  
• Jordan, Egypt and the UN co-organize a “Call for Action” conference to urgently strengthen the humanitarian response in Gaza, as fuel shortages and access constraints continue to severely disrupt the delivery of life-saving aid. 

Humanitarian Developments

• Israeli bombardment from the air, land, and sea continues to be reported across much of the Gaza Strip, resulting in further civilian casualties, displacement, and destruction of houses and other civilian infrastructure. Ground incursions and heavy fighting also continue to be reported across Gaza, including in Beit Hanoun, south of Gaza city, eastern Deir al Balah, northeastern Khan Younis, as well as in eastern, central and western Rafah. 
• Between the afternoons of 10 and 14 June, according to the Ministry of Health (MoH) in Gaza, 142 Palestinians were killed and 396 were injured.  Between 7 October 2023 and 14 June 2024, at least 37,266 Palestinians were killed and 85,102 were injured in Gaza, according to MoH in Gaza.  
• The following are among the deadly incidents reported between 10 and 12 June:   
  • On 10 June, at about 12:20, at least five Palestinians were reportedly killed and 30 injured when several residential buildings were hit in Al Qarara, north of Khan Younis city.  
  • On 10 June, at about 13:20, five Palestinians, including four women and one man, were reportedly killed and others injured when a house was hit in Al Fukhari area, southeast of Khan Younis city. 
  • On 11 June, in the morning hours, eight Palestinians were reportedly killed and others injured when a house was hit in Ad Daraj neighbourhood, in Gaza’s Old City.
  • On 12 June, at about 1:30, seven Palestinians were reportedly killed and others injured when a house was hit in Ash Shuja’iyya neighbourhood, east of Gaza city. 
  • On 12 June, at about 2:30, eight Palestinians, including an unidentified number of children, were reportedly killed and others injured when a house was hit in Ad Daraj neighbourhood, in Gaza’s Old City.  
  • On 12 June, during the morning hours, at least four Palestinians were reportedly killed and others injured when a residential building was hit in Az Zaytoun neighbourhood, in southern Gaza city.  
  • On 12 June, at about 23:55, four Palestinians, including a man, a woman and their two children, were reportedly killed and at least six others were injured when a house was hit in Al Hassayna area in western An Nuseirat Refugee Camp, in Deir al Balah. 
• Between the afternoons of 10 and 14 June, four Israeli soldiers were reported killed in Gaza. As of 14 June, 299 soldiers have been killed and 1,940 soldiers have been injured in Gaza or along the border in Israel since the beginning of the ground operation, according to the Israeli military. In addition, according to the Israeli media citing official Israeli sources, over 1,200 Israelis and foreign nationals, including 33 children, have been killed in Israel, the vast majority on 7 October.  As of 14 June, it is estimated that 120 Israelis and foreign nationals remain captive in Gaza, including fatalities whose bodies are withheld. 
• Israeli evacuation orders and military operations since early May have so far forced the displacement of about one million people from Rafah and more than 100,000 people in northern Gaza. Assessments by humanitarian organizations over the past month have highlighted the dire conditions facing displaced families, with significant challenges to their ability to access basic services.   
  • Between 14 and 16 May, a light-touch rapid assessment by the Site Management Working Group (SMWG) found that more than half (51 per cent) of 47 assessed locations across all five Gaza governorates reported that people were displaced in new sites, 31 per cent were displaced in existing sites, and 16 per cent returned to destroyed houses. The majority of displaced people from Rafah sought refuge in the already overcrowded and resource-depleted governorates of Khan Younis and Deir al Balah. Interviewed key informants highlighted that new arrivals were facing a range of challenges in accessing basic services and identified food as their first priority, followed by water and sanitation, and health. The main reported barriers to accessing water and health services included the lack of a sufficient number of water points, the long distance to available water points and health facilities, overcrowded health facilities, and the lack of water tanks, storage containers, medicines and transportation.   
  • On 7 June, two inter-cluster assessments led by OCHA were carried out at two informal displacement sites in Deir al Balah. At both Abo Dalal and Ard Al Ghusain displacement sites, which house 3,000 and 7,000 displaced people respectively, families reported irregular food distributions, overcrowded and dilapidated shelters with an average of eight to 10 persons per shelter, lack of sanitation infrastructure, and a range of health issues such as skin diseases, hepatitis A, gastroenteritis, and respiratory illnesses. Moreover, domestic violence and mental health issues were highlighted as prevalent, with children having no access to child-friendly spaces or educational activities. A critically low access to water was also reported as a key concern; average water availability per person per day was less than two litres at Abo Dalal displacement site and only 0.7 litres at Ard Al Ghusain displacement site. This is less than the internationally recognized minimum requirement for survival of three litres per day and significantly lower than the minimum amount of 15 litres per day needed in an emergency for drinking, washing and cooking.  
• The water and sanitation infrastructure in Gaza continues to sustain significant damage. According to the Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene (WASH) Cluster, the recent intensification of military operations has resulted in additional losses of critical water and sanitation assets, including five water production wells in Jabalya, and two water wells, the supply line from the Egypt-based desalination plant and two desalination plants, all in Rafah. Over the past eight months, WASH Cluster partners estimate that approximately 67 per cent of water and sanitation facilities and infrastructure have been destroyed or damaged due to conflict-related activities, with damage to mobile assets yet to be assessed.  Damaged facilities include 194 water production wells, 40 high volume water reservoirs, 55 sewage pumping stations, 76 municipal desalination plants, four waste water treatment plants and nine warehouses. Many other facilities have also been rendered non-operational due to a range of challenges, including insecurity, constrained access, lack of power supply and fuel to operate generators, and limited to no availability of spare parts, consumables, basic building materials and equipment.  As a result, while water production through the Coastal Municipalities Water Utility/Palestinian Water Authority (CMWU/PWA) and municipal service providers has increased to 95,000-108,000 cubic metres per day across the Gaza Strip, this figure represents only 28 per cent of water production prior to October 2023 and is unevenly distributed across the various production points. The Cluster further notes that there is a 50 per cent water loss in the distribution network due to large scale damage, limiting actual water availability. Families in informal displacement sites face additional challenges given the lack of infrastructure that needs to be newly installed to ensure service delivery.  People’s coping mechanisms are heavily stretched, the Cluster emphasizes; the most vulnerable people are collecting water from unreliable sources in inadequate containers and lack hygiene items such as soap or facilities for handwashing and other basic hygiene practices. Combined, these factors have contributed to elevated levels of acute watery diarrhea, skin diseases and an outbreak of Hepatitis A.  
• No international Emergency Medical Teams (EMTs) are currently deployed in Rafah or in northern Gaza due to rising insecurity, reported the World Health Organization (WHO). Medical evacuations of critical patients outside of Gaza also remain suspended, and persistent fuel shortages continue to threaten the functioning of vital medical infrastructure and equipment. Moreover, while 17 of Gaza’s 36 hospitals are partially functional, 14 are partially accessible due to insecurity and physical barriers, such as damage to patient and ambulance entrances and surrounding roads. In Rafah, where no hospitals are currently functional, the ICRC field hospital represents a lifeline for the population, while the UAE field hospital remains only partially functional amid severe access challenges. In a positive development, in Khan Younis, Al Khair Hospital resumed partial functionality, and 15 dialysis machines to serve 250 patients were provided to Nasser Medical Complex with support from the World Bank. However, the CT scanner at Nasser remains out of service and diagnostic capacity has severely shrunk. In North Gaza, following the Israeli forces’ withdrawal on 31 May, access to the Al-Awda, Kamal Adwan and Indonesian hospitals has been partially restored; the Indonesian Hospital now offers only basic emergency services while inpatient services have resumed at both Kamal Adwan (144 beds) and Al Awda (40 beds) hospitals, with Al-Awda also providing critical maternal care. On 9 June, WHO and its partners reached both facilities, delivering 24,000 liters of fuel and medical supplies to support an estimated 2,000 patients. Two tents were also provided to Al-Awda to expand the facility’s premises.  
• The inability to provide health services safely, coupled with the lack of clean water and sanitation, are exacerbating malnutrition risks in Gaza. On 12 June, the WHO Director-General, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, stressed that a “significant proportion of Gaza’s population is now facing catastrophic hunger and famine-like conditions.” While over 8,000 children under the age of five have been already diagnosed for acute malnutrition, ongoing insecurity, access constraints and large-scale displacement continue to hamper the critical scale-up of identification of cases of malnourished children at the community level, explains the Nutrition Cluster. On 11 June, UNICEF further warned that almost 3,000 children, who were receiving treatment for acute malnutrition in the south prior to the military escalation in Rafah, have now been cut off from life-saving services due to displacement and shrinking treatment capacity; only two stabilization centres for severely malnourished children are now functional in Gaza, one in North Gaza and one in Deir al Balah. “Our warnings of mounting child deaths from a preventable combination of malnutrition, dehydration and disease should have mobilized immediate action to save children’s lives, and yet, this devastation continues,” stated the UNICEF Regional Director for the Middle East and North Africa, Adele Khodr. On 14 June, the Director of Kamal Adwan Hospital in North Gaza reported to the media that they have recently documented more than 200 cases of children with multiple signs of malnutrition.  
• A new assessment by the Education Cluster, based on satellite imagery collected on 3 and 7 May, reveals a further increase in the scale of damage and destruction of schools in the Gaza Strip compared with the 1 April analysis. Over 76 per cent of schools in Gaza are now assessed as requiring full reconstruction or major rehabilitation to be functional again, up from 73 per cent. The assessment also highlights a “continuous spike in the direct targeting of schools,” with 23 facilities that had already been classified as “damaged” in the previous analysis being affected by additional direct hits in April. Among school buildings used as IDP shelters, 69 per cent have been directly hit or damaged, up from 65 per cent in March. Overall, some 54 per cent of school buildings (307 out of 563) have been “directly hit,” 22 per cent (123) of school buildings have been “damaged,” while 15 per cent (86) are classified as “likely or possibly damaged.” Of note, more than 96 per cent (296) of all directly hit schools are in areas subject to evacuation orders issued by Israeli authorities. Furthermore, out of all damaged schools, 61 have been totally destroyed and 39 have lost at least half of their structures. North Gaza and Gaza governorates have been the most impacted, with about 90 per cent and 89 per cent of their school buildings directly hit or damaged, respectively.  
• In May, humanitarian access in Gaza was severely hindered by intense military activities, the closure of crossings, volatile security conditions, unexploded ordnance, complex and inconsistent movement notification and coordination procedures, damaged and overcrowded roads, and inconsistent checkpoint procedures. These challenges have persisted in June; between 1 and 13 June, out of 44 planned coordinated humanitarian assistance missions to northern Gaza, 23 (52 per cent) were facilitated by Israeli authorities, four (nine per cent) were denied access, 10 (23 per cent) were impeded, and seven (16 per cent) were cancelled due to logistical, operational or security reasons. In addition, out of 151 coordinated humanitarian assistance missions to areas in southern Gaza, 108 (71 per cent) were facilitated by Israeli authorities, seven (five per cent) were denied access, 24 (16 per cent) were impeded, and 12 (eight per cent) were cancelled. Many missions classified as “impeded” experienced extended delays imposed by the Israeli army. During the same period, a humanitarian convoy was delayed for over nine hours at an insecure checkpoint leading to northern Gaza, preventing the organization from delivering critical medicines and nutrition supplies for more than 10,000 children. Another humanitarian mission to northern Gaza, which involved the delivery of critical medical supplies to hospitals and transfer of one patient, faced a delay of over five hours at a checkpoint, undermining these critical medical activities.  
• On 11 June, the World Food Programme (WFP) stressed that while it has been able to reach over one million people in the Gaza Strip last month, aid operations have been severely affected by the escalation in fighting and urgently need “regular access, the ability to transport aid safely, and fighting to stop.” On the same day, WFP took the precaution of temporarily halting operations at the floating dock, pending a thorough security assessment needed to ensure the safety and security of staff and partners. On 12 June, Humanity and Inclusion (HI) reported that the Israeli army bulldozed the NGO’s warehouse in Rafah, “where nearly 200 pallets of humanitarian equipment were stored,” noting its location and function had been reported to the Israeli authorities.  
• A high-level conference, titled “Call for Action: Urgent Humanitarian Response for Gaza,” was held in Jordan on 11 June. Co-organized by Jordan, Egypt and the UN, the conference aimed to identify means of strengthening the humanitarian response in Gaza, including the operational, logistical, protection, and other conditions necessary for establishing sustainable pipelines to immediately deliver sufficient aid. The conference also discussed preparations for early recovery and garnered commitments for a coordinated collective response. It was attended by Heads of State and representatives of governments and international organizations, including UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator Martin Griffiths, and Humanitarian Coordinator for the Occupied Palestinian Territory Muhannad Hadi. In his remarks at the conference, Guterres saluted “the brave humanitarians in Gaza working in nightmare conditions to stem the suffering,” called for full accountability for the deaths of 193 UNRWA staff members, and reaffirmed that UNRWA is the backbone of the humanitarian response. The UN Chief further stated: “Deliveries require safe routes and effective deconfliction mechanisms to ensure their security. They require unimpeded access for security and communications equipment, commensurate with the risks of working in a war zone.  They require immediate efforts to clear routes inside Gaza, which are littered with mines and unexploded ordnance. Civilians must be allowed to seek safety.  And civilians and the infrastructure they rely on must never be militarized or targeted.” As of 12 June, at least 273 aid workers have been killed in Gaza, including 197 UN staff members, 33 PRCS staff and volunteers, and 43 other aid workers. According to MoH and Palestinian Civil Defense, 498 health workers and 70 Civil Defense staff have also been killed. 

Funding 

• As of 13 June, Member States have disbursed about US$1.06 billion out of $3.4 billion (31 per cent) requested to meet the most critical needs of 2.3 million people in Gaza and 800,000 people in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, between January and December 2024. For funding analysis, please see the Flash Appeal Financial Tracking dashboard.
• The oPt HF has 109 ongoing projects, for a total of $78.9 million, addressing urgent needs in the Gaza Strip (86 per cent) and West Bank (14 per cent). Of these projects, 69 projects are being implemented by international non-governmental organizations (INGOs), 26 by national NGOs and 14 by UN agencies. Notably, 43 out of the 83 projects implemented by INGOs or the UN are being implemented in collaboration with national NGOs. Since 7 October, the oPt HF has mobilized over $100 million from Member States and private donors, designated for programmes throughout Gaza. A summary of the oPt HF activities and challenges in May 2024 is available through this link and the 2023 Annual Report of the oPt HF can be accessed here. Private donations are collected directly through the Humanitarian Fund.