Humanitarian Situation Update #188 | 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. The next update will be issued on 10 July.

Key Highlights

• The Israeli military orders tens of thousands of people in central and western Gaza city to immediately evacuate.
• Only seven out of 18 bakeries supported by humanitarian partners remain operational across Gaza due to lack of fuel and ongoing hostilities, reports the Food Security Sector.
• Patients and medical staff evacuated three hospitals in one week in fear of intensified military activities that could render the health facilities non-functional or inaccessible; only 13 out of Gaza’s 36 hospitals are now partially functional.

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.
• Between the afternoons of 4 and 8 July, according to the Ministry of Health (MoH) in Gaza, 182 Palestinians were killed and 458 were injured. Between 7 October 2023 and 8 July 2024, at least 38,193 Palestinians were killed and 87,903 were injured in Gaza, according to MoH in Gaza.
• The following are among the deadly incidents reported between 4 and 6 July:
  • On 4 July, at about 19:20, four Palestinians, including at least one child, were reportedly killed and others injured when a residential building was hit in northern An Nuseirat Refugee Camp, in Deir al Balah.
  • On 5 July, at about 1:00, six Palestinians, including three children and a woman, were reportedly killed when a residential building was hit on Old Gaza Street in Jabalya city, in North Gaza.
  • On 5 July, at about 10:00, at least four Palestinian police officers were reportedly killed and eight injured when a police vehicle was hit in Saudi neighbourhood, west of Rafah.
  • On 5 July, at about 20:00, six Palestinians, including three children, were reportedly killed when a grocery store was hit in a residential building in Ma’an area, east of Khan Younis.
  • On 5 July, at about 21:20, six Palestinians were reportedly killed and several others, including children, were injured when a residential building was hit near Al Zuhour Pharmacy in An Nuseirat Refugee Camp, in Deir al Balah.
  • On 6 July, at about 17:55, an UNRWA school in An Nuseirat Refugee Camp was hit. According to the MoH, 16 people were reportedly killed and 50 others were injured in this incident. According to UNRWA, the school was home to 2,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs) and since the war began, more than half of UNRWA facilities (about 190 facilities) have been hit.
  • Between 4 and 6 July, six journalists, including a female journalist, were reportedly killed in three incidents in Gaza city and Deir al Balah, some along with their family members. As of 6 July, the Government Media Office (GMO) reported that the number of journalists killed since the beginning of the war has increased to 158 journalists.
• Between the afternoons of 5 and 8 July, one Israeli soldier was killed in Gaza, according to the Israeli military. Between 7 October 2023 and 8 July 2024, according to the Israeli military and official Israeli sources cited in the media, over 1,524 Israelis were killed, including 324 soldiers killed in Gaza or along the border in Israel since the beginning of the ground operation. In addition, 2,097 soldiers were reported injured since the beginning of the ground operation. As of 8 July, it is estimated that 120 Israelis and foreign nationals remain captive in Gaza, including fatalities whose bodies are withheld.
• On 7 and 8 July, the Israeli military instructed tens of thousands of people residing in 19 blocs in Gaza city to immediately evacuate. The 7 July order covered five blocs and instructed residents to evacuate to western Gaza city while the 8 July order covered 14 blocs, including areas where people had fled to a day earlier, and instructed people to evacuate southwards to shelters in the so-called “humanitarian zone” in Deir al Balah. The two directly affected areas encompass 13 health facilities that were recently functional, including two hospitals, two primary healthcare centres and nine medical points. In addition, four hospitals are located in close proximity to the evacuation zones. As of 8 July, two of the six hospitals were evacuated, namely, Al Ahli Baptist Hospital and the Patients Friends Association Hospital in fear of intensified military activities that would render them inaccessible or non-functional, and critical patients were transferred to the Indonesian and Kamal Adwan Hospitals in North Gaza governorate. Considering that the European Gaza Hospital in Khan Younis was hastily evacuated on 2 July following the issuance of an evacuation order for areas in eastern Khan Younis, three hospitals have become non-functional since early July, leaving only 13 out of 36 hospitals in the Gaza Strip partially functional at present; these include four in Gaza governorate, three in North Gaza, three in Khan Younis, and three in Deir al Balah.
• Assessments carried out by OCHA and partners over the last ten days at sites hosting new waves of IDPs show critical levels of need across all sectors. With nine out of every 10 people estimated to be displaced in Gaza, new waves of displacement are mostly affecting people who have already been displaced multiple times, only to find themselves forced to flee again under shelling. They are compelled to re-set their lives repeatedly without any of their belongings or any prospect of finding safety or reliable access to basic services. For example, on 4 July, aid actors visited IDPs who recently moved to Deir al Balah and Khan Younis from areas in eastern Khan Younis placed under an evacuation order three days earlier; at two sites that host more than 10,000 IDPs, humanitarian agencies highlighted the continued dire need for safe drinking water, noting that people, especially children, spend long hours queueing to collect water each day. Access to emergency health care is also a challenge, particularly given limited communications coverage to contact emergency services, high transportation costs to reach hospitals (US$26 for a roundtrip), and the long walking distance of at least three kilometres to reach the nearest medical point. In northern Gaza, OCHA and partners especially highlighted the lack of safe shelters for up to 80,000 IDPs who were forced to hastily flee from Shuja’iyeh and other parts of eastern Gaza city following the issuance of evacuation orders in late June; many were found sleeping amid solid waste and rubble, with no mattresses or enough clothing, and some had sought shelter in partially destroyed UN facilities and residential buildings. As the Israeli military designated these same areas as evacuation zones on 7 and 8 July (see above), many of the same families, including young children and elderly people, have been going through successive waves of displacement over the past two weeks.
• Insecurity, damaged roads, the breakdown of law and order, and access limitations continue to hamper movement along the main humanitarian cargo route between Kerem Shalom Crossing and Khan Younis and Deir al Balah. This has resulted in critical shortages of fuel and aid commodities to sustain humanitarian operations, in addition to increasing the risk of spoilage and infestation of stranded supplies (especially food) due to extremely high temperatures. The Food Security Sector (FSS) reports that these shortages forced partners to provide reduced food rations in central and southern Gaza in June and undermined their ability to keep bakeries and community kitchens running. As of the time of reporting, only seven out of the 18 bakeries supported by humanitarian partners remain operational in Gaza, all in Deir al Balah. A total of six bakeries - four in Gaza city and two in North Gaza - which were already working at partial capacity, have now been forced to completely cease operations due to the lack of fuel. The four bakeries that ceased operations in Gaza city include the largest bakery in the Strip and all four are in areas that were slated for evacuation on 7 and 8 July, bringing the total number of bakeries that shut down due to ongoing hostilities to nine, with the other five located in Rafah. In the absence of cooking gas and a stable flow of food supplies, community kitchens are also struggling to operate, resulting in a reduced number of cooked meals prepared throughout Gaza; as of the end of June, about 600,000 cooked meals prepared in 190 kitchens were distributed daily to families across the Strip, compared to more than 700,000 in the first half of June. Meanwhile, displaced households continue to rely on burning wood and plastic from furniture and waste to cook, exacerbating health risks and environmental hazards.
• In northern Gaza, while humanitarian partners continue to distribute wheat flour and canned food that enter Gaza via the Erez West Crossing, no commercial trucks have been entering the area for months. This has culminated in a near total lack of protein sources (e.g. meat and poultry) on the local market and only a few types of locally produced vegetables available at unaffordable prices, according to FSS. Already as of May 2024, about 57 per cent of Gaza’s cropland and a third of its greenhouses were estimated to have been damaged, according to a joint assessment by FAO and the UN Satellite Centre (UNOSAT). Continued military operations in Rafah, and recent displacement from eastern Khan Younis, where significant agricultural production was concentrated prior to the war, have resulted in additional damage to greenhouses and forced more people to leave their farms unattended, further destabilizing food systems. FSS emphasized that resuming agricultural activities, including on a limited scale at the household or community level, would contribute to enhancing diet diversity and reducing food gaps in the Gaza Strip. However, a key obstacle to rehabilitating food systems is ensuring a constant flow of seeds, fertilizers and other agriculture inputs via all crossings.
• Hospitals that remain partially functional throughout the Strip are struggling to maintain vital operations amid chronic fuel shortages. On 7 July, the Head of Kamal Adwan Hospital, Dr. Hosam Abu Safia, reported that the lack of fuel has forced the hospital to suspend dialysis services, which has deprived 21 kidney patients of life-saving treatment, and is placing the lives of newborns in the neonatal department and critical patients in the intensive care unit at risk. The Kuwaiti Specialized Field Hospital received a small quantity of fuel through WHO and UNRWA on 5 July, which can help it to maintain operations for a few days. Meanwhile, the Health Cluster is seeking to urgently address the soaring needs at Nasser Medical Complex, which is currently the last tertiary hospital available in southern Gaza. WHO prepositioned four trucks of medicines and medical supplies at the hospital last week and is set to deliver 11,000 litres of fuel to the facility on 8 July and to expand bed capacity by 100 beds in coordination with the MoH. All hospital beds are currently fully occupied, and the hospital is facing critical shortages of supplies, particularly abdominal gauzes, wound dressing materials and surgical gowns for operations due to the high number of trauma cases requiring urgent intervention.
• On 5 July, Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) reported that its teams at Nasser Medical Complex were “running on emergency medical stocks” and all departments were overwhelmed by patients, far exceeding available bed capacity. For instance, while the paediatric department has 56 beds, 100 patients were received on 3 July alone, forcing children to lie on the floor in the absence of mattresses. The MSF nurse activity manager described the situation as nearing breaking point, with patients in the corridors, lying on blankets and sitting on stairs, and health workers being forced to place nails on the walls to hang the intravenous fluid and medication bags that patients need. MSF also warned that the Nasser Medical Complex is the main site on which field hospitals rely to sterilize their equipment and, should the facility be left without electricity, several field hospitals would also cease functioning. According to the NGO, it has been unable to bring any medical supplies into Gaza since the end of April, including most recently on 3 July when trucks carrying MSF medical aid were denied entry into the Strip by the Israeli authorities due to ongoing hostilities.

Funding

• As of 8 July, Member States have disbursed about $1.28 billion out of $3.42 billion (37 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. (*2.3 million reflects the projected population of the Gaza Strip upon issuance of the Flash Appeal in April 2024. As of July 2024, the UN estimates that about 2.1 million people remain in the Gaza Strip, and it will be using this updated number for programmatic purposes.)
• The occupied Palestinian territory Humanitarian Fund (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. 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 oPt HF.