Humanitarian Situation Update #221 | 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 25 September.

Key Highlights

• The health crisis in Gaza deepens as only 17 out of 36 hospitals remain functional – all partially – and just 57 out of 132 primary health-care facilities are functional, all amid crippling shortages of fuel, medicine, and essential supplies.
• In August, 46 per cent of coordinated humanitarian movements in Gaza were denied or impeded; making it the most challenging month for humanitarian access since January 2024.
• Humanitarian efforts to establish 215 temporary learning Sites for more than 30,000 children are underway as schools continue to be attacked.

Humanitarian Developments

• Israeli bombardment from the air and land continues to be reported across the Gaza Strip, resulting in further civilian casualties, displacement, and destruction of houses and other civilian infrastructure. Ground operations, particularly in Beit Hanoun, southwest Gaza city, eastern Khan Younis and Deir al Balah, and east and south Rafah, with heavy fighting, also continue to be reported.
• Between the afternoons of 18 and 22 September, according to the Ministry of Health (MoH) in Gaza, 158 Palestinians were killed and 267 were injured. Between 7 October 2023 and 22 September 2024, at least 41,431 Palestinians were killed and 95,818 were injured, according to MoH in Gaza.
• The following are some of the deadly incidents reported between 19 and 20 September:
  • On 19 September, seven Palestinians, including two women, were reportedly killed and others injured when a residential building was hit in the vicinity of At Tawba Mosque in Ad Daraj area, Gaza city.
  • On 20 September, six Palestinians, including four women, were reportedly killed and others injured when a residential building was hit in the vicinity of Municipality of Gaza Park in Gaza city.
  • On 20 September, eight Palestinians, including two boys, one girl, and two women, were reportedly killed and others injured when a chalet was hit in western An Nuseirat, in Deir al Balah.
  • On 20 September, six Palestinians, including at least one woman, were reportedly killed and others injured when an apartment was hit in Batn Al Samin area, south of Khan Younis.
  • On 20 September, 13 Palestinians, including three women and three children, were reportedly killed and others injured when a house was hit in north Rafah.
• Between the afternoons of 20 and 23 September, no Israeli soldiers were reportedly killed in Gaza, according to the Israeli military. Between 7 October 2023 and 23 September 2024, according to the Israeli military and official Israeli sources cited in the media, more than 1,546 Israelis and foreign nationals were killed, the majority on 7 October and its immediate aftermath. The figure includes 346 soldiers killed in Gaza or along the border in Israel since the beginning of the ground operation. In addition, 2,287 Israeli soldiers were reported injured since the beginning of the ground operation.
• The World Health Organization (WHO) reports that only 17 out of 36 hospitals remain functional across Gaza – all of them partially –, with a cumulative capacity of 1,501 in-patient, maternity and Intensive Care Unit (ICU) beds. Ten field hospitals are also presently operational in the Deir al Balah, Khan Younis and Rafah governorates, six fully and four only partially, providing an additional in-patient capacity of over 600 beds. On 18 September, Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) announced the opening of a new field hospital in Deir al Balah but added that at present the facility is only providing outpatient consultations as the “expansion of other services depends on Israeli authorities, who have delayed supplies entering Gaza”. Meanwhile, out of 132 primary health-care facilities, only 57 are currently functional in the Strip, including 10 out of 27 UNRWA health-care centres. Alongside a critical shortage of medicines and essential supplies, the Health Cluster warns of a severe scarcity of blood units across Gaza, which is endangering the life of patients, including people suffering from Thalassemia and other conditions requiring regular blood transfusions. Meanwhile, MoH continues to warn about the lack of fuel, spare parts, and filters to repair and maintain electricity generators in hospitals, which is threatening the functionality of ICUs, nurseries, and other essential health services.
• Out of six WHO missions planned to northern and southern Gaza between 13 and 18 September, only one was facilitated by Israeli authorities, while three were significantly delayed and two were denied. WHO and its partners managed to reach health facilities in northern Gaza twice on 14 and 18 September, delivering 48,000 litres of fuel to the Kamal Adwan and Indonesian hospitals. They also provided critically needed medical supplies to the newly rehabilitated Emergency Department at the Al Shifa Hospital and non-communicable disease kits to assist the Palestine Red Crescent Society's (PRCS) facilities in the north. WHO also facilitated the rotation of emergency medical team (EMT) personnel between northern and southern Gaza and the deployment of a new paediatrics EMT to the Kamal Adwan Hospital. Although the Indonesian Hospital is in an active evacuation zone, and the Al Awda and Kamal Adwan hospitals are just 200 and 485 metres respectively from the affected area; they continue providing services to the affected population. Meanwhile, while dental care is almost absent in Gaza due to the lack of equipment and facilities, on 19 September, UNRWA reopened a dental clinic in one of its health centres in Khan Younis. The PRCS also reported the completion of the first fully equipped mobile operating room in southern Gaza that can be deployed whenever needed.
• Internally displaced persons (IDP) continue to be endangered. At least 32 people were killed when three schools were hit between 21 and 23 September. On 21 September, UNRWA’s Az-Zaytun School sheltering thousands of IDPs southeast Gaza city was hit, killing 22 Palestinians and injuring over 30 others, according to Gaza MoH. The Palestinian Civil Defense reported that 14 children and five women were among the fatalities, and that of those who required amputations nine were children. On 22 September, seven Palestinians were reportedly killed when the Kafar Qasam school, sheltering IDPs in Ash Shata’ Refugee Camp, west of Gaza city, was hit. Three people from the same family were reportedly killed when the Khalid Bin Al-Waleed school in Nusseirat Refugee Camp in Deir al Balah was hit, including a child and her parents.
• UNRWA has stated that schools “have turned into rubble or overcrowded places of refuge for displaced families living in fear.” Within this grim context, efforts are underway to establish temporary learning spaces (TLS) for children. As of 15 September, Education Cluster partners established 215 TLS across the Gaza Strip benefiting 33,616 children. While this is an important accomplishment, the number of children attending these spaces is only 5 per cent of school age children in Gaza. According to the Education Cluster, ongoing hostilities severely restrict access to in-person learning spaces, and the persistent blockade on educational supplies hampers scaling-up the response. Additionally, the use of UNRWA and other schools as shelters for displaced populations further limits the availability of facilities for educational purposes.
• In August, the UN and its humanitarian partners conducted 598 coordinated humanitarian movements across the Gaza Strip: 395 in the south and 203 in the north. Of these, only 250 were facilitated, 99 impeded (which include movements that managed to ultimately proceed) and 176 were denied. In total, 46 per cent of humanitarian movements were either denied or impeded in August, making it the most challenging month for humanitarian access since January 2024. The impact was particularly severe in the north, where only 45 per cent of the 203 requested movements were facilitated, including just one out of nine planned health movements to deliver over 200,000 litres of fuel to hospitals.
• Access challenges are compounded by unpredictable and restrictive time windows for humanitarian movements through the two Israeli-controlled checkpoints between the south and north of the Gaza strip. In addition to the limited operating hours, technical failures at the checkpoints have further delayed movements and compromised the safety of aid workers. For instance, on 24 August, a reportedly broken gate at a checkpoint delayed one movement by four hours, resulting in the failure to deliver 10,000 vaccines, 58 pallets of medicine, and 24,000 litres of fuel. In this challenging context, OCHA and other humanitarian partners attempted to conduct two movements in August to assist families with children trapped under the rubble. 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.

Funding

• As of 23 September, Member States have disbursed about US$1.63 billion out of the $3.42 billion (48 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 this updated number is now used for programmatic purposes.)
• During August 2024, the occupied Palestinian territory Humanitarian Fund (oPt HF) managed 93 ongoing projects, totalling $79.7 million. These projects aimed to address urgent needs in the Gaza Strip (89 per cent) and the West Bank (11 per cent). They were strategically focused on education, food security, health, protection, emergency shelter and non-food items, water, sanitation, and hygiene, coordination and support services, multi-purpose cash assistance and nutrition. Of these projects, 52 projects are being implemented by international non-governmental organizations, 29 by national NGOs and 12 by UN agencies. Notably, 32 out of the 64 projects implemented by INGOs or the UN are being implemented in collaboration with national NGOs. Monthly updates, annual reports, and a list of all funded projects per year, are available on the oPt Humanitarian Fund webpage, under the financing section.