Humanitarian Situation Update #223 | 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 30 September.

Key Highlights

• So far in September, at least 11 schools sheltering internally displaced persons have been hit in Gaza, with nearly 100 fatalities reported.
• Displaced people continue to survive in abysmal conditions, crammed in worn-out tents and damaged structures, with limited food, water and other necessities, recent UN inter-agency assessments in Deir al Balah and Khan Younis find.
• As the winter approaches, flooding in or near displacement sites and medical points will increase the risk of disease spread and further shrink access to healthcare and sanitation, warn the Health and Water, Sanitation and Hygiene Clusters.
• Nearly 90 per cent of coordinated humanitarian movements between northern and southern Gaza so far in September have been either denied or impeded.

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 civilian infrastructure. Ground operations, particularly in Beit Hanoun and Beit Lahiya, south of Gaza city, eastern Khan Younis and Rafah, as well as rocket fire by Palestinian armed groups in Khan Younis, also continue to be reported.
• On 23 September, the Principals of the Inter-Agency Standing Committee (IASC) released a statement on the situation in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT), calling for an end to the atrocities in Gaza. They stated: “We cannot do our jobs in the face of overwhelming need and ongoing violence...More than 2 million Palestinians are without protection, food, water, sanitation, shelter, health care, education, electricity and fuel – the basic necessities to survive. Families have been forcibly displaced, time and time again, from one unsafe place to the next, with no way out. Women and girls’ dignity, safety, health and rights have been severely compromised. The risk of famine persists with all 2.1 million residents still in urgent need of food and livelihood assistance as humanitarian access remains restricted.” The Principals added: “The parties’ conduct over the last year makes a mockery of their claim to adhere to international humanitarian law and the minimum standards of humanity that it demands. Civilians must be protected and their essential needs must be met. There must be accountability for serious violations of international humanitarian and human rights law.”
• Between the afternoons of 22 and 26 September, according to the Ministry of Health (MoH) in Gaza, 103 Palestinians were killed and 274 were injured. Between 7 October 2023 and 26 September 2024, at least 41,534 Palestinians were killed and 96,092 were injured, according to MoH in Gaza. Casualty figures covering until the afternoon of 27 September are not available as of the time of reporting.
• On 25 September, the MoH announced that approximately 88 unidentified Palestinian bodies were sent by Israeli authorities in a truck, which it initially refused to receive, citing lack of coordination or information to help identify the bodies. On 26 September, the MoH announced that the bodies had been exhumed by Israeli forces from graves and that it formed a committee to receive and bury the bodies in a manner that preserves their dignity.
• On 26 September, the MoH in Gaza reported that Al Falujah School in Jabalya was hit, killing at least 11 people including women and children, and injuring at least 22 others. On 23 September, following three separate attacks on schools in Gaza, the UN Human Rights Office stated: “The Israeli military must stop attacking schools that provide the last shelter to Palestinians in Gaza as rains threaten to flood IDP [internally displaced people’s] tents... In September alone [as of 23 September], 10 schools have been hit, with 86 fatalities reported. We reiterate that all parties to the conflict have an obligation to respect and protect civilians...Considering the pattern of civilian harm and damage, the measures taken by the Israeli military in these cases do not appear to have been sufficient to prevent disproportionate harm and damage. The children of Gaza have already lost schools as a place of education. Now, they are being killed in schools as they seek shelter. This must end.”
• The following are other deadly incidents reported between 24 and 26 September:
  • On 24 September, at about 15:50, six Palestinians were reportedly killed and others injured when a residential building was hit in Jabalya refugee camp, in North Gaza.
  • On 24 September, at about 16:45, 12 Palestinians, including at least three females, were reportedly killed and others injured when a house was hit in north An Nuseirat refugee camp, in Deir al Balah.
  • On 24 September, at about 19:10, a woman with disability and six other Palestinians were reportedly injured when a house was hit near Al Fardous school in Al Mawasi area west of Rafah. The woman reportedly later succumbed to her wounds.
  • On 24 September, at about 20:40, six Palestinian, including a mother and her children, were reportedly killed and others injured when a house was hit in Al Naser area in northeastern Rafah.
  • On 25 September, at about 19:05, five Palestinians, including a woman and her two girls, were reportedly killed and others injured when a house was hit in Al-Naser area in northeastern Rafah.
  • On 25 September, five Palestinians, including a seven-month pregnant woman, an 18-year-old woman, and three children, were reportedly killed and others injured when a house was hit in block 7 in Al Bureij refugee camp, in Deir al Balah.
  • On 26 September, at about 3:15, five Palestinians, including a woman and her two children, were reportedly killed and others injured when a house was hit east of Khan Younis city.
• Between the afternoons of 23 and 27 September, no Israeli soldiers were reportedly killed in Gaza, according to the Israeli military. Between 7 October 2023 and 27 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, 2,297 Israeli soldiers were reported injured since the beginning of the ground operation.
• The Palestinian Civil Defence (PCD) continues to report challenges to its ability to carry out rescue operations and save the lives of people trapped under rubble due to capacity constraints and lack of protection. On 25 September, the PCD centre in Al Daraj area in Gaza city was reportedly hit with a missile that did not explode, causing three injuries. The risk of collapse of partially damaged buildings where IDPs seek shelter is also a key concern. On 23 September, a six-storey building hosting at least 20 IDPs in Gaza city collapsed; PCD teams managed to rescue seven people and retrieve four bodies, but an estimated nine people remained under rubble as of 24 September due to shortages of heavy equipment, such as excavators and bulldozers. According to PCD, more than 10,000 people remain under rubble across Gaza.
• Recent needs assessments conducted by the UN and its humanitarian partners at two collective shelters in Deir al Balah and Khan Younis on 19 and 22 September shed new light on the abysmal living conditions facing IDPs, which the upcoming winter season will aggravate. At both sites, displaced communities are facing a critical lack of cleaning supplies, hygiene kits, sanitary pads, diapers as well as clothes and infant formula for babies. There is also a dire shortage of assistive devices for the elderly and people with disabilities. Below are other assessment findings specific to each site.
  • The first site, an UNRWA school-turned-shelter in Al Bureij refugee camp, in Deir al Balah, hosts approximately 3,600 displaced people. Households are crammed in 56 classrooms and 70 tents, with an average of 80-100 people sharing the same classroom and 40 people the same tent. As winter approaches, there is a critical need for new tents to replace worn-out ones, as well as tarpaulins and nylon material to cover windows and doors damaged during the Israeli military incursion in Al Bureij in December 2023. The medical point at the site lacks personnel and key medications, and the unavailability of ambulances and transportation hampers IDPs’ access to hospitals. The water desalination unit at the site is not functional, and water distributions by aid organizations only cover the needs of 60 per cent of camp residents. Food conditions are also extremely precarious, with most IDPs relying on hot meals distributed twice a week that consist primarily of rice and lack nutritional diversity. According to the assessment, most residents eat only one meal per day, with some going an entire day without eating. As the majority of IDPs sold their mobile phones to buy food, the radio represents the main source of information for the community.
  • The second assessed site is a makeshift camp in Abasan, in eastern Khan Younis, that hosts approximately 2,500 people, including nearly 1,000 school-aged children, 100 of whom are orphans. No educational activities are currently taking place at the camp and separated children face heightened protection risks. The site is in a flood-prone area, adjacent to a dumping site, and the population is suffering from respiratory diseases as a result. Medical facilities are absent and there is no food support at this site, except for occasional hot meals provided by a charity organization.
• The Health Cluster reports that strengthening Infection Prevention and Control (IPC) and Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) measures in health facilities is a key priority across Gaza. In August, the Health and WASH Clusters set up a joint Technical Working Group to address this urgent need and developed an IPC assessment tool to examine IPC practices at health facilities, the availability of IPC supplies and equipment, and ensure a rapid inter-Cluster response to communities in the event of new outbreaks of infectious diseases. A total of 14 primary and secondary healthcare facilities in northern and southern Gaza were subsequently assessed and four hospitals - Kamal Adwan and Al Ahli in northern Gaza and Al Aqsa and Nasser in Deir al Balah - were provided with IPC and WASH supplies. Cluster partners also trained 44 Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) staff members on basic IPC practices and deployed 35 IPC focal points to priority health facilities. Despite ongoing efforts, the severe lack of cleaning and hygiene supplies across Gaza continues to severely hamper the scale up of IPC and WASH interventions.
• WASH and Health Cluster partners are working to identify flood-prone areas, as well as assess and mitigate the potential impact of flooding on public health in Gaza. In a joint assessment published on 25 September, the two Clusters warned that, based on flood risk assessments prior to the escalation of hostilities, many IDP sites are assessed to be located in or near flooding hotspots and, given the severe level of destruction over the past 11 months, additional locations are vulnerable to flooding at present. Alongside a heightened risk of drowning and injuries associated with rapid floods, access to basic healthcare services in the Gaza Strip might be further compromised as 47 per cent of health service points are at risk of being flooding hotspots and could sustain damages or become otherwise inaccessible to the population. Floods also increase the risk of water- and vector-borne diseases, as sewage can more easily contaminate water supplies and stagnant water pools will be breeding sites for mosquitos and other insects. Moreover, flooding might damage what remains of the sanitation infrastructure in Gaza and further disrupt waste management systems, including the management of medical waste, exacerbating the risk of disease transmission.
• Humanitarian aid movements in Gaza continue to face significant access constraints. Movements, particularly between northern and southern Gaza via Israeli military checkpoints, are frequently impeded, often leading to incomplete or aborted missions. Impediments include inconsistent procedures, prolonged waiting times at holding points, and insecurity. Between 1 and 26 September, out of 588 planned humanitarian movements coordinated with the Israeli authorities across Gaza, 79 involved movements between northern and southern Gaza, of which 87 per cent (69 movements) were either impeded or denied. These restrictions on aid delivery, particularly in relation to humanitarian access to and from northern Gaza, deprive hundreds of thousands of people of critical relief supplies and services.

Funding

• As of 27 September, Member States have disbursed about US$1.64 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.